GivingSignal Academy

Give your team the skills to run a modern, AI-powered donor program.

Clean donor data, AI-driven insight and airtight compliance are now everyday skills. GivingSignal Academy gives your team the confidence to run your donation system end to end.

See the curriculumRequest outline & quote
Certificate of completion[Participant name]has completed GivingSignal Academy — four modules, 32 instructional hours.
Instructor[Date]
Why now

Fundraising has entered the AI era. Most teams were never trained for it.

The charities pulling ahead aren't the ones with the biggest teams. They're the ones whose people know how to read their donor data, use the tools now available to them, and stay on the right side of CASL.

Experimenting with AI in fundraising80%
Sending targeted, segmented appeals19%
The skills gap
Share of Canadian charities.

That gap isn't a software gap. It's a skills gap.

  • Your data is your biggest untapped asset

    Years of giving history already show who is ready to give again — most charities never analyse it.

  • AI changed what a small team can do

    Propensity and likelihood scoring used to need a data scientist. Now your team can do it — once they know how.

  • Compliance is part of the job now

    CASL and PIPEDA aren’t optional. Modern fundraisers build them into every appeal, not as an afterthought.

The program

One certificate. Four modules. 32 hours.

Taught live online by an experienced fundraising-data instructor — with a published outline, fixed instructional hours and defined learning outcomes. Hands-on with AI donor-intelligence tools throughout.

4
Modules
32
Instructional hours
9
Live sessions, twice a week over 5 weeks
$3,500
Per participant, all materials included
Format
Live online, instructor-led
Schedule
Twice a week over 5 weeks — 9 sessions of 3–4 hours
Who it's for
Fundraising, development & data staff at Canadian charities
Tuition
$3,500 per participant — priced independently of any software subscription, no GivingSignal plan required
Credential
Certificate of completion
The curriculum

Four modules. Each one ends with something your team keeps.

Live instruction plus hands-on work in AI donor-intelligence tools — and a real deliverable at the end of every module.

01

Donor Data Foundations

8 h · 2 sessions
Sessions

Topics covered

  1. 1The fundraising data model: donors, gifts, funds, campaigns and consent
  2. 2Auditing your current data across spreadsheets, exports and legacy systems
  3. 3Importing and field mapping: matching columns, and handling dates, amounts and currencies
  4. 4Duplicate detection: email-only vs name + email keys, and when to merge vs keep separate
  5. 5Cleansing: standardising names, addresses, postal codes and phone formats
  6. 6AI-assisted cleanup: smart field-fill and automated duplicate suggestions
  7. 7Structuring segments, tags and fund / ministry designations around how you actually fundraise
  8. 8Data governance: record ownership, update cadence, and deceased / moved / inactive flags

You'll be able to

  • Import and consolidate donor records without creating duplicates
  • Run a repeatable cleansing and deduplication process, with AI assistance
  • Design a segment and tag structure that fits your fundraising
You leave withA documented import-and-cleansing checklist for your organisation.
02

AI Donor Intelligence: Propensity & Likelihood Scoring

10 h · 3 sessions
Sessions

Topics covered

  1. 1How AI donor scoring works: the signals a model reads — recency, frequency, giving history, cause affinity, lapse risk
  2. 2RFM and the donor lifecycle as the foundation AI builds on
  3. 3Donation-likelihood scoring: reading a 0–100 score, a predicted gift date and a calibrated ask amount
  4. 4Donor propensity and segmentation: turning model output into prioritised, campaign-ready lists
  5. 5AI cause and campaign targeting: matching donors to the right appeal, and planning with smart presets
  6. 6AI-assisted email drafting: personalised, on-brand appeals that respect each donor’s history and consent
  7. 7Responsible and ethical AI: reading scores critically, avoiding bias and donor over-contact, keeping a human in the loop
  8. 8Validating AI output and measuring lift: control groups, attribution and reporting to leadership and boards

You'll be able to

  • Interpret AI donation-likelihood and propensity scores — and act on them
  • Build an AI-targeted campaign by cause, segment and lapse risk
  • Use AI tools responsibly — with human judgement and clear reporting
You leave withAn AI-scored, prioritised donor segment plus a drafted appeal for a real upcoming campaign.
03

CASL & PIPEDA Compliance for Fundraisers

6 h · 2 sessions
Sessions

Topics covered

  1. 1CASL for charities: commercial electronic messages, the charity exemptions and their limits
  2. 2Express vs implied consent: the two-year and six-month implied-consent windows
  3. 3Capturing and recording express consent that will stand up to scrutiny
  4. 4Record-keeping and consent audit trails (the PIPEDA accountability principle)
  5. 5Unsubscribe and suppression: the 10-day rule and honouring opt-outs across channels
  6. 6PIPEDA essentials: collection, use, disclosure, retention, and donor access and correction rights
  7. 7A practical pre-send compliance checklist for every appeal

You'll be able to

  • Apply express vs implied consent rules to real donor scenarios
  • Keep PIPEDA-compliant consent and data-handling records
  • Run compliant suppression and unsubscribe processes
You leave withA CASL/PIPEDA pre-send checklist your team can reuse on every appeal.
04

Applied Capstone — Your Organisation’s Data

8 h · 2 sessions
Sessions

Topics covered

  1. 1Scoping your capstone around a real campaign goal
  2. 2Importing and cleaning a sample of your own donor data
  3. 3Using AI scoring to build a segment and generate a campaign-ready list
  4. 4Drafting a compliant, AI-assisted targeted appeal end to end
  5. 5Peer review and instructor feedback
  6. 6Documenting a repeatable workflow and team hand-off plan

You'll be able to

  • Complete a guided, end-to-end project on your own data
  • Produce a campaign-ready donor list and a compliant appeal
  • Walk away with a workflow the whole team can reuse
You leave withA finished, campaign-ready donor list — plus a written workflow your team can run again.
How we teach

Practical, instructor-led, and built around your work.

  • Live instruction

    Every session is delivered live by an experienced fundraising-data instructor.

    Not a pre-recorded video library

  • Hands-on with your data

    Practise on realistic donor data, then finish with a capstone on your own charity’s records.

    Not theory you never get to apply

  • Documented & assessable

    Published outline, fixed hours, defined outcomes and a certificate for each participant.

    Not “attended a webinar”

  • Team or individual

    Enrol one staff member or train your whole fundraising team on a schedule that suits you.

    Not one person who “knows the data”
How to apply

From form to first session in four steps.

  1. 1
    Send the formTell us about your organisation and how many people from your team will take the program.
  2. 2
    Book a short callWe reply to set up a short call — to understand your team, your donor data and the dates that work for you.
  3. 3
    Get your outline, schedule and quoteWe email the full course outline, a session schedule built for your team, and a formal training quote.
  4. 4
    Confirm by email — and startReply to confirm. Your team starts on the date you agreed: 9 live online sessions, twice a week over 5 weeks, with a certificate at the end.

Every class is scheduled around your team — no waiting for the next intake.

Request outline & quoteNo commitment. We'll reply to book a short call.
Funding support

Some B.C. employers fund staff training through the B.C. Employer Training Grant. If that's an option for you, the course outline, instructional hours and formal quote we send are the documents an application typically asks for.

Eligibility and reimbursement are decided by the funder, not by GivingSignal, and employers apply directly.

Train your team. We'll send the paperwork.

Tell us how many people you'd like to enrol. We'll send the full outline, session schedule and a formal quote — everything you need to decide.

  • Full course outline
  • Session schedule
  • Formal training quote