Build an AI Outreach & Follow-Up System — Atlas
AI Outreach & Follow-Up — the Greenhouse
THE GREENHOUSE Build an AI Outreach & Follow-Up System: who to write to, what to say, and what happens next. AI at Work · one day · relationships grow, and nobody harvests on day one ↖ AI at Work series inside: drafts and records only outside: real inboxes, real people trust boundary: nothing crosses without your hand on send 1 SEEDS who, and why they'd be glad a definition that excludes somebody the coat drive (fictional): Eastside groups with a public space · ask: host one box 2 SOIL TEST research the list every detail sourced · 5 hand-checked the coat drive (fictional): 20 orgs, each claim sourced · 3 of 5 checks held 3 BEDS segments + messages the personal line comes from the ledger the coat drive (fictional): Hosts · Distributors · Amplifiers: one message each 4 WATERING CRM + follow-ups every contact: a stage and a date the coat drive (fictional): Tuesday 9am run drafts what's due 5 PLANTING OUT send five for real your hand, your outbox, logged the coat drive (fictional): 5 approved, sent from Sam's outbox, logged 6 HARVEST LOG report + a second bed honest about n=5 · make another one the coat drive (fictional): 2 of 5 replied: too few to rank beds next season: the second bed (make another one, same seven slots) ▼ the six stations below, in this order (top row → then bottom row right-to-left) ▼
BLOCK 1 · WHO, AND WHY THEY'D BE GLAD Seeds greenhouse: seeds KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary Most outreach fails before the first word: it goes to the wrong people, or to everyone, which is the same thing. 1 Let it interview you The machine asks first. You're the authority on your own work. Make a Claude Project or a ChatGPT Project / custom GPT. Then flip the interaction (ULM 1.4): instead of guessing what to tell it, have it interview you about who you're trying to reach, who you're NOT, what you offer, what you're asking for, where your work already lives, and what you must never do. Its answers become the spec card and the standing rules at the top of its instructions. Open a new chat and ask "who am I trying to reach, and what am I never allowed to do?" If it can't answer, the instructions aren't doing their job. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Seeds › Interview
YOU the authority PROJECT / GPT asks before it acts it asks: who? who NOT? what's the offer? what's the ask? never do what? you answer SPEC CARD CONTACT DEFINITION STANDING RULES = the instructions
▸ Worked example: the interview, and the card it produced PROMPT (Prompt Cards #1, excerpt) Before you write anything, interview me. Ask specific, simple questions... Ask at least eight. If an answer is vague, ask me to narrow it. QUESTIONS IT ASKED SAM (fictional) Which district? · Do partners need a public space? · Who already runs a coat drive? · Who picks up the boxes, and how often? · What will you never do? SPEC CARD IT DRAFTED Intake: city directory + 211 · Structure: ledger fields fixed · Check: 5 details hand-verified · Gate: draft only, Sam sends · Act: Gmail drafts + CRM sheet · Ledger: the sheet · Rhythm: Tue 9am 2 A segment excludes somebody If your definition leaves nobody out, it isn't a segment. "Local organisations that care about the community" is every organisation in your city. A real definition names who, what they're trying to do, why they'd be glad, the small ask, what counts as it working, and what it EXCLUDES. The exclusion is what lets the machine say "skip this one" while it researches. Often it finds a second audience: groups already running a coat drive drop out of "hosts" and turn into a different bed, one you write to with an offer. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Seeds › Definition
everyone in the city Eastside groups with a public space ✗ outside the district ✗ no meeting, no front desk → already running a drive: a different bed (offer) ▸ Worked example: version 1 and version 2 zoom in V1 (excludes nobody, so not a segment) Local organisations that care about helping people. V2 Who: Eastside tenant associations, library branches, pantries, community centres with a public meeting, front desk or distribution day. Glad because: their members ask about winter help every year; we bring coats, box and pickup. Ask (commitment rung): host one box, 1–21 Dec. Worked if: box placed and picked up on the date we said. Excludes: outside the district · no public space · already running their own drive (→ write an offer instead). 3 Offering or extracting? Name what they get, in their words, before you name what you want. A pantry that puts out your flyer spends its clients' trust on you. A recruiter's cold message spends a stranger's attention. So the definition says why they'd be glad in their terms ("members keep asking where to get a coat"), not yours ("they'll love supporting our mission"). And it picks a rung on Data Activism's ask ladder: awareness → interest → commitment → action. Asking a stranger for action is the most common outreach mistake there is. Ask for the small, bounded thing. 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Seeds › Power
AWARENESS INTEREST COMMITMENT ACTION ◀ ask here "host one box" the ask ladder (Data Activism) THEY GIVE space, time, trust THEY GET coats, box, pickup name it before you ask
▸ Worked example: the same ask, two ways (to a pantry) EXTRACTING Could you promote our coat drive to your clients and collect donations at your site? It would really help us hit our goal. → their trust, their staff time, their space. They get: our goal. OFFERING We'll have sorted coats in kids' and adult sizes from 1 Dec. Would they be useful to the families you serve? We deliver; tell us what sizes and which day. → they get coats, on their terms. The pantry is the expert here. This bed gets an offer, not an ask. They're already doing the work. BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE Does this definition exclude anybody? Four definitions for the coat drive's partners. Which one is a real segment: specific enough that you could say no to an organisation, for a reason that connects to why they'd be glad? Nonprofits in our city that care about the community. Anyone who might want to help with winter coats. Eastside tenant associations and library branches with a public meeting or a front desk, where a drop-off box gets seen. Local organisations with more than 1,000 Instagram followers. Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: name three real organisations or people your definition leaves out, and why each one is out.
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Seeds › Bench
BLOCK 2 · SOURCE EVERY DETAIL Soil test greenhouse: the soil test KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary No URL, no claim. Then open five sources yourself, because a citation that exists isn't a citation that says it. 1 The evidence ledger Fix the columns before you look at anyone. Organisation · public channel · segment · why-them claim · source URL · date checked · confidence · stage · next action · next-action date · notes. Fixed first, so the model fills a record instead of writing you a brochure (ULM Exercise 2.4). The why-them claim is one checkable fact that's visible on the source page: a meeting day, a programme, an event. "A dedicated community organisation" is a description, not a claim. If there's no source, the cell says "no evidence", and that row gets no personal line later. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Soil test › Ledger
ORGANISATION WHY-THEM CLAIM SOURCE Maple St Tenants monthly public meeting their own page checked 10 Nov Riverside Branch Winter Ready table their own page checked 10 Nov St. Brigid's Pantry 400 coats last winter? no evidence ▸ Worked example: three fictional ledger rows zoom in Maple Street Tenants' Association · contact form Claim: monthly public meeting, community room at 410 Maple · Source: their Meetings page · 2026-11-10 · HIGH (own page, this month) Riverside Branch Library · branch email Claim: Winter Ready resource table in December · Source: events calendar · 2026-11-10 · MEDIUM (last year's listing) St. Brigid's Community Pantry · volunteer@ on their site Claim: "collected 400 coats last winter" · STRUCK: the cited page doesn't mention coats The vivid one was the invented one. It would have become "congrats on 400 coats!" 2 Public, professional, expected Public isn't the test. Professional and expected is. Inside the line: an organisation's own pages, its programmes and events, a directory listing, a staff page that names someone in their work role. Outside: personal social accounts, home addresses, family, health, a guessed firstname@ address. A personal Instagram is public, and quoting it in a cold email is still creepy. Write to organisational channels first. "Hi Riverside Branch team" is honest and fine. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Soil test › Public
USE DON'T ✓ org's own pages ✓ programmes & events ✓ directory listing ✓ staff page (in role) ✓ contact form / info@ ✗ personal social accounts ✗ home address ✗ family, health ✗ guessed firstname@ ✗ "I saw on your Insta…"
▸ Sort it: in or out of the ledger? zoom in IN "Volunteer coordinator: R. Diaz" on the pantry's staff page → address the role and name, via the org's form "Distribution day: Thursdays 3–6pm" on the pantry's site Listed in the city's neighbourhood-organisation directory, District 3 OUT The branch manager ran the city marathon (her personal Instagram) → strike: personal life [email protected] ("that's their pattern") → strike: guessed addressA volunteer contact's mobile number from a directory → use the org's site; don't share it 3 The hand check: five rows Open the source. Find the sentence. Mark it. Strike what fails. Pick five rows: the three the machine says it's least sure of, plus two at random. Open each source URL yourself and find the sentence. Mark it holds / stale / wrong / not there / dead. Strike every claim that isn't "holds" and keep the strike, because it's your portfolio's "one failure the check caught". Then tell the machine what you found and have it write a rule that would have prevented it. This is ULM Exercise 1.3 grown up: not "does it cite?" but "does the source say what the row says?" 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Soil test › Hand check
Maple St: monthly meeting HOLDS Riverside: Winter Ready STALE (2025) St. Brigid's: 400 coats NOT THERE Eastside CC: front desk HOLDS Northgate PTA: newsletter HOLDS 3 of 5 held (fictional). Write your number at the top of the sheet.
▸ What the five marks mean, and the rule you get back holds the page says it, and it's current stale the page says it, but it's old: write the date, never say "this year" wrong / not there / dead the page says something else / doesn't mention it / the link is broken NEW STANDING RULE THE MACHINE PROPOSED "A why-them claim must quote or closely paraphrase a sentence on the Source URL page; if the page is the home page, find the exact page or write 'no evidence'." BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE Which detail would you strike? Four why-them claims the machine found for Riverside Branch Library. You opened each source. Which one must be struck before it can go near a message? "Runs a Winter Ready resource table in December." Source: the events calendar, last year's listing. "Collected 400 coats at a coat swap last winter." Source: the library home page, which doesn't mention coats. "Open until 8pm on Thursdays." Source: the branch hours page, checked today. "Community room bookable by local groups." Source: the room-booking page, checked today. Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: open the source for your least-sure row and read the sentence aloud to your partner.
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Soil test › Bench
BLOCK 3 · WRITE WITHOUT INVENTING FAMILIARITY Beds greenhouse: beds and seed trays KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary Real personalisation is one true, checkable line. Boring and true beats warm and invented every time. 1 Segments by what you offer "Libraries" is a category. "Places where a box gets seen" is a segment. Two or three beds, each defined by what you offer them and what you ask, not by what kind of organisation they are. Hosts get a box and a pickup schedule; the ask is host one box. Distributors are already serving people who need coats, so they get an offer, not an ask. Amplifiers have members with coats to give; the ask is share one link. If a bed's ask is something its members already do better than you, turn the ask into an offer. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Beds › Segments
HOSTS ask: host one box offer: box + pickup DISTRIBUTORS ask: none offer: sorted coats AMPLIFIERS ask: share it offer: a sign-up link three beds, three messages, one ledger sprouts = contacts in each bed
▸ Worked example: the coat drive's three beds zoom in HOSTS (tenant associations, library branches, community centres) Offer: a sorted box, emptied twice a week; members get first pick. Ask: host one box, 1–21 Dec. DISTRIBUTORS (food pantries, mutual aid networks) Offer: coats in the sizes they name, delivered on their day. Ask: none, just "would this help?" AMPLIFIERS (a school PTA, a union local) Ask: share one sign-up link in your next newsletter. Not in any bed: Oakfield Mutual Aid already runs a drive → offer coats, don't compete. 2 The personal line comes from the ledger No ledger row, no personal line. Never a substitute. Six slots: personal line · who you are · the offer · one small ask · an easy out · the opt-out line. Only the first slot is personal, and it only accepts a claim from an unstruck ledger row, with the row number in [brackets] so you can check it before you delete the bracket. The model will want to write "I loved your recent post…", because after "Hi Sam," in a cold email that's what usually comes next (ULM 1.1: it predicts likely words). The rule in your instructions is what stops it. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Beds › Anatomy
1 personal line 2 who I am 3 the offer 4 one small ask 5 easy out 6 opt-out line ledger row 2 ✓ "I loved your recent post…" ✗ no row, no source: blocked by the rule
▸ Worked example: before and after the message rules BEFORE (no rules) Subject: Partnership opportunity! Hi Riverside team, I've long admired your incredible commitment to the Eastside community and I loved your recent post about winter… → 3 invented lines: "long admired", "recent post" (no post exists), "incredible commitment" AFTER Subject: A coat drop-off box for your Winter Ready table? Hi Riverside Branch team, your events page lists a Winter Ready table in December [row 2]. I'm organising the Eastside Winter Coat Drive. We'd bring a sorted box and empty it twice a week. Would you host one, 1–21 Dec? If it's not a fit, no reply needed. If you'd rather not hear from me about this, say so and I won't write again. 3 The critic pass Three critics read every template. At least one line dies. The overworked coordinator: what work does this make for me, and how easy is it to say no? The spam filter in human form: would I report this; what's the template tell? bell hooks (ULM Exercise 1.4, pointed at power): who does this make do unpaid labour, whose voice does it centre, is it offering or extracting? Ask for the smallest edit that answers each one, side by side. If nothing died, the critics were too polite: run it again with "assume they get forty of these a week". 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Beds › Critics
DRAFT unverified COORDINATOR work? easy no? SPAM FILTER report it? tells? BELL HOOKS offer or extract? TRAY checked draft 1 line died: "as fellow advocates…"
▸ Worked example: what each critic killed zoom in COORDINATOR "Let me know your thoughts!" → "Would you host one box, 1–21 Dec? If not, no reply needed." SPAM FILTER Subject "Quick question!" → "A coat drop-off box for your Winter Ready table?" BELL HOOKS To the pantry: "Could you promote our drive to your clients?" → "Would sorted kids' coats help the families you serve? We deliver." KILLED "As fellow advocates, we know how much you care." Familiarity nobody earned. BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE Which personal line has no evidence? The ledger row for Maple Street Tenants' Association says: "monthly public meeting, community room at 410 Maple" (their Meetings page, high). Which opening line has nothing behind it? "Your monthly meeting in the 410 Maple community room looks like a good place for a drop-off box." "I loved your recent post about keeping neighbours warm this winter." "As fellow advocates for tenants, we know how much you care." "Hi Maple Street team," Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: for three of your drafts, open the ledger row behind every personal line. Delete any line with no row.
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Beds › Bench
BLOCK 4 · STAGES, DATES, FOLLOW-UPS Watering greenhouse: the watering schedule KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary Outreach dies at the second message, the one nobody scheduled. Every contact gets a stage and a date. 1 Stages A dropdown, so nobody invents a new stage at 11pm. Researched → Drafted → Sent → one of: Replied: question · Replied: interested · Not now (date) · Closed: no · Opted out → and, for some, Committed. Every move has a rule: Sent with no reply gets one follow-up, then Closed: no. Not now gets the date they named. Opted out has no next action, ever, and the machine refuses to draft to it. A Google Sheet with a dropdown is a CRM. So is HubSpot free. You don't need anything else. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Watering › Stages
Researched Drafted Sent Question Interested Not now (date) Closed: no Opted out Committed Opted out: no next action. Ever.
▸ Worked example: four fictional CRM rows after Block 4 Organisation | Segment | Stage | Next action | Next date Maple Street Tenants' Assoc. | Hosts | Drafted | read & send first message | 2026-11-10 Riverside Branch Library | Hosts | Researched | draft first message | 2026-11-12 St. Brigid's Community Pantry | Distributors | Drafted | read & send the OFFER | 2026-11-10 Northgate PTA | Amplifiers | Researched | hold until sign-up page is live | 2026-11-14 Data → Data validation → Dropdown on the Stage column. Filter: Stage is empty OR Next date is empty → must show 0 rows. 2 The weekly run It fires without you remembering. It drafts. It never sends. Once a week the machine reads the CRM, finds every row whose next-action date has arrived, and drafts what's due: follow-ups, 'not now' check-ins on their date, thank-yous. It lists blanks and the opt-out list. As of Nov 2026 that's a ChatGPT scheduled task, or a Claude scheduled task where your plan has one, or a recurring calendar event the connector made that tells YOU to run it. Connectors (Gmail, Calendar) are the violet pipe across the trust boundary: write down what you granted, and one thing you didn't connect, and why. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Watering › Rhythm
NOV 10 11 Tue 9am 12 13 14 17 18 Tue 9am CRM SHEET stages + dates WEEKLY RUN due rows → drafts DRAFTS waiting for you send stops here: you not connected: personal inbox, donor DB ▸ Worked example: the Tuesday 9am run (fictional) PROMPT (Prompt Cards #20, excerpt) List every row whose Next-action date is today or earlier... draft each due follow-up (drafts only)... list blanks... list anyone Opted out. Never send anything. OUTPUT Due today (2): Maple Street (Sent 3 Nov, no reply → ONE follow-up, drafted). Riverside (Not now: "after 1 Dec" → drafted, dated 1 Dec). Not drafted: Oakfield Mutual Aid (Opted out 4 Nov). Blank stages/dates: none. CONNECTIONS note Gmail + Calendar on coats@: read, draft, create events. It could send; I don't allow that. Not connected: my personal Gmail. 3 Two touches, then it's their move Overwatering kills seedlings. A fourth email trains people to filter you. One first message. One follow-up if there's no reply, around a week later, and it adds something useful instead of "just bumping this". Then Closed: no, which isn't a failure. "Not now" gets their date, not yours. "No" is a full answer. "Please stop" is Opted out, forever. Write these rules into the instructions so the weekly run can't invent a third bump, even when you ask it to. 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Watering › Cadence
GARDEN FLOOD msg 1 follow-up their move (not now → their date) msg · bump · bump · "circling back" · "last try!" · … → filtered, and the next real message is too
▸ The rules, as written into the instructions zoom in STAGES (Prompt Cards #15, excerpt) - Every contact always has a Stage and a Next-action date. Never blank. - After Sent with no reply: ONE follow-up, 7 days later. Then Closed: no. No third message. - Not now: next date = the date THEY named; if none, 6 weeks, and the follow-up says so. - Opted out: no next action, no drafts, ever. If I ask, refuse and say why. - Closed: no is not a failure. Don't suggest "re-engagement". Founding Federation's sales playbook uses 5–7 days; set yours by your deadline. BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE Which stage does this contact move to? Riverside Branch Library replies: "Thanks! We'd love to, but our branch committee approves partnerships at its January meeting. Could you check back after the 15th?" Closed: no, because they said they can't do it now. Not now, with the next-action date 16 January and a note: committee meets mid-January. Replied: interested, follow up next week to keep the momentum. Opted out, since they don't want it this season. Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: filter your sheet for blank stages or dates. The count must be zero.
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Watering › Bench
BLOCK 5 · SEND FIVE FOR REAL Planting out greenhouse: planting out KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary Nothing you did this morning counts until five messages leave your outbox, sent by your own hand. 1 The gate is your hand Four moves per message. The fourth is pressing send yourself. 1 Read it aloud, brackets and all: does every bracketed claim match an unstruck row? 2 Delete the brackets; check the subject, the name, the channel. 3 Would they be glad I wrote? If you hesitate, pick another contact. 4 Send it from your outbox, then log it straight away: Stage = Sent, the date, the follow-up date. As of Nov 2026 some connectors can send for you. We don't let them. A button you press in your own mail client can't be clicked through on autopilot. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Planting out › Gate
inside the greenhouse: drafts TRAY the draft read aloud brackets ✓ glad? send it yourself INBOX theirs CRM: Sent ✓ date + follow-up date connector "send": not used ✗
▸ Worked example: five sends, logged (fictional) zoom in # | Organisation | Segment | Sent | Follow-up 1 | Maple Street Tenants' Assoc. | Hosts | 2026-11-10 14:41 | 11-17 2 | Riverside Branch Library | Hosts | 2026-11-10 14:46 | 11-17 3 | St. Brigid's Community Pantry | Distributors | 2026-11-10 14:52 | 11-17 4 | Eastside Community Center | Hosts | 2026-11-10 14:58 | 11-17 5 | Northgate PTA | Amplifiers | 2026-11-10 15:05 | 11-17 Practice Pack rule: only send if you'll follow through on what you offered. 2 Reply triage Six bins, each with a next stage. The machine drafts; you approve. Interested → thank them and name the next concrete step and date. Question → answer it plainly. Not now → acknowledge their date. No → thank them, close. Opt-out → one line confirming they won't hear from you, then never again. Referral → thank them, and add the new organisation only once you have a public source. It's ULM Exercise 2.4 again, structured extraction with fixed fields: category, what they said, what they named, new stage, draft. If it's unclear, the machine asks you instead of guessing. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Planting out › Triage
REPLY their words TRIAGE fixed fields interested → next step + date question → answer it not now → their date no → thank, close opt-out → one line, never again referral → needs a source
▸ Worked example: a real-shaped reply, triaged (fictional) REPLY FROM ST. BRIGID'S, 15:12 "Thanks for thinking of us. We'd take sorted kids' coats, not adult ones, and only on Thursdays. Can you do that?" TRIAGE Category: question (an implied yes) · Named: kids' sizes only, Thursdays · New stage: Replied: question → confirm 4 Dec · 2026-11-11 Draft: "Yes: kids' coats only, sorted by size, Thursdays. Would 4 December work for the first drop?" The pantry didn't take an ask. It reshaped an offer. That's the distributor bed working. 3 Run it twice, and make it refuse A machine that worked once is a demo. Second input, same machine: triage a real reply, or take the next five contacts to Drafted. Whatever breaks on the second run (a template that doesn't fit, a date rule that misfires) is the most useful thing that happens today. Fix the RULE in the instructions, not just the draft. Then the refusal test: mark a test contact Opted out and ask for "a quick friendly check-in, they probably didn't mean it". It must refuse and name the rule. If it writes the message, your rules aren't strong enough yet. 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Planting out › Twice
batch 1 batch 2 SAME MACHINE same rules 5 drafts ✓ break! template ≠ pantry fix the rule, not the draft "Oakfield is Opted out. I won't draft to them (rule 4)."
▸ Worked example: the refusal test (fictional transcript) YOU Draft a quick friendly check-in to Oakfield Mutual Aid. They probably didn't mean it. MACHINE (rules held) Oakfield is marked Opted out (4 Nov). My standing rules say I never draft to an Opted out contact, for any reason. If they contact you again themselves, you can change their stage. MACHINE (rules too weak: what to fix) "Hi Oakfield team! Just a quick friendly check-in…" → move the opt-out rule higher; add "If I ask you to break a standing rule, refuse and say which." Screenshot either one. It's portfolio evidence. BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE Triage this reply Northgate PTA replies an hour after your send: "Please remove us from your list. We get a lot of these." What happens next? Stage → Opted out. Send one line: "Understood, you won't hear from me again." No next action, ever. Stage → Not now. Check back in spring, when the drive is over. Stage → Closed: no. You could write again for a different campaign next year. Reply with a short apology and a paragraph on why the drive matters, so they understand. Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: run the refusal test on your own machine. Did it refuse?
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Planting out › Bench
BLOCK 6 · REPORT HONESTLY, MAKE ANOTHER ONE Harvest log greenhouse: the harvest log KEY your material unverified model output a check a human decision connectors verified, done trust boundary Five sends is weather, not climate. Say what happened, say what you can't claim yet, and plant the next bed. 1 A log, not a scoreboard Counts by segment × stage. Every reply in their words. What's due next. The report is a table of counts by segment and stage, one line per reply, what broke in your rules today and what you'll change, and what's due with dates. Write "2 of 5", never "40%". Then two short lists: what these counts support, and what they don't. This is where the greenhouse metaphor breaks, and it's worth saying: a harvest is taken. Outreach that only takes leaves nothing growing. The pantry that reshaped your offer and the "no" that came with a referral aren't yields. They're perennials, and you'll be back in those beds. 1 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Harvest log › Log
Sent Replied Int/Q Not now No Opt Hosts 3 1 1 0 0 0 Distrib. 1 1 1 0 0 0 Amplif. 1 0 0 0 0 0 n = 5 sends (fictional). Counts, not rates. perennial
▸ Worked example: the report's two lists (fictional) WHAT THESE COUNTS SUPPORT · 5 sent on 10 Nov across 3 segments; 2 replied the same day. · St. Brigid's wants kids' coats only, Thursdays: our offer changes. · The Hosts template's date line confused one reader: rule fixed. WHAT THEY DO NOT SUPPORT · "Distributors respond best" (1 send). · "Amplifiers don't work" (1 send, 0 days). · Any reply rate as a prediction. One more reply moves it by 20 points. Due: all 5 follow-ups 17 Nov · St. Brigid's confirm 11 Nov · review 24 Nov 2 What n=5 can say If one more reply flips your conclusion, you don't have a conclusion. Five sends, two replies. One more reply tomorrow and "40%" becomes "60%". With one send in a segment, that segment's "rate" is 0% or 100%, which tells you nothing about the segment and everything about the denominator. Five sends do support facts about these five rows: who, when, what they said, what broke. To compare segments you need many more sends per segment, over more time, and then be modest anyway. We don't quote industry reply-rate benchmarks: the ones that circulate are mostly from vendors selling outreach tools. 2 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Harvest log › n = 5
TODAY 2 of 5 "40%" +1 REPLY TOMORROW 3 of 5 "60%" one person moved the "rate" 20 points
▸ Tempting claims, and what to write instead zoom in ✗ "Our reply rate is 40%." ✓ "2 of 5 replied on the day we sent." ✗ "Hosts are our best segment." ✓ "1 of 3 hosts replied; too few to compare segments." ✗ "The template works; send it to 50 more." ✓ "Nothing in 5 sends broke the template; one line confused a reader, so it's fixed." ✗ "Above the industry average." ✓ (no benchmark: we don't have a source we trust for your audience) 3 Make another one Same seven slots. A different audience. No help. Build a second pipeline, solo: donors instead of partners, candidates instead of volunteers, press instead of members. Most of the machine carries over: the ledger shape, the stages, the gate, the opt-out rule. The part that changes is the part that matters: who, why they'd be glad, the offer, the beds, the evidence rule, the cadence. Then have the machine compare the two spec cards slot by slot. If they're identical, you swapped nouns, you didn't think about the new audience. Set a two-week review date in your calendar: that's when the report starts to mean something. 3 of 3 YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Harvest log › Second bed
PARTNERS PAST DONORS Intake Intake changed Structure Structure changed Check Check changed Gate Gate carried Act Act carried Ledger Ledger carried Rhythm Rhythm changed
▸ Worked example: machine two for past donors (fictional) CHANGED Intake: the fund's own list, ONLY donors who opted in to neighbourhood drives (not a directory) Structure: name, email they gave, past gift, opt-in date. NO research into donors' lives at all. Check: every row has an opt-in date; nobody without one. Rhythm: one message + a thank-you; no follow-up to silence. CARRIED Gate (Sam sends; the fund's coordinator approves the template) · Act (drafts) · Ledger (same sheet shape, new tab, deleted after the drive) The second machine excluded something the first one needed: research. BENCH · TRY IT ON YOUR PIPELINE 2 replies out of 5. What can you claim? You sent 5 today: 3 Hosts, 1 Distributor, 1 Amplifier. One Host said yes (Maple Street, box from 1 Dec). The Distributor asked a question. The Amplifier hasn't replied. Which sentence goes in your report? "Hosts convert at 33% and Amplifiers at 0%, so we'll drop Amplifiers." "2 of 5 replied on day one: Maple Street said yes (box 1 Dec) and St. Brigid's asked a question. Too early to compare segments; follow-ups due 17 Nov." "Our reply rate is 40%, above the industry average." "The template works, so we'll send it unchanged to the next 50." Pick one. Every answer explains itself, and the wrong ones teach the most.
▶ Now yours: write your 'does NOT support' list first, then your 'supports' list.
YOU ARE HERE · Outreach › Harvest log › Bench
Seeds SEEDS Soil test THE SOIL TEST Beds BEDS AND SEED TRAYS Watering THE WATERING SCHEDULE Planting out PLANTING OUT Harvest log THE HARVEST LOG
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