Best Practices for Knowledge Base Submissions

Best Practices for VEO Knowledge Base Submissions

The VEO Knowledge Base (KB) stores information about your organization that helps guide outreach, solicitations, and stewardship messaging. Providing clear, timely content allows your Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO) to reference accurate and relevant information when communicating with donors.

This guide explains what to send, how to send it, and formatting best practices so the VEO can use your content effectively.

What content should be submitted?

The Knowledge Base should include information that helps the VEO understand and communicate your organization’s priorities, initiatives, and updates.

Examples include:

Campaign messaging or appeals
Event invitations and announcements
News stories or institutional updates
Program highlights or impact stories
Strategic priorities or funding opportunities
Links to videos or multimedia donors may find engaging

Providing this information helps the VEO reference meaningful content during donor conversations.

How to submit content

To ensure content can be used successfully:

Email directly to veo@version2.ai
Ensure links are publicly accessible
Use donor-friendly language whenever possible
Include clear dates for events or registration deadlines

If content changes, submit a new version rather than editing a previously sent file. Include a note explaining the changes if appropriate.

Supported content formats

The VEO Knowledge Base can ingest and reference:

Emails (which may include instructions for how the VEO should use the content)
Newsletters
Attachments such as Word documents or PDFs
Links to publicly accessible webpages
Links to publicly accessible videos

All content must be publicly accessible and not require login access.

Content formats that cannot be used

Please do not submit:

Google Drive links
Password-protected documents
Content behind logins or firewalls
Flipbook-style publications (such as Issuu)

Instead, attach files directly when emailing content.

Why submission dates matter

The VEO prioritizes recently received content when determining what to reference in outreach. This helps ensure:

Current campaign messaging is used
Outdated priorities are avoided
Seasonal or time-sensitive initiatives are handled appropriately

If content changes, send the updated version as a new attachment with the updated date.

Submit materials by emailing veo@version2.ai. If the new content replaces a previous version, include a short note explaining the update.

Link best practices for VEO messages

Links used in VEO outreach—especially SMS—should be short, recognizable, and easy to trust.

Example:

Preferred:

www.university.edu/veogiving

Less effective:

www.university.edu/giving?id=4829374&source=veo&utm_campaign=2026springappeal

Short, readable links make messages feel more natural and increase the likelihood donors will click.

Avoid third-party link shorteners

Services such as Bitly or TinyURL should not be used.

These links are often flagged by mobile carriers and spam filters, which can cause messages to be blocked or marked as spam. For best deliverability, links should come directly from your organization’s website.

Use organization-based links whenever possible

Links that begin with your organization’s domain are typically more trustworthy to donors than links pointing directly to third-party platforms (especially payment platforms like Venmo, Paypal, etc.).

Preferred:

www.organization.org/givenow

Less effective:

www.venmo.com/organizationgivenow

Whenever possible, create a short branded page on your website that redirects to the giving platform.

Example:

organization.org/givenow

This keeps messages clean and encourages donor engagement.

Best practices summary

To ensure the VEO can use your content effectively:

Submit updates regularly so content stays current
Include clear event dates and deadlines
Use donor-friendly language
Ensure links are publicly accessible
Send attachments directly rather than using shared drives
Use short, branded links whenever possible
Send updated versions as new files rather than editing older submissions

Providing clear, accessible, and timely content helps the VEO align messaging with your organization’s priorities.

Need support?

For questions or help, please email version2support@givzey.com.