Best Practices for 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 or seed that email on automated marketing and fundraising emails
• 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• Outdated priorities are avoided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
• Provide instructions or clarifications as to which portfolio or donor segments are appropriate for certain messages

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.