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Documentation Ask Altrinum

Ask Altrinum

Ask Altrinum Tutorial

Use Ask Altrinum to ask plain-language reporting and diagnostic questions about your workspace data.

What you will learn

By the end of this tutorial, you should understand how to:

  • enable Ask Altrinum for the workspace
  • ask clear reporting questions in plain language
  • use named campaigns or entities when needed
  • distinguish between analytics questions and diagnosis questions
  • interpret clarification prompts correctly
  • use Ask Altrinum as a fast first step before deeper reporting

Scenario

An executive director needs quick answers before a board meeting and does not want to build custom reports from scratch.

They want to ask about:

  • donation totals
  • registrations
  • attendance
  • campaign results
  • program revenue

They also want to understand how to ask in a way that gets useful answers without trial and error.

Before you begin

Before using Ask Altrinum, confirm:

  • the workspace has AI enabled
  • you are asking about data Altrinum actually tracks in the workspace
  • you know whether you want a quick number, a grouped trend, or a campaign diagnosis
  • you are ready to be specific about time range and named entities where relevant

Step 1 — Turn it on

  1. Open Workspace Settings.
  2. Go to the AI section.
  3. Turn on Enable Ask Altrinum.
  4. Save.

Important implementation note

The Ask Altrinum page only appears in the dashboard navigation when AI is enabled for the current workspace.

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Step 2 — Understand what it works best for

Ask Altrinum is strongest for clear analytics questions about:

  • donations
  • events
  • programs
  • emails
  • some workspace-grounded prospect questions

It works especially well for:

  • totals
  • counts
  • averages
  • rates
  • grouped time-series questions
  • questions about one named campaign or one known entity

Why this matters

Ask Altrinum is most useful when the question is already grounded in something the workspace tracks clearly.

It is not meant to replace every reporting surface or answer every broad strategic question without data context.

Step 3 — Start with a clear analytics question

A good first question usually includes:

  • a subject
  • a metric
  • a time range
  • any grouping or filter that matters

Good examples

  • What was our total donation amount last month?
  • Show donation count by month for the last 12 months.
  • How many registrations did we have last month?
  • What was our email open rate last month?
  • Show attendance by event type.
  • Show revenue by event.

Why this matters

This gives Ask Altrinum enough direction to return a useful answer without making broad assumptions.

Common mistake

Questions like:

  • Tell me about fundraising.
  • How are our events doing?

are usually too broad to be useful on the first try.

Step 4 — Use real nonprofit scenarios

Ask Altrinum is especially useful in day-to-day nonprofit situations.

Examples:

  • before a board or finance meeting: What was our total donation amount last month?
  • after an event: What was the no-show rate for paid events this quarter?
  • during campaign review: Show click rate by campaign.
  • for program planning: Show registrations by program.
  • for donor analysis: How many unique donors gave to a designation in a date range?

Why this matters

These are the kinds of questions that teams often need answered quickly, but not necessarily through a formal report every time.

Step 5 — Ask about one named thing when needed

Ask Altrinum can help with questions about a specific campaign or other clearly named record, but the question must be resolvable.

Good examples

  • Diagnose the Spring Appeal campaign.
  • Improve the Giving Tuesday campaign.
  • When did Gary Bhanot first give?

What could go wrong

  • If you do not name the campaign clearly for a diagnosis-style question, Ask Altrinum may ask you to identify it more precisely.
  • If multiple close matches exist, the page may show an ambiguity chooser so you can select the right record.

Why this matters

Named-entity questions work best when the system can confidently attach the prompt to one actual workspace record.

Step 6 — Understand email-specific usage

For email questions, Ask Altrinum can do more than simple totals.

It may:

  • answer analytics-style email questions
  • diagnose a specific resolved campaign
  • suggest improvements for a specific resolved campaign
  • improve an existing draft email through guided mode

Decision guidance

Ask a general email analytics question when you want performance numbers across campaigns.

Ask for diagnosis or improvement when you are focused on one specific campaign by name.

Examples

Analytics:

  • What was our email open rate last month?
  • Show click rate by campaign.

Diagnosis:

  • Diagnose the Spring Appeal campaign.
  • Improve the Giving Tuesday campaign.

Guided improve mode:

  • Switch to Improve my email.
  • Choose either Choose an email in Altrinum or Paste email content.
  • If you choose existing in-app email, select the email/campaign and optionally set audience, goal, and instruction.
  • If you choose pasted content, paste your draft and optionally add campaign context, audience, goal, and instruction.

Step 7 — Improve vague prompts when needed

If Ask Altrinum says your question is too vague, refine it by adding one or more of:

  • a date range
  • a metric
  • a domain
  • a named event, form, program, or campaign

Example improvement

Weak:

  • How are we doing?

Better:

  • Show donation amount by month for the last 12 months.

Weak:

  • Tell me about programs.

Better:

  • Show registrations by program this year.

Why this matters

A better prompt is usually not longer just for the sake of length. It is clearer about what answer is actually needed.

Step 8 — Review the result carefully

Use the response as a fast reporting assistant, not as a replacement for judgment.

Good follow-up checks include:

  • Does the time range match what you meant?
  • Is the entity the one you intended?
  • Does the grouping answer the business question you actually have?
  • Do you now need a dedicated report or export for the next step?

Example

If you ask for event revenue but really needed registrations by program, Ask Altrinum may answer the first question correctly while still not solving the planning decision in front of you.

That is why reviewing the actual wording of your own question is important.

What could go wrong

  • Questions that are too broad may be rejected as unclear.
  • Asking outside the supported domains can lead to a “be more specific” result.
  • Naming the wrong campaign or not naming one at all can make diagnosis-style requests fail.
  • Ambiguous donor or campaign names may require you to choose the correct match.

Recommended first questions

For a new team, start with:

  1. What was our total donation amount last month?
  2. How many registrations did we have last month?
  3. What was our email open rate last month?
  4. Show revenue by event.

These usually help people learn the pattern that works best before they move into more complex or interpretive prompts.

What to do next

After your first few successful questions:

  • try one grouped trend question
  • try one program or event comparison
  • try one named campaign diagnosis
  • compare the result to a dashboard or report when you need deeper operational follow-up