Segments help you organize constituents in your assigned Portfolio into long-term groups based on shared characteristics, such as major gift level, giving history, or donor type. Use Segments to structure your stewardship strategy and track engagement consistently over time.
Overview
Segments are long-term groups built to support consistent outreach and ongoing engagement tracking. Segments are used in:
- Automations: Segments define who an Automation applies to. Triggers such as no contact, birthday, gift received, giving anniversary, or no email reply create recommendations for that Segment in the Inbox. Click here to learn more about Automations.
- New Action: You can select a Segment as the audience for an email, call, letter, or card, then choose the timing and template or prompt. Click here to learn more about creating new Actions.
- Cadences: You can apply a multi-step communication journey, such as a welcome or cultivation series, to donors selected from a Segment. Click here to learn Cadences.
- Prospecting: You can assign a Segment as a prospect pool and have Momentum surface prioritized people each week, using a Template or Cadence for the outreach. Click here to learn more about Prospecting.
- Reporting: Segments help organize and compare ongoing engagement across donor groups. Click here to learn more Reports.
By default, all fundraiser will see four pre-loaded Segments in Momentum:
- CRM Assignments: the system-managed landing bucket for Constituents assigned to the user through the CRM. Any new Portfolio assignments sync here first automatically. This is the only Segment that updates automatically and cannot be deleted.
- People I don’t know
- People I know
- People I want to know better
Segment assignments are managed manually, so users must review assigned portfolios and adjust Segment membership as needed. You can rename or delete a Segment at any time.
Segments vs Lists
Segments are different from Lists in a few ways. Use a Segment when:
- You're managing long-term relationships
- The group is part of your assigned portfolio
- You want ongoing engagement tracking through automated recommendations
Use a List when:
- You're doing one-off or time-bound outreach
- The group includes donors not assigned to you
- You're manually managing the timing and messaging
For example, suppose your CRM assigns you 500 constituents. Those 500 people make up your Portfolio. You might organize them into Segments such as:
- High-touch donors
- Lapsed donors
- People to cultivate
You may also create a List called 2026 Gala Invitees that includes people from your Portfolio, and possibly people outside it, for a specific event outreach. See this support article for more information on Momentum Lists.
Creating and Managing a Segment
To create a new Segment:
- From the Constituents tab, select Segments.
- Select the plus icon to create a new Segment. Give it a name. Use a clear, descriptive name, such as Major Donors $50,000+. Save.
- To add Constituents, navigate to your Portfolio.
- Using the Filters or Search, select the checkbox on the right of each Constituent to add to the Segment.
- Choose your Segment from the dropdown menu and select Move.