Understanding Touchpoint Delivery Timing and Rules

This guide explains how Humanitru evaluates and executes touchpoint triggers, including timing rules, delivery order, and how the system handles edge cases like duplicate triggers and backdated actions.

Use this guide when you want to understand when and how touchpoints fire, how delays work, or how the system prevents duplicate deliveries. This is especially useful for troubleshooting touchpoints that aren't behaving as expected.

Part A: Understand Trigger Evaluation Timing

1. Touchpoints are evaluated 1x a day as new Actions (Donations, Memberships, etc.) are logged in Humanitru. When a new Action is created that matches a touchpoint's WHEN condition, the trigger fires.
2. If a delay is configured (e.g., 1 day after the trigger), the delivery action is queued and executed after the specified delay. The delay is calculated from the moment the trigger condition was met.
3. Triggers are evaluated based on the constituent's record at the time the Action is logged, not on historical data.

Part B: Understand Delivery Order

1. If multiple touchpoints fire for the same constituent at the same time (e.g., a large donation triggers both a First Donation touchpoint and a $1,000 Milestone touchpoint), both delivery actions will execute independently.
2. There is no priority ordering between touchpoints. Each touchpoint operates as an independent rule.
3. Email deliveries are processed through your configured email provider. SMS deliveries route through your Twilio integration. Profile Note deliveries are created instantly in the Humanitru database.

Part C: Understand Duplicate Prevention

1. Humanitru includes built-in logic to prevent duplicate deliveries for certain trigger types. For example, a First Donation touchpoint will only fire once per constituent, even if the constituent's first donation is edited or re-logged.
2. Milestone triggers re-fire once per threshold. A $1,000 milestone will not fire again if the constituent's cumulative giving drops below $1,000 and then crosses the threshold again.
3. Anniversary triggers fire once per year on the anniversary date. They will not fire twice in the same calendar year.

Part D: Handling Edge Cases

1. Backdated actions: If you log a donation with a past date, the trigger evaluates based on the cumulative totals at the time of logging, not the historical date. This means a backdated donation can still fire a milestone trigger if it pushes the current cumulative total over the threshold.
2. Deleted actions: If a triggering action is deleted after the touchpoint has already fired, the delivery is not reversed. Emails already sent cannot be recalled, and tasks or notes already created remain on the record.
3. Dry Run logging: In Dry Run mode, all trigger evaluations are logged but no deliveries are executed. This log is preserved even if you later switch the touchpoint to Active, giving you a historical record of simulated triggers.

• If a touchpoint is not firing as expected, check the trigger type, parameters, and status. A common issue is leaving a touchpoint in Paused or Dry Run mode after testing.
• For organizations with large import cycles (e.g., importing a year of donations from a prior CRM), pause all milestone-based touchpoints before the import to prevent a flood of automated messages.
• Review your touchpoint delivery logs monthly to ensure messages are being sent as intended and that no edge cases are causing unexpected behavior.