ConfidentialPrepared for Girl Scouts of Connecticut · Confidential
A welcome that runs itself.
Every new co-leader and every new Girl Scout family, handheld from their first day with the right information in the right order, automatically. Built inside the Marketing Cloud setup you already have, with the Dyspatch content your team is already creating, so your staff can stop sending the welcome by hand.
You already know what to say. What's missing is the system that carries it.
Girl Scouts of Connecticut has been welcoming girls and families for more than a century, and the welcome itself has never been the problem. The problem is that today it depends on people: staff emailing hundreds of new volunteers one at a time, placing them in troops by hand, and hoping a long email gets read all the way through.
You told us where you want to be: journeys that handhold new parents and new volunteers systematically, in bite-sized pieces, in an order that makes sense, without adding to anyone's workload. This proposal is the plan for getting there.
Four observations from our conversation
You inherited the platform, not the playbook.
Marketing Cloud and Dyspatch came to you through GSUSA, configured the same way for every council. You adapt to what is there, you work within guidelines you did not write, and when you looked at other councils you found no one with this locked down. That is not a gap in your team. It is a systems problem, and it needs systems people.
Right now the welcome is a person, not a process.
With 15,000 youth members and roughly 7,000 volunteers, hundreds of new co-leaders arrive each year, and each one is emailed, guided, and placed manually. Every hour spent on that is an hour not spent on the girls.
The content work is largely done.
You have built a hierarchy of communication, decided what comes first, broken it into bite-sized pieces, settled the number of emails, and started the copy and the design in Dyspatch. We are here to make it run.
Volunteer onboarding has rules with teeth.
Registration, background screening, Core Leadership Requirements, and Co-Leader Orientation within one month of a troop starting. Some steps cannot move forward until the previous one is complete. That is not a drip campaign. It is a gated journey, and it is exactly what Journey Builder is built for.
The message is ready. It needs a system that carries it.
Storytellers who build the systems that carry the story.
Digital Ink grew out of a publishing company, and we still lead with the story. A welcome journey is storytelling with timing: the right message, in the right order, to someone who just joined. It only reaches them if the system underneath it works, and that is the other half of what we do. Our team holds Salesforce certifications as Marketing Cloud Email Specialist, Marketing Cloud Engagement Developer, and JavaScript Developer, and the work we do most in Marketing Cloud is exactly this: structuring the data so real segmentation is possible, then building the entry criteria, decision splits, and personalization that turn a list of emails into a journey.
We also spend a lot of our time with organizations that run on volunteers and members rather than customers: Boys and Girls Clubs, schools, and community institutions where the budget is real and the mission is the point. We understand that "frugal" and "done right" have to be the same plan.
Three things that make this a fit
We fill gaps, not org charts.
You have the content, the copy, and the design underway. What you need is the systems knowledge. That is the only thing we are proposing to provide, sized to what you actually need. No Salesforce package, no set bundle, no hours you will not use.
We build on what you have.
Dyspatch stays. Your copy stays. GSUSA's guidelines are the rules of the road, not an obstacle. We work inside the council business unit you have today and document what is possible within it before we build anything.
We keep it running.
Journeys are not set-and-forget. Requirements change, program dates move, copy gets refreshed. When something needs to change, you send it to us and we handle it, billed only for the time it takes, so nobody on your team has to become a Marketing Cloud specialist to keep the welcome working.
Four modules. You choose which ones.
We heard you clearly on budget, so this is not a package. It is four modules, each with a defined outcome. Module 01 is where every option starts, because it tells us what your business unit will let us build. After that, you pick. Your estimate updates live in the Your Estimate section further down.
Discovery and Journey Blueprint
Outcome: A clear, written picture of what is possible in your Marketing Cloud business unit, and a blueprint for both journeys that your team reviews and approves before anything is built.
Includes
- Review of the GSUSA guidelines that govern your instance
- Audit of your business unit: available data extensions and fields, Journey Builder and Automation Studio access, sender profiles, and how Dyspatch templates land in Content Builder
- Confirmation of which member and volunteer data can drive entry criteria and gates (for example join date, role, troop placement, training completion), and what will need a workaround
- Journey blueprints for the new volunteer and new parent journeys: audiences, entry criteria, sequence, timing, decision splits, exits
- A short readout with recommendations and any items that need GSUSA's involvement
New Volunteer Onboarding Journey
Outcome: Every new co-leader receives a guided sequence from registration through their first meeting, with the required steps enforced by the journey instead of by a staff member's inbox.
Includes
- Audience and data setup: the data extension, filters, and entry source that identify a new adult member in a volunteer role
- Journey architecture in Journey Builder: welcome, background screening, Core Leadership Requirements, Co-Leader Orientation with its one-month window, Volunteer Toolkit and first meeting planning, safety basics, and who to lean on at council
- Decision splits and reminders at each gate where completion data is available; timed reminders with a staff check-in where it is not
- Setup of your Dyspatch-synced emails in Content Builder and the journey, with personalization mapped to your Marketing Cloud data such as name, troop, and key dates (planning assumes up to 8 emails)
- Testing and QA: test sends from Marketing Cloud to confirm personalization, links, and tracking resolve correctly, plus audience validation with seed sends before anything reaches a real volunteer
- Launch and two weeks of monitoring, with adjustments as the first cohort moves through
New Parent and Caregiver Welcome Journey
Outcome: Every family joining for the first time understands what a Girl Scout membership includes, what the first weeks look like, and what is available to their girl, delivered in pieces they will actually read.
Includes
- Audience and data setup identifying first-time families by join date and membership status
- Journey architecture: welcome, what a membership includes, what to expect in the first weeks, the troop experience, then the breadth of Girl Scouts in bite-sized steps (badges, Passport, S'monthly Campfires, camp, and the opportunities that come later, from the cookie program to destinations for older girls)
- Setup of your Dyspatch-synced emails in Content Builder and the journey, with personalization mapped to your Marketing Cloud data (planning assumes up to 8 emails)
- Testing and QA, seed sends, and audience validation
- Launch and two weeks of monitoring
Dyspatch to Marketing Cloud Handoff Troubleshooting
Outcome: What your team builds in Dyspatch arrives in Marketing Cloud the way it was designed, with personalization that resolves, links and tracking that work, and a clear rule for what gets edited where.
Includes
- Diagnostic of the current handoff: how templates sync from Dyspatch into your business unit, where they land in Content Builder, how Dyspatch variable fields map to Marketing Cloud personalization, and where the process breaks today
- Fixes at the handoff: field mapping and personalization corrections, AMPscript where a dynamic element needs more than a Dyspatch variable can express, required footer and unsubscribe elements, and any differences between the Dyspatch preview and the live Marketing Cloud send
- Clear working rules for your team: what gets edited in Dyspatch, what gets edited in Marketing Cloud, and how to resync without overwriting work
What "handhold" looks like as a system.
This is the new volunteer journey as we would blueprint it in Module 01. The exact steps, timing, and gates get confirmed against your guidelines and your data, but the shape is the point: the journey does the reminding, the checking, and the sequencing, so your staff do not have to.
Nothing yet. They have just registered through MyGS.
Recognizes a new adult member with a volunteer role from your member data and enters them into the journey.
First journey live in about four weeks.
This timeline assumes the recommended scope (Modules 01 to 03) and that your drafted emails are ready to set up as each journey begins. Choosing one journey shortens it.
Discovery and Blueprint
Guidelines review, business unit audit, journey blueprints, and a readout. You approve the blueprints before we build anything.
Volunteer Journey
Data setup, journey architecture, email setup, QA, and launch. Monitoring continues through week 6.
Parent and Caregiver Journey
Starts as the volunteer journey launches. Launch by week 6, monitoring through week 8.
Support on request
When requirements, dates, or copy change, send it to us. Billed on tracked time, no monthly fee. See Where This Goes Next.
If you choose the volunteer journey alone, plan on roughly four weeks from kickoff to launch. Start dates depend on when we receive the GSUSA guidelines and your email content.
Everything you need. Nothing you don't.
You told us you need to be frugal and that you also want to value the work properly. We think those are the same plan. So instead of a package price, here is the scope as a set of choices. Check what you want, watch the planning figure update, and share it with whoever needs to see it. We will turn your selection into a formal Statement of Work.
How this pricing works
You pay for tracked time, not estimates. Every line carries a planning estimate at our standard rate of $140 per hour. If we estimate 8 hours and the work takes 5, you pay for 5. Time is tracked throughout and reported with every invoice.
Your ceiling is your ceiling. Set a project or monthly budget cap and we will not exceed it without your written approval. If any line is trending over its estimate, we tell you before it happens, not after.
Module 01 is where every option starts. It is small on purpose, and it is what lets us give you firm figures for the journeys. If you would rather lock Modules 02 and 03 as fixed prices after Module 01, we will do that.
A note on our pre-selections: we have checked the modules we recommend for a first engagement and left the optional and later-phase items unchecked. Everything is yours to change. The future journeys at the bottom are there so you can see where this goes and plan next year's budget, not because we expect you to choose them now.
Where every option starts. Confirms what your business unit allows and produces the blueprints you approve before we build.
The gated journey from registration to first meeting. The biggest manual burden on your team today.
The membership explained in pieces a busy parent will read, timed to their first weeks.
Dyspatch already handles the build and the client testing. This is for when what arrives in Marketing Cloud does not match what was designed.
Where this goes once the first two journeys are running. Planning figures only; each is scoped properly after Module 01.
Billed on tracked time only. Estimates shown for planning; actual invoiced hours may be lower or higher per line.
Payment structure
- To begin:
- a deposit equal to 50% of your selected planning total.
- At completion:
- the balance is invoiced on actual tracked hours and reconciled against the deposit. Hours we did not use are credited back.
- Outside the scope:
- anything you ask for beyond your selection is quoted and approved in writing before it starts.
- Third-party costs:
- none expected. Marketing Cloud and Dyspatch are already yours.
Minimum configuration, if you start with Modules 01 and 02 only: 43 hours, $6,020 planning figure.
Two journeys is the start, not the ceiling.
Once new volunteers and new families are handled, the same foundation supports the rest of the membership year: renewal reminders before September 30, win-back for families who lapsed, a welcome for Juliettes, cookie and fall product program communications to the right troops at the right time, camp registration, and stewardship for alumni and donors. None of that needs to be decided now. It needs a foundation that can carry it, which is what Modules 01 through 03 build, and a team to call when something needs to change, which is what the support below is for.
Support after launch, on your terms
Support on request.
When you need a change, send it to us. Journey adjustments, email and copy updates, new segments, seasonal sends, questions. We scope it, do it, and bill tracked time at our standard rate of $140 per hour, invoiced monthly in arrears with a full time log. No monthly fee, no minimum, and nothing billed in months you do not need us. If you want a monthly ceiling, set one and we will not exceed it without your written approval. The people who built the journeys are the people who maintain them.
A September check before the new year.
Each September, before October 1, is the natural time to send us the year's changes: new requirements, new program dates, new copy. We review both journeys against them and make the updates, billed on tracked time like everything else, so the new year starts clean.
New journeys as you're ready.
Each future journey is scoped and approved on its own, the same way, with the same planning logic you see above. Nothing starts without your sign-off.
Your new membership year starts October 1. Let's meet the first cohort ready.
Your membership year begins October 1, and fall is when the largest share of new families and new co-leaders arrive. With Module 01 starting in the next two weeks, the volunteer journey can be live inside about four weeks, which means the co-leaders joining this fall are the first to experience Girl Scouts of Connecticut as a guided welcome rather than a long email. The parent journey follows about two weeks behind.
By the time cookie season arrives, both are running on their own, and your team is spending its time on the girls, the troops, and the volunteers who need a person rather than a process.
- Sign (October)
- Blueprints approved (week 2)
- Volunteer journey live (about week 4)
- Parent journey live (about week 6)
- Support on request
- Cookie season with both journeys running
The welcome sets the tone for the whole membership. It should be the best thing you send.
Pick your modules. We'll take it from there.
- 01
Choose your scope. Use the estimate above, share it with your leadership, and tell us what you selected.
- 02
Send us two things. The GSUSA guidelines for your Marketing Cloud instance, and the email sequence and copy your team has drafted so far.
- 03
Statement of Work. We turn your selection into a formal SOW with final figures and a start date. Our standard Master Services Agreement comes with it.
- 04
Kickoff. Module 01 begins within the first week of signing, with the readout and blueprints in your hands by the end of week two.
Prepared by Digital Ink · Nick Ledue, CEO · Confidential · 2026