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How do I set up an automated happy birthday message?

Describes how to send a happy birthday email automatically on someone's birthday.

You will need the Full Write Workflow permission to perform this action.

You can automate a happy birthday email to your members with the Workflows feature. You will build a saved query that finds people whose birthday is today, then create a workflow that runs that query daily and sends an email.


Set up the birthday workflow

Step 1: Create a query for today's birthdays

Go to Reporting > Query Builder. On the Designer tab, use the filter search to find Birthday, add it, and set it to is today. Save the query so it is available to your workflow — saved queries appear on the Saved Queries tab.

Step 2: Create the workflow

Go to Automation > Workflows and click + Add New. In the Add Workflow window, enter a Name (for example, "Birthday Emails") and an optional Description. You can also choose a Category, a Reentry Buffer, and an Editor Layout.

Leave Enabled turned off while you build the workflow so no emails are sent before it is finished. Click Save to create the workflow and open the editor.

Step 3: Add a scheduled query trigger

In the workflow editor, open the Task Library and add a Trigger. Set the trigger to a Scheduled Query that runs Daily, and choose the birthday query you saved in Step 1. This runs the query each day and moves the people it finds into the workflow.

Step 4: Add a Notification task for the email

From the Task Library, add a Notification task and set its Notification Type to Email. Compose the birthday message — choose who it is from, confirm the current person in the task is the recipient, and write the subject and body. You can use Merge Variables to personalize the message (for example, the person's first name). For full details on the Notification task, see Notification Task.

Step 5: Enable the workflow

When your trigger and task are set up, edit the workflow details (Actions > Enable, or click on Disabled) and turn Enabled on, then Save. The workflow will now run daily and email each person whose birthday is that day.


Helpful Tips

Instead of (or in addition to) an email message, you can add an Assignment task to notify a staff member to reach out personally. When that person marks the assignment complete, the workflow continues to the next task.

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