Repeat Archives | The Better Fundraising Company

The Donor Story You’re Probably Ignoring (and Losing Money By Doing It)

T. Clay Buck, CFRE | July 17, 2025July 8, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Clay Buck. Enjoy, and you can read more about Clay below.

***

Let’s play a quick game.

Which of these would you trust more?

An AI navigator that says, “Turn left now,” just as you drive into a lake.
Or a paper map from 1993 that at least *tries* to tell the truth.

If your donor database isn’t clean, your fundraising is doing the same thing as that navigator: confidently giving bad directions. And that’s not just annoying – it’s expensive.

So let’s talk about something most fundraisers don’t get super excited about: data hygiene.

Yes, I know. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t come with confetti or applause. But keeping your donor data clean and up-to-date might be the single most important thing you do to raise more money.

Let me show you why.

Why Dirty Data Is Costing You Money

Picture this: you spend hours writing a beautiful appeal letter. You print it on nice paper. You add a lovely reply card and envelope. You fold it all perfectly and send it out with hope and a postage stamp.

And it gets returned because the address was wrong.

Or worse – it goes to the wrong person entirely. Or uses the wrong name. (“Dear Occupant” never exactly tugs the heartstrings.)

Every returned letter is wasted money. Every wrong name is a little nick in your donor’s trust. And every outdated email or phone number is a missed chance to connect.

It adds up fast. Some studies estimate that the average nonprofit loses 8-10% of its fundraising revenue to bad data.

That’s money you could be spending on programs. On salaries. On stamps that *actually* reach people.

That’s time you or your team are spending editing and cleaning data on the fly – time that could be much better spent scrounging the breakroom for leftovers. (Or, you know, writing those thank you notes you haven’t had time to get to.)

What Do We Mean by “Clean Data”?

Clean data just means this:

It’s accurate.
It’s up to date.
It’s complete enough to do your job well.

That’s it.

You don’t need a PhD in database wizardry. You just need to make sure the basics are solid:

People’s names are spelled correctly
Addresses are current
Emails work
Gifts are recorded in the right place
Notes are consistent

Think of your database like a campfire. Your donors gather around it to support your cause – and they’ve shared some of their stories to keep the fire burning. Their address? That’s a breadcrumb of who they are. Their giving history? A reflection of what matters to them. Every piece of data is a detail they’ve chosen to share.

We talk a lot about the stories we *tell* our donors. But data? That’s how they tell *their* stories to us.

So if our data is messy, we’re not just making our jobs harder – we’re ignoring their story. And betraying their trust.

Clean Data Builds Trust

Let’s say you send a thank-you letter, and it includes:

“Dear Sarah, thank you for your $100 gift made on February 28 toward our literacy program. You’ve made a real difference in helping kids learn to read.”

Sarah will feel seen, valued, and appreciated.

Now imagine that same letter said:

“Dear Supporter, thank you for your gift. You are helping.”

Sarah’s checking her watch and wondering if you even noticed her at all.

When your data is clean, you can personalize every message. And personalized messages build relationships.

And relationships? They’re what fundraising is *actually* all about.

The ROI of Clean Data (a.k.a. The Math That’ll Blow Your Mind)

Let’s talk numbers – and I promise, no calculator required.

Say you have a list of 1,000 donors. Over the course of a year, they give a combined total of $100,000. That’s an average of $100 per donor.

Now let’s say 10% of that data is bad. Maybe the addresses are outdated, the emails bounce, or the names are wrong. That’s 100 donors you can’t reach.

And if you can’t reach them, you can’t raise money from them.

So, 100 donors x $100 each = $10,000 in lost revenue. Just because your data wasn’t clean.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Next year, those 100 donors are still missing. And maybe another 10% drop off. Now you’ve lost another $10,000.

That’s $20,000 in lost potential.
And the next year? $30,000.
It *compounds* – like interest, but backwards.

You’re not just losing money once. You’re losing it over and over again, every year that donor can’t be contacted, can’t be thanked, can’t be invited to give again.

This is the hidden cost of bad data. And it’s real.

On the flip side? Clean your data, and you’re not just raising more money today – you’re building a stronger base for next year, and the year after that.

Common Excuses – And Why They Don’t Hold Up

“I don’t have time.”
You also don’t have time to keep redoing mailings that bounce. Or to fix angry donor calls. Or to spend hours searching for info you *should* have at your fingertips. Or finding new-and-theoretically-‘better’ donors.

“I’m not good with tech.”
Good news: data hygiene isn’t about knowing all the buttons. It’s about habits. Like checking addresses when donors call. Or confirming names before merging lists. You don’t need to be fancy. You just need to be consistent.

“It’s not my job.”
Actually, it is. If you’re a fundraiser, your job is to connect with donors – and that only works when the data behind the scenes is solid.

Think of your database like your kitchen. You don’t have to love scrubbing it, but if it’s full of crumbs and sticky spots, cooking’s going to be a lot harder.

Easy Wins to Clean Up Your Data

Use a consistent naming format.
Verify addresses annually.
Remove duplicates.
Check bounced emails.
Log every interaction.
Make it someone’s job
Run regular cleaning and appends like NCOA, de-duplications, standardization, phone and email validation, etc. (Shameless plug, if you need help with this, Next River Fundraising Strategies can help. It’s quick, relatively painless and, honestly, a lot less expensive than you think.)

Bonus tip? Turn it into a game: once a month, see who can find and fix the most errors. Winner gets coffee. Loser still gets clean data.

A Final Word (With Feeling)

You don’t need to love spreadsheets.

You don’t need to know all the tech.

But if you care about your mission – if you care about your donors – then keeping your data clean is one of the best things you can do.

It’s how you make sure your messages land.
It’s how you show people they matter.
It’s how you raise more money, more consistently, with less stress.

And maybe most importantly – it’s how you show your donors that you’re listening. That their story matters. That the data they’ve shared with you is being cared for, protected, and used with purpose.

Clean data isn’t just tidy.

It’s powerful.
It’s personal.
And it pays off.

***

Steven says, “Clay is the founder and principal of Next River Fundraising Strategies, creator of the Fundraiser’s Planner, and co-host of the #1 ranked fundraising podcast Fundraising is Funny. He’s a wide-eyed optimist about the power of generosity to change the world and focuses primarily on individual giving, strategic planning, and building the systems and storytelling that support and empower successful, ethical fundraising.”

What KFC Can Teach You About Donor & Customer Communications

Simon Scrivner | July 15, 2025July 8, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Simon Scriver. Enjoy, and you can read more about Simon below.

***

People talk a lot about how often you should be mailing, e-mailing and phoning your donors. Charities often ask me how often they should be contacting their donors. And whenever they do I always think about the Chicken Variety Meal at KFC.

Yes, KFC.

If you’re my age or older you might know them as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But they rebranded in an attempt to hide the word “fried” (or, as some might have you believe, to hide the word “chicken”). KFC is my secret shame. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I’m generally a good person. But, despite myself, I love KFC and have had to manage my addiction to the point where now I can proudly say it’s just a “special treat.”

Every time I go in to KFC and order my meal they ask if I want to give them more money to Go Large. And every time I say yes. And I never get annoyed.

Even if I went in there every meal of every day they would continue to ask me to give them more more money. And I would never get annoyed.

Why not?

Because I love their chicken, I love their fries, and I love their Pepsi. I crave it. Every bite is a euphoric journey to a salty land of nostalgic love. KFC and The Colonel are giving me exactly what I want, when I want it. And when they offer me more, I’m grateful.

You see, junk mail is only junk if it doesn’t apply to you. I get pizza menus dropped in my mailbox every day… and they annoy me every day that I don’t want a pizza.

I hear anecdotal evidence on Donor Communications all the time: People don’t want to get mail, don’t want to get e-mails, don’t want to get phone calls. And people don’t want to be asked for money.

That’s simply not true.

People don’t want to receive bad mails. They don’t want to receive bad phone calls. They don’t want to receive bad e-mails. And they don’t want to be asked for money… badly.

If people don’t want to receive your updates and your appeals it’s not the donors fault and it’s not the medium’s fault. It’s your fault.

The public want to hear from you as often as you have something interesting and relevant to say. How often should you be contacting your donors? Well, ask yourself: how often have you got something good to say?

And ask yourself, honestly, how good is your fundraising-chicken?

[You can read more like this at www.changefundraising.com]

***

Steven says, “Simon Scriver is one of the co-founders of Fundraising Everywhere. If you’ve not heard of Fundraising Everywhere, it’s an online community that provides professional development and peer support for fundraisers. And if you’ve not heard Simon speak, make it a point to go to a session of his at a conference; he is fun, funny, and helpful!” This blog post originally appeared on the excellent Bloomerang.co.

Some of the Most Important Things in Fundraising Don’t Feel Like Fundraising

Simon Scrivner | July 10, 2025June 30, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Simon Scriver. Enjoy, and you can read more about Simon below.

***

You’d be forgiven for thinking that fundraising is all about asking for money.

But a good fundraiser knows that that’s actually only a small part of the job. The real time-consuming stuff, and the really important stuff, is the things that happen before and after the asks. In fact, if you get really good at the “in-between” stuff, you start to see your asks get easier and your results get better.

And yet we neglect these things.

Why?

Because they don’t feel like fundraising.

But it’s a false economy. Making a bunch of cold calls and asking for money or gifts in kind feels like fundraising. Posting social media post after social media post asking for donations feels like fundraising. Organizing a big gala ball or a golf classic even feels like fundraising because of all of the little transactions along the way.

But are they the best use of your time?

The best fundraisers I know carve time out of their schedule for fundraising that doesn’t feel like fundraising. And if you want to see your results improve, then perhaps ask less and do the following 8 things more:

Conversations with Staff & Beneficiaries — We have nothing if we don’t have stories that demonstrate the work of our nonprofits. Someone once said to me that a fundraiser not collecting stories is like a sports writer not going to watch sports. So it’s important we make time to sit down with staff and beneficiaries (if possible) to ask them questions and build our story bank.
Thank you letters and calls — By now we should all be subscribed to the “Ask, Thank, Report” mentality, but how many times do we dismiss a thank you letter as a simple receipt? Actually, a thank you is one of our most important (and my favorite) fundraising tools. The better the thank you, the more likely you are to get further support. It shouldn’t just be read and then thrown away… it should be so amazing that the reader tells their friends and family.
Asking Questions — Asking your supporters questions is a great way to find out more about your followers and to help them feel engaged. And actually, it’s a great bit of content when you can’t think of or don’t have time to write something new. Haven’t mailed your mailing list for a while? Try emailing them, “Hey! Just wondering if I can ask why you signed up in the first place?”
Prospect Research and Cultivation — The more we know about our potential corporates and major donors, the better our asks. Let’s move away from writing out our standard proposal and printing hundreds of copies. Instead, let’s take the time to learn as much as possible and build that relationship to the point that our proposal is pretty much just a personalized confirmation.
Teaching Volunteers to Fundraise — Your volunteers raise more when you teach them how to fundraise. They don’t sit at home thinking about fundraising, they don’t know what to suggest to their employer, they don’t know what to email to their family, and they don’t know what wording to use on their Facebook feed. A bit of encouragement and a bit of guidance goes a long way and is proven to help them raise more. Certainly worth the time it takes to make a quick phone call.
Networking — Yes it sucks, and you’ll probably feel really anxious at first. But networking doesn’t have to be a nightmare. It’s actually a great opportunity to meet people who share your values. People whose goals you can help achieve. And people who can help you. It’s no secret… the more people you know and the more people that want to help you, the easier fundraising (and life) is. So let’s get out there and start listening.
Learning From Other Fundraisers — There’s only so much you can learn from fundraising courses and books. In fact, with some fundraising qualifications you don’t actually learn anything. No… most of our learnings come from other fundraisers. Why make the same mistake your peer made two years ago? Fundraisers are notoriously generous with their time and support, and for the price of a cup of hot chocolate you can pick the brains of some of the world’s best.
Self-Care — Fundraising is a tough job. One of the toughest. It’s mentally exhausting and emotionally draining. And it’s limitless… you can always be doing more. And your boss, your Board and your donors will take as much as you give them. The only person that can clock you off is you. So schedule time for self care, switch off your phone and do something that makes you forget about fundraising.

***

The power of ignorance in fundraising

Jeff Brooks | July 8, 2025June 30, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Jeff Brooks. Enjoy, and you can read more about Jeff below.

***

Scene: Board meeting for the very small organization where I’m a board member.

The all-volunteer fundraising committee is presenting a plan to launch a monthly giving campaign. After years of struggling to do this, we finally had an online giving platform that made it easy.

People are nodding. It looks good. After the presentation, it’s time for Board comments.

One board member speaks up: “I really hate the subscription model. I just tune it out whenever I see it. We should not do this.”

Another board members chimes in: “I know what you mean!”

The group teeters for a moment on deciding against monthly giving. Because one member thinks they don’t like the subscription model.

A significant opportunity could have been gone. At least until enough board turnover will allow a reconsideration.

It happens all the time: Board members or other nonprofit leaders make ignorant, harmful decisions based on gut feelings or “intuition.” Often, there’s nobody at the table with knowledge to warn them away. Or worse, leaders are not interested in knowledge and unwilling to listen to it.

As long as leaders choose to remain ignorant, fundraising will suffer.

Part of your job as an awake, aware fundraiser is to fight the good fight for knowledge over ignorance. I’ve seen it work many times – leaders’ eyes opening. Fundraising programs blossoming as a result. It happens. And if you can make it happen, it will be a source of joy and pride you’ll treasure.

In those cases where it cannot happen – where leaders simply won’t listen and actively choose ignorance… you have a choice: Keeping fighting, or go someplace with proper leadership.

I don’t advise that lightly. Creating change is better. If it’s possible. You are gifted with time, talent, and knowledge. Don’t let someone waste it because they can’t listen.

***

Steven says, “Jeff Brooks is the brilliant author of Future Fundraising Now (which you should subscribe to). I’ve been lucky enough to know Jeff since we both had hair that was longer and browner. He’s the best, clearest voice on direct response fundraising that I know of.”

Two Questions Never to Ask About Fundraising

Jeff Brooks | July 1, 2025June 12, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Jeff Brooks. Enjoy, and you can read more about Jeff below.

* * *

In fundraising, it’s smart to get more than one pair of eyes on anything you plan to send out.

But not everything you ask people will give you useful or accurate information.

Here are two questions fundraisers often ask others that often lead to fundraising failure:

Do you like this? Fundraising isn’t meant to be liked. It’s meant to connect and persuade. Those are not at all the same thing. In fact, it’s common for the most effective fundraising to be disliked. And when nonprofit staff “like” the message, it is very likely to do poorly with donors. They are the wrong audience entirely. Good fundraising will often rub them the wrong way.
Would you give to this? This might seem a more on-target question. But it’s not. Because rationally thinking through whether or not you’d respond is radically unlike encountering a message, paying attention to it, and following through with a donation. Those two situations are so different, there’s no correlation between the two. If there’s a correlation, it’s the strong negative correlation between insiders saying they’d give and donors actually giving.

If you’re hoping to improve your fundraising, don’t ask anyone either of these questions.

* * *

Steven says, “Jeff Brooks is the brilliant author of Future Fundraising Now (which you should subscribe to). I’ve been lucky enough to know Jeff since we both had hair that was longer and browner. He’s the best, clearest voice on direct response fundraising that I know of.”

Should You Write at a Sixth Grade Level?

Tom Ahern | June 24, 2025June 12, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Tom Ahern. Enjoy, and you can read more about Tom below.

* * *

Do low grade scores read as dumbing down?

If you write an appeal at the 6th-grade level, you’re not targeting kids. You’re helping busy adults “get” your ask as fast as possible.

[The subhead above was written at the 6th-grade level, as scored by Flesch-Kincaid. It has a reading ease score of 76 out of 100, far ABOVE the desired minimum of 55. Did you recoil? Did you instantly think: “Dammit, Tom. Stop talking down to me!”]

——

There it was… in my email in-box: the Bat signal … from a friend and colleague…

Hi Tom,

I have a work problem and need your help, please!

When I got to [insert charity name here; it’s in NYC], they were passing the foundation’s quarterly impact reports verbatim on to major donors.

My boss saw that I have the comms knack and let me take over editing these to make them “individual-donor friendly” – mainly choosing one impact story and highlighting a person receiving benefit from our programs, with photo, etc…

Now we have a new VP of Development. The guy who writes these foundation reports directly reports to her… and she is now letting him stick his nose into what we are doing. He has no training in fundraising.

While I was at a doctor appointment a few weeks ago, my junior colleague agreed to share the draft he and I had been working on with this guy, who proceeded to torture him for 45 minutes and tell him how stupid he was for using low Flesch-Kincaid grade scores as our benchmark. To summarize the marcomm rant: “Our donors are not stupid” etc.

You’ve heard it all before.

So I have a very small window in which to educate this ignoramus. I have a big folder of stuff I’ve accumulated over the years plus books.

Do you have any sort of executive summary of Tom’s laws that I can share? If not, I can provide the kit and kaboodle to my colleague, and he can distill it down.

Best,
[name deleted]

PS: I can’t believe this is happening.

——

My reply to [name deleted]…

Preach, sister. (And so sorry!)

Clearly, your marcomm guy doesn’t know what he doesn’t yet know. And weren’t we all in those shoes once upon a time?

It’s almost an unbelievable story, after all.

Who would guess that the Flesch-Kincaid readability scales are one of the best-kept trade secrets of the world’s most successful direct-mail copywriters?

Or who would guess that these same Flesch-Kincaid ease-of-reading scales dictate how the U.S. Navy writes its maintenance manuals? Keeping that sophisticated machinery humming are bright, recent high-school graduates. Hey, sailor: Got a problem? Here’s how to fix it quickly. Even though you’re not a nuclear scientist.

So, my friend, here’s an excerpt from a book I compiled from experts around the world: If Only You’d Known….

If you’re looking for the equivalent to “Tom’s laws,” this is as close as I have.

Chapter 15

What’s the preferred “grade level” of reading for a direct mail appeal?

[ ] 6th grade
[ ] 9th grade
[ ] 12th grade

Grade level and speed reading

[Answer to the quiz above] You’re not sure, right? Well, what if I told you that this particular direct mail appeal hoped to raise donations from alumni of a prestigious university?

In that case, you might assume “12th grade.” The thinking: write at the same grade level as a person’s educational attainment.

Otherwise you commit the insult of “writing down.”

Not exactly

“Grade level,” as measured by the standard Flesch-Kincaid readability scoring system,[1] has nothing to do with your intelligence or how far you went in school.

The system scores just one thing:
How quickly my brain can move through your prose.
Below, on the left, are the readability scores for a successful direct mail letter.

On the right are the readability scores for a university-written case for support. The one on the left will be a brisk read for everyone. The one on the right will be a slog for everyone, including the Ph.Ds.

You decide.

Your writing can bring me clarity and quick understanding. Or your writing can bring me labor. Which do you think is more “reader convenient”… or appreciated?

[1] Built into Microsoft Word and available for free on the internet

* * *

Steven says, “Tom Ahern was described by the New York Times as “…one of the country’s most sought-after creators of fundraising messages.” Tom has what I’d call the industry-leading newsletter about fundraising. Being mentioned in it was a career highlight for me. You can (and should!) subscribe for free here.”

Three Stories that Move Donors to Give

Chris Davenport | May 27, 2025May 12, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Chris Davenport. Enjoy, and you can read more about Chris below.

* * *

A simple (and kind of genius) framework to help your donor feel amazing — and keep giving

Donor communications can feel like a grind.

Whether you’re writing an appeal, a thank-you, or a report — you’re constantly trying to find the right words to keep people engaged, inspired, and giving.

And if you’ve ever thought:
“How many ways can I tell the same story?”
“What do I even say in this update?”
“Does any of this actually matter to the donor?”

You’re not alone. And you’re not doing it wrong.

The truth is:
You don’t need endless stories.
You don’t need a brand-new emotional angle every time.
You just need a simple rhythm your donor can feel—and respond to.

You don’t need a million stories.
You just need three.
And they follow a simple, powerful path.

And yes — it works whether you serve people, protect ecosystems, fund the arts, or fight for policy change.

Maybe your organization protects forests. Or fights for clean air. Or keeps art alive in schools.

You might not think of your cause as having a “beneficiary,” but you absolutely have something (or someone) at stake.

The key is to treat that thing — whether it’s a river, a painting, a policy, or a species — as a character in your story.

What does it need?
What threatens it?
What changes if the donor steps in?

If a wetland is about to be bulldozed…
If a coral reef is hanging by a thread…
If a mural is being erased from a neighborhood…

You have a story.
You just need to frame it like one. And once you do, these 3 stories become your new go-to.

And once you do, these 3 stories become your new go-to.

1. The Story That Asks

What your donor’s gift WILL do

This is where the donor steps into the story — not as a bystander, but as the person who can change everything.

You share a real, unresolved situation. The stakes are high. The outcome is not yet written.

And the donor? They’re the missing piece.

Example (Human story):
“Right now, Mia is 7 years old and skipping school — not because she doesn’t want to learn, but because hunger makes it impossible to focus.
With your $25 gift, you’ll place a hot meal in front of her tonight.”

Example (Environmental):
“Right now, ancient trees that house hundreds of species are days away from being cut down.
Your gift will help protect this forest from permanent destruction.”

This is the story where their gift WILL do something powerful.
It’s full of urgency, emotion, and possibility.

2. The Story That Thanks

What your donor’s gift IS doing

Now zoom in on the moment of impact.

This isn’t a receipt or a vague “thank you for supporting our mission.”
This is a snapshot. A sigh of relief. A small-but-holy moment the donor made possible.

Example (Human):
“Mia sat down in the lunchroom with a hot meal on her tray — just like you provided. She picked up her fork, looked up at her teacher, and whispered, ‘Tell them thank you for me.’”

Example (Environmental):
“Right now, your gift is fueling a team of rangers patrolling the forest line — keeping the chainsaws out and the wildlife safe. Because of you, protection is happening today.”

This is where your donor feels the impact of their gift IS in motion — right now.

3. The Story That Reports

What your donor’s gift DID

Now you complete the loop.

This is the victory lap — but it’s not just celebration. It’s an invitation. You show what their gift accomplished and what still needs to be done.

Example (Human):
“Because of you, Mia is back in school and smiling again. She hasn’t missed a day in weeks. But this morning, a new child walked in late… head down, stomach growling.
Will you give again so they don’t have to sit through class hungry?”

Example (Environmental):
“Your gift saved this forest. You kept the chainsaws out — and the birds, the trees, the life here?
They’re still thriving because of you.
But the destruction didn’t stop. Just down the road, another ancient grove is marked for clearing.
Will you step in again?”

This story reminds them: You gave. It helped. Want to do it again?

Why This Works (and why it feels so good)

These three stories follow a rhythm that donors love — whether they realize it or not:

The Ask Story shows what their gift WILL do
The Thank You Story shows what their gift IS doing
The Report Story shows what their gift DID

That framework — WILL, IS, DID — comes from Steven Screen at the Better Fundraising Company. And once you start using it, you’ll never go back.

Because when your donor sees their gift in motion, it builds trust.
When they feel what they made possible, it builds joy.
And when they’re invited to keep going, it builds momentum.

This isn’t just better storytelling.
It’s better fundraising.
And it feels better to send, too.

Bonus Tip: Want more stuff like this?

You’ll love the QuickApply Library. [https://nonprofitstorytellingconference.com/quickapply-library/]

It’s full of fast, practical mini-guides to help you raise more money with better stories. These aren’t the same old tips — most of what’s in there is new, or at least totally re-framed to be easier and more effective.

No fluff. Just storytelling tools that work.

* * *

Steven says: “Chris Davenport is the founder of the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference – the most practical and impactful fundraising conference there is. Chris has trained thousands of Fundraisers to use story-driven communication to raise more money and build deeper relationships with donors. Check out his ‘QuickApply’ library if you’d like to know more, and I hope to see you at this year’s conference!”

Fundraising Strategy Session

Lisa Sargent | May 22, 2025May 29, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Lisa Sargent. Enjoy, and you can read more about Lisa below.

* * *

As a fundraising copywriter I get asked a lot about strategy.

“How often should we communicate with supporters?”
“Is mail really better – or email?”
“What if our nonprofit can’t do the thing you suggest?”

For all the advice around strategy, you still have foundational questions. And you’re hoping for actionable, achievable answers. Fear not! Today we’ll get real-world answers to my most asked questions – sized for every organization – to help you grow your donor fundraising and retention communications.

Let’s dig in.

Question 1: What should an effective donor communications calendar look like for my nonprofit?

Answer:

First, let me say: I get what you’re facing. Everywhere you look, it feels like someone is telling you that you’re mailing too much or not enough, or the wrong stuff. But no one is sharing what a working (and workable), effective, sustainable, real-life fundraising calendar looks like. It’s time we change that.

I call this basic strategy the “dead simple donor comms calendar.”

Yes, there are variations. (After the basic plan, below, you’ll find two alternatives.) Yes, you may need to adapt these plans depending on the maturity of your donor communications program, the timing of milestone dates/events in your nonprofit, and the capacity/skillset of your fundraising team.

But this entry strategy is a great goal to work towards and, for the record, one of the plans my clients often use.

Basic 3X3 Donor Comms Calendar: [3 newsletters/3 appeals + reminder]
Approx. size of organization working this plan: $3 million+; 2-3 person team (**see Note2)

Jan/Feb: Donor newsletter
Apr/May: Appeal
June: Donor newsletter
Sept: Appeal
Oct: Donor newsletter
Nov: Holiday Appeal
Dec: Holiday Reminder
Extra Mailings (*see Note1)

My design partner Sandie (aka Designer Sandie) and I have used variations of this to help clients achieve successes such as:

an organization that grew its active donors from 2,000 to over 20,000 (increasing to a nearly 70% retention rate),
a nonprofit that grew its direct marketing income six-fold,
another that routinely saw 10+ percent response rates to newsletters,
another that cross-purposes its comms to attract new supporters, encourage legacy gifts, and promote new services.

*Note1: You will have other pieces happening at the same time. You may be modifying your calendar to incorporate other, special appeals. Bespoke TYs – custom-crafted to each appeal and newsletter – are built into these plans. For today, you’ll see these “extra” pieces labeled as Satellite Mailings at the end of each calendar.

**Note2: When I talk about the team, I mean on the client side. In my case, the other part of the team is me and Designer Sandie, plus the printer of choice [or print management company, etc.] our clients work with.

Here’s a second donor comms plan, one of the variations I mentioned a moment ago, a slightly expanded calendar…

4X4 Donor Communications Calendar: [4 newsletters/4 appeals + reminder]
Approx size of organization working this plan: Approx $8mil organization; 3+ person fundraising team (+ temp helpers for holiday)

Early Feb: Thank-You Newsletter
March: Special Services Appeal
April: Spring Newsletter
June: Summer Appeal
July: Newsletter [includes special gratitude premium]
September: Autumn Appeal
October: Autumn Newsletter
November: Holiday Appeal
December: Holiday Reminder
Extra Mailings (*see Note1 at basic plan above)

And here’s another for a larger organization, that incorporates multiple special mailings and replaces one of the newsletters with a stewardship mailing:

Expanded Donor Communications Calendar: [3 newsletters/Specialized packs and multiple appeals]
Approx size of organization working this plan: Approx $20mil+ organization; 6+ person fundraising team

Jan: Winter Newsletter
Feb: Tax Mailing
Mar: Special Appeal
Apr/May: Spring Newsletter
June: Summer Appeal
July: Supporter Survey Pack and Survey Follow-Ups
August: Summer Newsletter
September: Autumn Appeal
October: Special Stewardship Mailing
October: Tax Reminders
November: Holiday Appeal
December: Holiday Reminder

Extra Mailings (*see Note1 at basic plan above)

Hopefully this glimpse into real-life communications plans shines a light for you on how to chart your own donor communications strategy – and feel confident doing so!

Question 2: Which is better – email or mail? (The answer everyone wants to know!)

Fast answer: tl;dr – The answer is both, whenever you can.

Full answer [with side story and statistics]:

Not long ago in response to my LinkedIn post about print and older eyes, a nonprofit consultant who is over age 50 – they said so, fyi – wanted me to know “older givers” are tech savvy too. So why was I STILL talking about print? They wanted me to know they immediately throw away everything that comes from nonprofits in the mail!

The answer I gave became a feature article called How to Write for Older Donors, in my newsletter. And, so you know, I also use tech and am over age 50… and I advocate for print (direct mail) because results prove me right.

For today I want to share an excerpt from Chapter 4 of my book Thankology,which looks at why the answer to the email vs. mail question is always “Do both, whenever you can.” (fyi: all nonprofits described in the previous section on donor comms calendars do digital and direct mail, even the smaller nonprofits).

>> Statistic 1: The effect of adding a communications channel***

Read as: What can happen when you add mail to an email-only program; or add email to a mail-only program:

A study of 2,000 nonprofits that ran from 2016 to 2019 and published in the Network for Good whitepaper, Our Digital Dilemma, found “a strong relationship between donor retention and consistent multi-channel engagement,” including:

“Nonprofits that increased the number of channels used to engage donors [from one channel to 2+] retained 11.89% donors year-over-year.”

>> Statistic 2: The effect of removing a communications channel***

Read as: What can happen when, for example, a decision is made that “no one wants print” and nonprofit moves from a mail/email combo program to only email:

“Conversely, nonprofits who were using a multi-channel framework but reverted to single-channel saw their median year-over-year retention drop by 31.32%. (A join Virtuous/NextAfter study of 119 nonprofits showed mult-channel donors give 3X more, too.)”

***Note for Statistics 1 and 2:
Network for Good is now Bonterra. I’ve searched for a new link to the Digital Dilemma whitepaper and can’t locate one. If I find it, I’ll update everyone in a future Loyalty Letter. You can, however, get the 2021 Virtuous/Next After study on free sign-up, here: https://www.multichannelnonprofit.com. The study also found that for “donors who give both offline and online…their first-year donor retention rate is two times higher.”

To sum up?

Based on the research, and results we’ve seen over the years, the best answer is that if you want to keep your donors connected and giving, you’ll do both: digital and mail.

Question 3: For email vs. mail, what about thank-you letters? Do I send both? (What I told L.)

Below is the full text of the question that L. – a reader from a small nonprofit in the UK – wrote me about what to do if she can’t afford to mail everyone thank-yous, and needs to use email-only for some:

L. wrote:

As a small charity, with no real advice to hand, I am really focussing, at the moment, on creating and writing top notch Thank You letters to our donors. The one thing that perplexes me most is whether to email or write a letter and at what level of giving a letter is more appropriate or whether it is entirely acceptable to just send emails (bearing in mind the cost of postage in the UK is absurd).

Here’s my answer to L.:

If donors come to you via online donations, remember you need some kind of disclaimer that mentions you’ll communicate with them by post. (You want the option to do this.)

Gift acknowledgment may fall into the ‘administrative communications’ gray zone for charity regulations, but I’d check those rules first if you haven’t. It’s super easy to add a notice to your donation page, by including a variation of this wording below your opt-in boxes online (again run past your legal team or check charity regs first):

We’ll also keep you updated by post. You can update your communication preferences any time at [link to full email of donor care for your org here]. And for more information you can see our privacy statement here.

Then, for each appeal and newsletter, you can craft one version of a thank-you (TY) for post (mail), and one for email. All of my nonprofit clients send post and email TYs to every supporter who gives (and has given permission to contact). The reason for this is gratitude and acknowledgment firstly, and secondly because we know when donors give by more than one channel (online/post e.g.) they give longer and stronger (see data in Question 2).

With that said, knowing your charity is still small and growing, you could tier who receives both post and email TYs, and who receives email-only.

You’ll know your donors best. But for example, you might consider:

all new donors get both,
all monthly givers get both when they sign up
repeat givers (so, second gift especially which is huge in importance, and beyond if you can)
donors who give over a certain threshold/and loyal givers
tax-efficient givers
in memoriam/tribute givers, in-mems especially who we know have a connection to legacy.

Have a think on thanking these donors with an eye towards stewardship and retention, then as your organization grows, you can consider bringing more people into the double-thank-you strategy.

I went on to refer L. to my thank-you clinic on SOFII, free, no sign-up needed, gateway article here: https://sofii.org/article/how-to-write-a-better-thank-you-letter-and-why-it-matters

Question 4: My head is spinning. Can you leave me with one suggestion to act on for today?

Answer: Yes! Spool up on – and start drip feeding across your communications – the opportunity to give through legacy donations.

By this I mean: Help show donors how they can leave a gift to your organization in their will.

You’ll find tips on overcoming common bequest giving barriers – plus super easy ways you can start to incorporate legacy giving in your messaging, right here in my blog post, Legacy Logjams and How to Free Them.

The simplest of all? Get a legacy checkbox on your reply form (donation slip, reply device, etc.) It has not, for us, suppressed response to appeals, just so you know.

You can keep it simple:
[ ] Please send me details on how I can remember the work of [your charity’s name here] in my Will.

OR add emotion:
[ ] I’d like to leave a legacy of love – please post free details to me on how I can leave a gift in my Will to [remember homeless pets, advance breast cancer research, etc].

One of our clients saw their first legacy donation about 18 months after we added these. We can’t prove this made the difference, but they had never mentioned legacy giving to their donors before that.

* * *

© Lisa Sargent and Lisa Sargent Communications, used with permission. If you adapt or repurpose this content in any format, please be a guardian of good karma and get your proper permissions. And, of course, remember that this information is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered as legal advice on any subject matter.

Steven says: “Lisa Sargent is a fundraising expert and the author of Thankology, the best book on thanking donors that I’ve ever read. You can (and should!) subscribe to her newsletter here.”

Lisa says: “If this mini-strategy session helped you, you can:

Subscribe to my Loyalty Letter newsletter for fundraisers
Connect/follow/say hello on LinkedIn
Check out Thankology (on Amazon or Bookshop)
Find free fundraising resources at lisasargent.com

“Thank you for reading today, and big thanks to Steven, Jim, and The Better Fundraising Co. for sharing a place on their blog.“

Test First Class Postage This Fall

Bill Jacobs | May 13, 2025April 29, 2025Repeat

The following is a hand-picked guest post from Bill Jacobs. Enjoy, and you can read more about Bill below.

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One of the disturbing USPS trends – other than raising the cost of postage every year – is the bulk delivery of appeal letters with nonprofit postage.

Over the past year, when I’ve checked my mailbox for the appeal letters I’m seeded on, I’ve noticed that I receive all my nonprofit appeal letters on the same day. ALL OF THEM.

Now, I know that the official drop dates of these appeals are not the same. They could be weeks apart. Yet, time and time again, all the appeals land in my mailbox the same day.

And that is a disaster.

Not only are your appeals competing with other organizations, but you are also competing with your own appeals that dropped weeks before.

One of the keys to direct mail appeal response is getting the envelope opened. And it creates immense competition when a dozen appeals arrive on the same day in a donors’ mailbox.

It’s no wonder response rates to direct mail appeals are plummeting.

So it’s imperative this fall that you test using more expensive first-class postage to give your appeal a chance to be opened.

Otherwise, anything you mail with nonprofit postage can expect very low response rates.

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Steven says: “Bill Jacobs is a fundraising analyst and founder of AnalyticalOnes. I’ve learned more from Bill about analyzing fundraising data and knowing what to do next than from anyone else in my entire career. You should subscribe to Bill’s blog, Data Stories!”

This post was originally published on May 6, 2024.