When a new donor gives to your organization, they’re taking the first step in showing you they stand behind you and your mission. So, what should your next move be after you receive their gift? How do stay in touch and continue to nurture a relationship with new donors? Start with a donor welcome email series.
What’s the Purpose of an Email Welcome Series?
Donor retention is less than 30% for most organizations, and giving for many nonprofits has been hitting new lows due to the impacts of COVID-19. That’s why, when donors make their first gift, it’s critical that you keep them involved with your organization. A welcome email serious can be the first step to solidifying your relationship.
This 3-4 email series thanks and welcomes new donors, helps them learn more about your organization, offers them other ways to get involved, affirms the value of your work, and gives them an opportunity to give again. It nurtures the relationship you’ve just begun and leads donors into deeper levels of commitment.
4 Elements of an Effective Welcome Series
Your welcome series should:
- Thank donors for their gift and acknowledge their partnership.
- Show impact by sharing how your organization is accomplishing its mission.
- Educate donors on why what you’re doing is important or share a helpful resource.
- Inspire donors to take further action or give another gift.
Remember: This email series is an opportunity to give your new donors a unique look inside your organization and what you’re passionate about. It might even inform their first impression of your brand and who you are. This is your time to shine and create a lasting connection.
Creating Experiences for Your Donors
Email series, among other things, are an integral part of how people experience your brand, outside of the other dimensions of story, product, identity, and culture. In order to craft an experience that accurately reflects your brand, consider the following questions:
Assess Your Audience: Who supports your organization?
Review Your Touchpoints: How do they feel when they interact with your brand?
Make Improvements: How can you create a more personal or deeper connection with them?
Creating intentional touchpoints to connect with your donors, add value, or tell them more about what you do can create a huge difference in how they view your organization. Donors want to be the hero. They want to know how they can get involved, what they can do to help, and how they can make a difference or be a part of a movement of change.
Brands of the future will intentionally consider how they’re inviting donors to participate in the bigger story of what they’re doing vs. simply telling them, “This is who we are, this is our brand, and this is our identity.”
Creating experiences for donors will be an integral part of what sets apart the brands that have high donor engagement and the ones that simply don’t connect well with their donors. One of those experiences can be as simple as crafting an email series that invites your donors to learn more about your mission and how they can be a part of it—from giving, to sharing, to getting involved.
Don’t let someone’s first gift be your last engagement with them. Build a donor welcome email series to invite your new donors into deeper levels of engagement with your brand.
Ready to start engaging more with your new donors? Snag our free donor welcome email series template below:
