How to Guide: Thank and Re-solicit Donors

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Table of Contents

Toplines

  • Personal outreach to donors can help build community, create leaders, and maximize fundraising. Check out this amazing case study from Bonnie Henderson in Sister District Eugene about a 1:1 meeting with a potential donor.
  • Suggest one team leader handle thank you and invitation messages
  • Make clear that your acknowledgment is coming from your team since donors might also receive a note from ActBlue or the recipient campaign
  • Continue to engage donors by re-soliciting donations in future cycles and asking them to become matching donors for fundraising events

Introduction

To maximize fundraising, we put substantial time and energy as organizers creating programming, promoting and recruiting for events, and making an effective ask, all in service of getting people to the point where they can click a link to send money to our candidates or to HQ. That donation often feels like an end goal. But what if we also see a donation as a beginning?

Your team might consider having a leader reach out to personally connect with those who donate below the $1,000 level. The outreach includes a thank you and invitation for the person to, for example, join an upcoming event or be a part of organizing the team!

These personal touches can be a great way to build community, make donors feel more integrated into the team, and increase fundraising. A donor might donate again and at a higher level. They might host their own Friendraiser event, join a phonebank, help run your postcard program, or take over social media for the team. Bare-minimum, your donor will feel appreciated, valued, and included. And that alone is worth it.

Based on what’s working for several Sister District teams, and including examples from leaders, the following describes how your team might add or enhance a donor relationship element of your fundraising program.

Steps for Donor Appreciation

  1. Identify one person on your team as the donor relationship manager. The good news is that communicating with donors is straightforward and it’s a perfect role for someone who prefers to volunteer in a way that is self-directed with a good mix of proactive and reactive tasks involving small amounts of time entirely on their own schedule.
  2. Develop a process. There are a number of ways to design a good thank you + invitation outreach system. Please see the examples below. Our guidance includes:
      1. Best to reach out fairly shortly after a donation is made. ActBlue notifications are handy if you want to send emails right away. You can request notifications here.
      2. A quick email is great but you might consider sending a text or even a handwritten note in response to larger donations. For example, the HQ Development Office sends printed thank you letters to individuals who cumulatively donated between $250 and $999 to HQ during the preceding calendar month.
      3. Strategize for the invitations you extend. Your first invitation might be as simple as inviting the person to the team’s next fundraiser.
      4. The leader managing donor relationships will need access to the team’s Fundraising Portal and Action Network volunteer database & email account. Please contact your organizing department staffer to get them set up!
  3. Send a thank you note with an invitation when someone donates! See examples below.
    Pro Tip: If the person expresses interest in doing more, you could take this approach: “I’d love to chat with you about how you might want to volunteer with us — do you have time for a call on Monday?” Here are a few ideas for how they might be able to help:

Donor Appreciation and Re-engagement Process Examples

Every program will be different and each leader will innovate and create a system and communications that fit a team’s unique culture and goals. Please take the following as general guidance and make it your own!

Karen Martin, Sister District Sonoma County East
Karen sets aside some time each Monday morning to communicate with donors. Karen’s steps are:

  1. Export week’s donor information to spreadsheet
  2. Send individual emails, using donor’s name, with a personal note if I had had any particular interaction with them
  3. Thank them for their contribution and note how much we have raised so far.
  4. Include some highlights from our talking points
  5. Include links to upcoming fundraising events
  6. Signed personally from me

Jennie Pilkington, Sister District DC/VA/MD

  1. Thank donors within a day after they made a donation
    1. Note their response and any interest they indicate for future reference
    2. Track those who have made multiple donations and thank them for their continued generosity with a tailored response
      NOTE: You can use Action Network as a tool for managing your team’s list and communicating with the people on it by creating notes in volunteer’s profiles or marking them with tags.
  2. Periodically pull a list of donors who had donated to a specific candidate
    1. Invite to future fundraising events featuring that candidate
    2. PRO TIP: Invite donors to phonebanks — in lieu of phonebanking, Jennie found they often elect to make another donation! (relatedly, see our case study on SD South Bay LA’s Sponsor a Phonebanker program)
  3. Many substantial donors were friends or family members of team leaders. Jennie would encourage her fellow team leaders to
    1. Invite friends and family
    2. Ask friends and family to invite folks from their own networks

Thank You & Invitation Email Templates

Dear Janet,

Thank you so very much from all of us at the Sister District North Carolina team for donating to our candidates Brian Farkas and Frances Jackson! Your generous donation will help these candidates build effective campaigns and has increased our chances of winning this critical election.

I hope you can join us for a virtual Meet & Greet with Brian Farkas 7-7:45pm PT Weds Sept 23. Please sign up here and please invite friends!

Thank you again,

Here is an example of a thank you with an ask from Karen Martin:

Hi Rick,

Thank you so much for your donation in support of our Sister District Sonoma County East team’s candidates! With your generous help, we have raised more than $17,000 of our $25,000 goal!

The local races Sister District is supporting this year are the last chance for Democrats to gain power in state legislatures before redistricting. Your support helps us ensure fair electoral maps for the next decade.

I hope you will be able to join us at one of our upcoming events

(Please share with friends and family)

Wednesday, August 26th, 4pm – Virtual Book Talk with Local author Sara Zeff Geber, Ph.D In conversation with Amy Pearl, one of the Sister District Sonoma East founders, Sara will discuss why she wrote Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers, as well as many of the key concepts and guidelines for being a successful Solo Ager. She’ll explore who qualifies as a “Solo Ager,” why Solo Agers need to do more robust planning than their counterparts with nearby family members, the importance of community, options for where to live in later life, and much more. Register here!

Sister District Sacramento leaders will send hand-written thank you notes to donors! Here’s how SD Sacramento fundraising leader Linda Paoli describes their work:

After a fundraising event, it can be elegant and more personal to send hand-written thank you notes.  Writing a thank you note also gives volunteers who want to help with fundraising (but don’t want to go to planning meetings or ask people for money) a way to contribute.

Our group had a designated Thank You Note team.  They provided their own thank you notes and stamps.  They were mailed out in the first week after the event.  We would have provided cards and stamps if someone needed them.

Here is a sample thank you note for online holiday auction item purchases:

Dear (PURCHASER’S NAME),

Thank you so much for purchasing an auction item (OR auction items) to the online Holiday Auction to benefit Christine Morse’s campaign for Michigan’s State House of Representative, District 61.  We hope you enjoyed the auction and the item(s) you purchased. Michigan State House of Representative candidate Christine Morse spoke during the auction and was amazing!

It is because of people like YOU that she will get elected and help Michigan’s Governor Whitmer with legislative support to enact laws that protect health during COVID-19 as well as other progressive legislation.

We look forward to seeing you at future SDP Fundraising events and meetings.

Gratefully,

YOUR NAME

SDP Sacramento Planning, Fundraising and Auction Team

Donor Re-solicitation

A great way to build fundraising momentum is by re-engaging donors who have given in the past. These are volunteers who are active and engaged in Sister District’s mission and may have the capacity to give again.

To find all previous donors, download data from Knack. You can sort by donation amount to target outreach to specific donation levels.

Here are some recent examples from Sister District teams using past donors to increase fundraising and build enthusiasm from new potential donors:

  • In spring 2021, Sister District NYC leaders kick-started fundraising for their Virginia candidates by reaching out to all 2020 donors who gave over $100 through past Sister District fundraisers. They drafted an email ​​to offer donors three different ways to maximize the impact of their giving — hosting a friendraiser, serving as a matching donor, or joining our recruiting friends for a giving circle. The effort raised $3,500 from previous donors.  Read more about their process and find the example email here.
  • SDP Sacramento sent an email out to all previous donors, inviting them to pool donations into a matching fund. Leaders Linda, Peggy, and Yvonne pitched that $50 pledges, when amplified by 10 other pledged donors, would create a $500 matching donation that could raise a total of $1,000 or more with small-dollar donations during upcoming events.
  • Meghan and Kelly from Sister District CA-3 successfully built an online fundraising campaign after securing two matching donors, in their “Match Monday” fundraising blitz.  They used Action Network emails, Hustle texting, and social media to advertise a $2,000 match for all donations made in that single day, raising a total of $4,278 with the match.  Read more about their Matching Donation Blitz here.
  • Finally, Anthony, a leader from Sister District Portland’s team, used his own personal network to find up to $3,000 in matching donation pledges for a candidate fundraiser. Then, leader Bonnie used the promise of the $3,000 match to solicit donations of $300 and $500 from other past donors and donor prospects.  In total, from promotion and during the event, their efforts raised $3,076, resulting in $6,076 with the match.

Even if your team does not have a large pool of past donors, use leaders’ networks! Check out this amazing case study from Bonnie Henderson in Sister District Eugene about using a leader’s connection to build a relationship with a new potential donor and solicit a high-dollar donation. Ask around in your own network for who might know a potential progressive donor and set up a coffee chat. The personal ask will make a world of difference.

Finding matching donors for events or single-day actions propels fundraisers to the next level by promising every dollar goes twice as farー for both the matching donor and the volunteers.

To learn more about building a successful matching event, contact your Organizing Department staffer to help get you started. 

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