Pro-Tips for Thanking Donors After Call Time

Having a process for thanking donors is as important as any other step in call time, especially for protecting long-term fundraising and motivating supporters to keep following your campaign. This 10-minute microlearning shows candidates, fundraising staff, and volunteers how to thank call time donors efficiently and personally, from the candidate’s thank-you on the phone to a personalized letter through the mail.

You’ll learn why NDTC recommends a mailed thank-you letter for every donation, how to batch your gratitude into a few hours each week, and how to use mail merge in Google Sheets to send personalized donor thank-you letters at scale. The course walks through an 8-step process, from pulling a weekly list of donations and checking for accuracy to having the candidate hand-sign letters for high-dollar donors. It also covers how to set a threshold for personal thank-you calls from the candidate, and it pairs with NDTC’s resources Thank-You Letter Example and Donation Thank-You Letter Rubric so you can build your own thank-you letter template right away.

In 10 minutes, you’ll be able to:

• Explain why thanking donors is essential to keeping them engaged with your campaign

• Thank call time donors on the phone, by mail, and during the next round of calls

• Set up a weekly process for sending thank-you letters with mail merge

• Review donor data so every letter has the right names, titles, and households

• Decide which donors should get a personal thank-you call from the candidate