Your nonprofit’s donors are the life force that powers your everyday impact, enabling you to achieve the positive change that lies at the heart of your goals and initiatives. Therefore, it’s crucial that you regularly communicate the value of their contributions. Thanking your supporters is the key to cultivating long-lasting, meaningful relationships with them.
While there are a variety of ways to get in touch with donors, 33% of donors consider email to be the marketing channel that inspires them to give the most. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the basics of an effective donor thank-you email and provide three templates to inspire your writing:
- 6 Elements of a Donor Thank-You Email
- Donor Thank-You Email Best Practices
- Donor Thank-You Email Templates
- More Opportunities for Sending Donor Thank-You’s
- Leveraging eCards for Donor Communication
A donor thank-you email is not only cost-effective, but it can be easily personalized to make the most of your donor communications. By taking the time to convey gratitude, you’ll be able to retain and grow support for your mission over time, driving further impact and setting you up for future fundraising success. 
6 Elements of a Donor Thank-You Email
Compared to a direct mail thank-you letter, donor thank-you emails are a much more efficient and versatile way of recognizing your donors and communicating your nonprofit’s appreciation. Your nonprofit has the ability to get creative with engaging visuals and animated gifs, while your supporters have the added convenience of accessing the message whenever and wherever they desire.
Let’s take a look at the essential elements of a donor-thank you email: 
1. Subject line
An attention-grabbing subject line can make your thank-you email stand out in a donor’s inbox. To make it easy for supporters to understand the purpose of your message at a glance, aim for specificity and concision—ideally around 40 characters and no more than 60.
Encourage your donors to click through by personalizing the subject line with their names. If calling someone’s name out loud can turn their head, then including it in a subject line can go a long way toward catching their attention in the midst of all their other emails.
2. Gift amount
As part of your thank-you, be sure to include the exact amount the donor contributed to your nonprofit. This not only confirms the gift and allows your supporter to verify the details, but shows that your organization values their specific contribution toward your mission. Plus, donors will appreciate having this confirmation in their online records.
3. Donation impact
Donors take action to support your nonprofit because they’re drawn to playing a role in your organization’s impact. Cultivate that investment and bring them closer to your cause by frequently communicating the impact of their contributions. In your donor thank-you email, include an impact story that helps donors connect their gifts to tangible, positive change.
A compelling impact story, like any powerful story, follows a traditional narrative. Choose a single community member who has benefited from your nonprofit’s work and convey how donors’ support played a role in bettering their situation. Your thank-you email recipients will then be able to associate their contributions with a specific individual, developing empathy and deepening their devotion to your cause.
4. Engaging visuals
While choosing the right words is pivotal to the effectiveness of your donor thank-you email, pictures and graphics often have the power of communicating what words cannot. Eye-catching visuals strengthen your message and have the added bonus of taking no more than a few seconds to process and understand.
Consider featuring the constituent whose impact story you’re telling in the email, or behind-the-scenes glimpses of a project that the donor has helped fund. This allows your supporters to visualize the impact of their gifts.
5. Call to action
Once you’ve sincerely thanked the donor for their support and inspired them with updates on your nonprofit’s impact, encourage them to deepen their involvement by including a specific call to action in your donor thank-you email.
Immediately asking for another gift may diminish the sincerity of your thank-you, so opt for mentioning other engagement opportunities instead. For instance, depending on your nonprofit’s goals, you can invite them to sign up for your weekly email newsletter, follow your social media accounts, or attend an upcoming fundraising event.
6. Signature
To ensure that your supporters feel properly acknowledged and appreciated for their contributions, sign off your donor thank-you email from a prominent and recognizable representative of your nonprofit. Rather than just including your organization’s name in the signature, designating a specific individual makes the message much more personal and impactful to the recipient. 
Donor Thank-You Email Best Practices
While there are quite a few elements to keep in mind for your donor thank-you email, optimizing them doesn’t have to be intensive. As you begin to craft your thank-you message, follow these best practices to maximize your results:
Segment your donors.
Segmenting your donors is crucial to any successful donor communication strategy. After all, there are a variety of situations that call for different types of donor thank-you emails. For instance, your nonprofit will typically want to follow up and show gratitude for:
- One-time donors
- New recurring donors
- Existing recurring donors
- Event attendees
By separating your supporter base according to relevant characteristics, such as giving history and communication preferences, you’ll ensure that each thank-you message resonates with its recipient. Donors will feel like you’re paying attention to their individual contributions and appreciate the attention you’re devoting to their relationship with your nonprofit.
Make it personal.
Personalize each of your donor thank-you emails to include the specific donor’s name and reference their past activities with your organization. This is where the value of segmentation comes in. For instance, if you’re thanking a number of supporters for making regular gifts throughout the year, suggest that they opt into your recurring gifts program to continue their support with added convenience and reduced effort.
By leaning into each donor’s unique contributions and preferences, you’ll demonstrate that you value them individually for their involvement in your cause.
Send it promptly.
Be prompt with following up after each donor’s gift to your nonprofit. It’s important to ensure supporters know their contributions are not overlooked, but recognized and valued.
Set up automated thank-you emails to streamline this process and confirm each donation within 48 hours. If you’d like the opportunity to send more personalized and thoughtful thank-you’s, you can always follow up your automated messages with another more thorough email.
Use consistent branding and language.
As with all of your donor communications, be sure to consistently feature your nonprofit’s logo and colors in your thank-you email so your donors can be certain that it’s coming directly from your organization. This will also help make it easier for people to recognize messages and content from your nonprofit.
Emphasize donors’ impact.
While your organization performs important work to further your mission, center the language of your donor thank-you email to focus on your donors’ impact. By highlighting how their contributions generate positive change in the community, you’ll make them feel empowered to continue supporting your nonprofit and effect even greater change.
In order to achieve maximum results with your donor thank-you emails, it’s critical to stand out and catch recipients’ attention. A creative, compelling way to appreciate your donors is by sending a thank-you eCard to their email. One notable drawback of emails is that they feel less personal than a physical handwritten card. eCards can address this issue by adding a unique, thoughtful touch to your donor thank-you’s. 
Donor Thank-You Email Templates
To help your nonprofit lay the groundwork for a successful donor thank-you email, take a look at these three donor templates for one-time donations, new recurring donors, and event attendees. Use these as inspiration to tailor your own messaging to fit your goals and priorities.
One-time donations
Subject Line: [Donor’s name], your $[Donation amount] Gift Made a Difference
Dear [Donor’s name],
Thank you for your recent gift of $[donation amount] to [Nonprofit’s name]. Because of your generosity and support, we’re able to pursue our mission of [nonprofit’s mission].
[Include an image or video illustrating the impact of the donor’s gift.]
Your donation empowers us to continue [nonprofit’s impact, such as “providing crucial support to those affected by disasters”]. Your gift will go toward [specific impact, such as “supplying emergency blankets and meals to displaced families”].
We value every gift as a generous investment in our mission. Thank you for your commitment to bettering our community and helping [constituents your nonprofit serves]. To learn more about how you can continue supporting our impact, [include a call to action such as “sign up for our weekly newsletter updates”].
It’s your generosity that allows us to perform our crucial work. Thank you again.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Role]
[Nonprofit’s Name]
New recurring donors
Subject Line: [Donor’s name], thank you for your [frequency] support!
Dear [Donor’s name],
Thank you for joining our [frequency] donor community! Your [frequency] gift of $[gift amount] to [Nonprofit’s name] will go a long way toward helping us achieve our mission of [nonprofit’s mission].
Your generous recurring donations empower us to provide [specific service or support] to [constituents your nonprofit serves] such as [specific constituent]. Thanks to your [frequency] gifts, we’ll be able to [specific impact, such as “supply the constituent with healthy meals for the entire month”].
[Include an image or video featuring the specific constituent.]
We’re so grateful to have your ongoing support. Without donors like you, we wouldn’t be able to create the impact that we do. To learn more about how your contributions make a difference in our cause, we encourage you to [include a call to action such as “attend our upcoming fundraiser”].
To increase or modify your recurring donations, access your account by clicking on the button below.
[Include a button/link to the donor login page.]
Thank you again for your generosity.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Role]
[Nonprofit’s Name]
Event attendees
Subject Line: [Donor’s name], thank you for making [Event name] a success!
Dear [Donor’s name],
We wanted to reach out and express a heartfelt thank-you for supporting [Nonprofit’s name] and attending [Event name]. Thanks to the generosity of supporters like you, we were able to raise $[amount raised] to support our mission of [nonprofit’s mission].
[Include images and/or videos of the event.]
This amount will help us power [a new project or initiative] that will enable us to provide [specific service or support] to [constituents your nonprofit serves]. If you would like to learn more about how you can support our mission, [include a call to action such as “follow us on social media”].
We couldn’t make our impact without your help. Thank you again for your attendance and support. We look forward to seeing you at future events!
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Role]
[Nonprofit’s Name]
More Opportunities for Sending Donor Thank-You’s
While you’ll primarily send thank-you emails to donors following a gift to your nonprofit, there are numerous other opportunities to get in touch and communicate your appreciation. The more valued your supporters feel, the more invested they’ll be in driving your impact. Take the time to thank your donors for occasions including: 
- Donor birthdays. Ensure that your donors feel especially valued by reaching out on their birthday with a genuine thank-you for their support.
- At year-end. As you look back on the year’s successes, take the time to communicate these to your donors, who helped you achieve them.
- Inviting donors to an appreciation event. Take your donor appreciation efforts to the next level by thanking them in an invitation to an appreciation event.
- After a successful fundraising initiative. After you reach a major fundraising goal, update your donors and thank them for helping you get there.
- Holidays, such as Christmas. Holidays are times for celebration, so make the most of these opportunities to celebrate your donors.
Keep your donors engaged with your organization by consistently reaching out to express gratitude and provide updates on their impact. Plan ahead in advance so you’ll be prepared to send thank-you letters regularly and thoughtfully. 
Leveraging eCards for Donor Communication
Whether you’re looking to thank your donors or raise funds for your cause, the quality of your nonprofit-donor relationships depends largely on the quality of your communications. While a traditional email can effectively convey your message to a supporter, an eCard in their inbox is bound to catch their eye. For instance, nonprofit organization YFU takes advantage of eCards to spread gratitude with its “Thank you” cards: 
Beyond added visual appeal to your donor communications, using eCard software such as eCardWidget offers an abundance of advantages including the ability to:
- Create customizable email templates
- Log sender and recipient email addresses
- Share eCards through SMS and social media
- Send mobile-responsive eCards
- Include a donation option in eCards
- Schedule eCards for a later time
There’s plenty of room to get creative with eCards and engage your supporters in exciting, meaningful ways. Notably, Teremana’s eCards feature well-designed animated GIFs, which clearly indicate that time and care has gone into the design process. A little effort can pay off significantly by making your donors feel important to your organization.
Cultivate relationships that are built to last by sending impactful donor thank-you emails that value each individual supporter for their contributions. Your donors will recognize and appreciate the effort you devote into communicating with them, so channel your resources into a comprehensive donor appreciation strategy.
eCards can be highly valuable for not just thanking your donors, but raising funds as well. Make it easy for your supporters to connect with your nonprofit, give to your mission, and spread awareness of your cause with these tools. To learn more about the capabilities eCardWidget can offer your nonprofit, take a look at these additional resources:
- A Comprehensive Guide to Great Donor Thank-You Letters. Perfect your donor thank-you letter writing skills with this detailed guide.
- Charity eCards for Your Nonprofit: A Comprehensive Guide. Harness the vast potential of eCards by exploring these benefits and best practices for nonprofits.
- Digital Card Ideas To Engage Your Nonprofit’s Supporters. Use these compelling eCard examples to inspire your nonprofit’s efforts.
