You made it through #GivingTuesday! And after looking through your data, you see your new donor acquisition campaign that you spent hours on worked! You achieved your goal number of new donors. Now, you can sit back and relax because once donors have given once, they are here to stay...right?
Well, not exactly. What do you do with all these new donors that are excited about your organization? How do you get off to a great start by building relationships with your new supporters so they aren’t a one and done giver?
A welcome series is a great way to introduce your new supporters to your mission. It consists of 2-4 pre-written and automated emails that every person receives if they're new to your organization. You can think of this as an orientation for supporters.
So what does this look like? We’re glad you asked. Here’s one example of the types of emails you can include in your welcome series.Note - this is a general guide. You can shape these series however you’d like.
As soon as your new supporter gives, a triggered thank you email is sent. You want to make sure this first email is personable. It should make the reader comfortable. One good way to do this is to include a small call-to-action, like asking why they decided to give (or sign up for your email list).
Use this email to develop trust and establish your legitimacy by sharing a huge success story and leveraging social authority. Your goal here is to make sure people recognize how impactful your organization has been already.
With this email, your goal is to bring your new prospects into your current efforts. This is your vision and mission email. Whereas the previous email was about a clear success, think about this email more in terms of building momentum towards your next big impact.
That’s it! Your donors are now officially welcomed and ready to go into your regular email communications. Automating this series is extremely important. You can set this stream up once and know that anytime someone gives for the first time (or signs up for your email list) they are being treated well.
If you’re using precious development time to send individual emails to new supporters, it may be time to invest in an automated tool. An integrated donor management software like Kindful gives you the ability to create triggered email streams that send automatically anytime someone interacts with your organization for the first time. By automating your welcome series, you are free to spend more of your time on your mission and less time in your fundraising software.
Want more tips to improve your emails? Check out this free email series that teaches you practical tips you can start using to raise more money today!
