Guest Post by Ann Fellman, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang
For nonprofit organizations, your annual appeal provides a critical chance to activate generosity. This letter is your opportunity to spark a connection by telling a compelling story that highlights the impact of your mission and making a personalized request to boost donations.
Because fundraising is built on empathy and relationships, successfully executing this appeal helps you raise the bar on positive mission outcomes and inspire lasting support. We know tight resources call for smart strategies, so ensuring you optimize even the smallest details is key to achieving next-level impact.
Before sending out your annual appeal, let’s review a few essential questions to ask yourself that will help guide your strategy. Think of this blog post as a mini fundraising assessment you can use to ensure you’ve dotted your I’s and crossed your T’s within your annual appeal.
1. Do you have a compelling story?
A fundamental aspect of your annual appeal is the story you tell to recipients. Your letter should create an emotional connection with the reader and fuel their passion for your cause.
Focus on one memorable narrative, such as the story of a community member who found a new job with the help of your career prep services or a senior dog you were able to place in a loving home. By showing supporters the tangible difference your work makes in the lives of community members, they’ll feel much more inclined to donate and continue giving in the future.
Depending on the format of your annual appeal, you should supplement your story with multimedia elements like:
- Videos of your volunteers or beneficiaries
- Photos from volunteer opportunities and events
- Audio snippets and quotes from those you’ve helped
- Interactive maps showing the extent of your reach in your community
These multimedia elements will bring your story to life, allowing potential donors to understand who their contributions will support.
2. Is your appeal easy to read?
Your donors are busy, and they want to quickly grasp the key points of your annual appeal. Ensure your appeal is easy to read by following this checklist:
- Write short paragraphs broken up with subheadings and bullet points.
- Aim for a sixth-to-eighth-grade reading level and avoid using jargon.
- Copyedit and fact-check the appeal to ensure it flows smoothly and is completely accurate.
A clear and understandable message makes your annual appeal more accessible to your audience members and increases the likelihood that they’ll actually read it through.
3. Does the appeal acknowledge current events?
Nowadays, nonprofits use multiple platforms to communicate with donors, meaning you should develop an outreach strategy for your annual appeal that extends beyond the traditional printed letter.
Use this table to send the right message to the right audience:
| Format | Target audience | Length | Primary call to action |
| Printed, mailed letter | Recurring donors (including monthly givers) | No more than one page | Send in a check or cash donation via mail, or visit the online donation form to give online. |
| Everyday donors (including monthly givers, mid-tier supporters, and infrequent donors) | Bloomerang recommends keeping these emails short (50 words or fewer) | Visit your online donation form to give online. | |
| Social media post | Casual supporters (including current social media followers and individuals who may not yet follow your page, but see your posts on their feed) | All social media platforms prioritize brevity (captions of 150 characters or fewer) and visually rich content, whether photos or videos | Visit your online donation form to give online. |
| In-person meeting or phone call | Major donors | 10-15 minutes | Make an in-person or over-the-phone donation. |
As you can see, your multimedia annual appeal approach shouldn’t follow a one-size-fits-all strategy. Sending the right types of communication will ensure your message is clear and engaging on every platform.
4. Is the letter personalized to the donor?
Your annual appeal should include specific references to current events and how they’ve impacted your nonprofit’s present situation. Addressing current events in your annual appeal offers the following benefits:
- It shows donors that your organization is aware of what matters most to people.
- It provides greater transparency for donors who are curious about how your organization is responding to developments in your cause area and the broader world.
- It lets donors know why it’s important to give now, rather than put off their donation for later. You allow them to become equal partners in your mission, helping you face the most pressing challenges.
For example, recent developments in AI technology have led nonprofit supporters to be both excited and concerned. The Donor Perceptions of AI study found that 60% of donors have significant concerns about data privacy, and 60.2% fear the potential loss of personal interaction in the charitable giving process. However, donors also foresee a strong possibility that AI may enhance nonprofit effectiveness in areas such as fraud detection and operational efficiency.
With that in mind, your next annual appeal may address not only how your organization is leveraging AI solutions built for nonprofits, but also how you’re helping the people you serve adapt to the changes and challenges of AI. For example, a nonprofit focused on equipping teachers with free and low-cost learning materials could provide an online course to help teachers understand how to use educational AI tools most effectively to enhance learning.
With this approach, you can ensure your organization maintains transparency and accountability while providing community members with valuable resources they can use to confront the most common challenges.
5. Is the letter personalized to each donor?
Whether sent via email, social media, or direct mail, a personalized message will catch your donors’ attention and make them feel appreciated for their unique contributions.
Use your donor management software (also known as your nonprofit CRM) to find specific information about each donor, including:
- Their names and titles
- Past involvement, including previous campaigns they’ve donated to, volunteer opportunities they’ve participated in, or events they’ve attended
- Past donation amounts
- Donation frequency
- Donation recency
With this information, you can create a personalized message and send each donor a customized donation request based on their past giving history. For instance, if a certain donor gave $100 to last year’s annual campaign, you can ask if they’d be willing to give the same amount (or slightly more) this year.
If you’re in the market for a new CRM, search for one that allows you to keep track of donor information in robust donor profiles. It’s also helpful if your CRM can automate the personalization process, as this will save your marketing team a significant amount of time.
6. Have you highlighted multiple giving options?
Another key component of your annual appeal is making it incredibly easy for supporters to give. Not every donor will want to give using the same method, so be sure to offer a variety of choices, such as:
- Online donations
- Direct mail donations
- In-kind gifts (a donation of goods or services rather than money)
- Memorial gifts (a donation in memory of someone)
- Donations to specific campaigns or projects
Offering multiple options gives donors flexibility in how they choose to give and which types of initiatives they wish to support.
7. Have you crafted tailored thank-you messages that reflect the donor’s previous giving level?
End your annual appeal on a positive note with a message of appreciation. Thank donors for their involvement in past campaigns and make it clear that your organization appreciates any donation they can give.
Be sure to also convey the impact of donors’ gifts. Let supporters know that their generosity will help build your new animal shelter or allow you to start making repairs to your community center.
Expressing gratitude to donors is a crucial aspect of the broader donor engagement process. When donors see that your organization appreciates them and has a plan for using their donations effectively, you’ll build stronger relationships based on trust.
8. Can you track your annual appeal success?
After sending your annual appeal, you’ll need a way to track your fundraising success rates. Using your CRM and marketing tools, track engagement and conversion metrics such as:
- Email open rate: the percentage of recipients who open your annual appeal email
- Online donor conversion rate: the percentage of donors who make an online gift after receiving your annual appeal
- Direct mail response rate: the percentage of direct mail recipients who respond to your letter with a check or cash donation
Create a process for gathering and assessing these metrics before sending your annual appeal, so you can track your progress immediately. Leverage integrations between your online fundraising platform and nonprofit CRM to create or update donor profiles with new information, such as their communication preferences or gift amounts.
You can use the results of your campaign to adjust your plans for next year’s appeal as needed. For example, if you discover that your email open rate was strong, but your online donation rate was lower than expected, you might consider including more compelling imagery or a more prominent donation button in future emails.
Your annual appeal is the culmination of all of your nonprofit’s hard work throughout the year. It should be concise, compelling, and tailored to your unique audience. If you’re feeling a little stuck, take some time to ensure your appeal is well-thought-out to make a good impression on potential donors.
About the Author
As the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, Ann is responsible for the company’s overall thought leadership, brand, marketing, and community outreach programs that work to strengthen relationships with customers and the broader nonprofit community. Ann brings with her more than 24 years of experience in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the technology industry, including time spent working at a nonprofit organization.