In improving first-time donor renewal, every touch matters. Email offers you a quick, effective and personal touch that resembles a classic thank you letter recipients will appreciate.

A recent study found that while donors acquired online have a higher average first gift, those acquired by direct mail giving have higher retention rates & greater long-term value.

So, the thank you letter is in the mail. What next? Pick up the phone. Thank you telephone calls are proven to increase donor retention rates. Read more on the who, what, when and how.

Here are a few tried-and-true methods for offering a thank you—better still, a series of thank-yous—to those supporting your work. Starting with the highly appreciated thank you letter.

Use a well-designed donation response card for ask strings during your next direct mail fundraising campaign: it is a proven formula that works even on experts in their own field.

Major donors have the biggest influence on your annual fund result. Keeping their renewal rate high is essential. Gradually increasing their gift amount gets the best overall results.

Boost monthly giving by upgrading your nonprofit donation response card and fundraising letter to: make it more prominent, focus on donor segmentation and offer a bank draft option.

Though our loyalties have changed over the years we stick with the Compassion International charity. Why? For two reasons: great donor communications & automatic monthly giving.

Find out how to combine ask strings with the right ask sentence in your fundraising letter and donation response card to help build donor trust and sustain and increase giving.

Keeping language easy to read is the goal of all copywriters. Instead of using long sentences, big words and ‘corporate speak’, communications should be quick & simple to grasp.

Follow this best practices checklist to ensure that your fundraising letter is the most effective possible. The Five Maples Better Letter Checklist is designed to guide you towards success.

Repetition creates awareness so including a planned giving option on the reply card is a good reminder. Help donors overcome their inertia and take action by finding the right wording.

The reason why 93% of direct mail fundraising appeals are letters is because people give to people. Letters are from a person to a person―or they are when they are personalized.

Response cards can be boring. But, there are two things you can do to help the card work: add attractive color & prime the donor’s brain with an affirmation or a donor benefit word.

The right fundraising envelope design is fundamental. Use a live signature on your appeal envelope to intrigue your donors. These are three examples donors couldn't help but open them!

Here are inspiring samples of fundraising letters that follow the design and copy principles recommended by Five Maples. Both of them outperformed expectations.

How long should a fundraising letter be? Is it true that a donation letter should be no longer than one page? We explain why shorter is not always better when writing to your donors.

Learn how to design and write a donor -centric fundraising letter. These donor-centered appeal letters are designed to deliver every important detail in the first scan-through.

Raise more money for your annual fund solicitation by opting for a nonprofit letter instead of fundraising self-mailers. Here are five reasons why letters tend to perform better.

Data shows that annual fund donors are influenced by round numbers. Here’s how to improve your annual fund results by using the right ask strings for gifts over $100. Read more!