By Brendan Manson / President of Fellowship Development
An annual appeal program helps raise the necessary funds to cover operational costs for a nonprofit. Beyond its functionality to support current programming and initiatives, an annual appeal can help your organization share its story and make a case for future support. A strong annual appeal is important because it engages donors in your broader mission, inviting donors to give general funds, which can help your nonprofit thrive now and for years to come.
That invitation is key. Because to secure funds for your annual appeal, you have to ask.
From there, the next step is to set expectations. A thoughtful plan combined with strategic execution can turn your donors’ good intentions into lasting results. With that in mind, following the nine best practices below will help you build a stronger, more effective annual giving appeal.
Plan Your Annual Appeal with Purpose and Timing
The typical timeframe to launch an annual appeal is in the fall, usually each November. It’s important to be on donors’ radar before the end of the calendar year. According to research, 17-33% of all annual giving happens in December. That means the work planning your annual appeal should start well before that. Many nonprofit fundraising teams begin this work as soon as late summer/early Fall.
Here are a few considerations to get you started with annual appeal planning:
- Define clear goals and target dates: Consider setting benchmarks for overall gift amount, number of donors, matching gift, etc.
- Pull past campaign reports: Use the data from the last few years to help set goals, segment your donors list and personalize your approach.
- Decide on a theme for the appeal: Discuss ideas for words and phrases that help connect the dots between your mission and the impact of the funds to help donors see the importance of their gift.
- Prepare donor communications: Consider which methods you will use to invite donors into giving – direct mail, email campaigns, social media, etc.
- Be sure to consider the lead time needed for internal review, approval and execution of all your materials as you set your timeline.
- Schedule regular check-ins: Add monthly meetings to your team’s calendar in advance to monitor progress compared to your goals and assign follow-up tasks.
Know Your Donors: Segment for Personalized Connection
As you plan your annual appeal, remember that not all donors are the same. Using your donor database, you can identify segments within your donor list, such as donation history, average gift size, interest, affiliation with organization and more. Then, it’s easier to tailor your appeal message – and ask amount – to each segment. Making your communication relevant and compelling is the name of the game.
Research your donor segments to determine why they give and what motivates them.
Appeal Writing Techniques
The capital campaign communications advice we give clients is also a best practice for annual appeal work: know your audience.
Beyond knowing your audience, here are the main elements we recommend when writing your fundraising appeal:
- Personalize the message
- Provide a compelling story or reason to give
- Make it easy to give
- Show appreciation
We already talked about segmenting your audience. This allows you to make multiple versions of your annual appeal message so you can address donors in a more strategic and relevant way.
As you draft your fundraising message, visualize the typical donor within a segment. Consider their age, life stage, concerns, etc. Focus on writing with one person in mind; it makes your message feel more personal and genuine.
When donors feel valued, they’re more likely to stay engaged in your mission. A simple way to reinforce their value is to speak directly to them – using “you” as often as possible. It’s okay to say things from your first-person perspective, using “I” or “we” or “our,” but try to focus more on language about how the donors make the work you do possible.
In terms of what your message should look like, a letter sent via direct mail is often the way many nonprofits launch their appeal.
Formatting the letter is something nonprofit leaders often spend a lot of time thinking about. There is no magic formatting that automatically returns a gift from everyone. However, after working with hundreds of clients on campaign planning, here’s what we find works:
Keep it short! Even when telling an impact story, keep the story to 1-2 short paragraphs. Use your story to provide some context, create emotional connection, then make your ask clearly and quickly.
Think about it: most donors will skim rather than read. Short paragraphs are the way to go. You can also use bold or italic text to call attention to the most important parts of the letter. This type of formatting helps keep things scannable and ensures donors still get the “gist” of the message.
The message itself should be full of gratitude. There’s a rule in fundraising that says you shouldn’t ask for more money without acknowledging prior support. For an appeal letter, include a quick thanks within the opening few sentences.
Your opening could look like this:
“Your prayers, service and financial support strengthened our congregation and helped bring Christ’s love to others in our community this year. We owe you a big thank you! As we launch our plans for next year, we need your support again. To show just how powerfully your gifts make a difference, consider this story about (insert name and details of your chosen impact story from a client you serve).”
Now, tell a good story to connect with donors’ emotions. Yes, it’s true that your appeal is asking for operational funds to help keep the lights on, but you can still use storytelling to demonstrate the impact of those dollars. We’ll share more on this in the next section. For now, note the importance of including stories and statistics about your nonprofit’s impact on the community right away in your letter.
From there, keep it simple! Use a friendly tone and simple words.
Using conversational rather than complex language is one of the best–and easiest–ways to increase the readability of your letter. More than format, ask yourself: is this appeal letter easy to read? Try reading it aloud to see if you stumble or if things sound natural.
Data from National University shows the average American reads at a 7th-8th grade level, and approximately 54% of individuals 16-74 read below a sixth-grade level. Be sure you write your message accordingly, mixing sentence length and trying to stay concise and easy to understand. You can use tools like Hemingway app or Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test to evaluate your writing and adjust as needed.
Why does it matter? If your letter is too long or hard to follow, donors may miss your call to action entirely.
That’s why it’s essential to include a clear call to action. In fact, include calls to give throughout your letter and reiterate your ask clearly in your closing paragraph and/or post script beneath the leader signature. After all, the whole point of the letter is to receive a donation.
Use of Storytelling and Impact Demonstration
Sharing a story about how someone you serve has been transformed because of your work is one of the most powerful ways to bring your mission – and your annual appeal – to life. When you share stories that show your ministry is making a difference, you help donors clearly see the impact of their generosity.
Using the above tip to use “you” language, you could showcase impact to donors using a simple statement like, “Because of you, 30 families received a week’s worth of healthy meals at no charge.”
Then you could launch into sharing a story about or a testimonial from a particular family who benefited from your service. If the situation allows, use the real first or last name of the client to make it more personal. Either way, try to incorporate specific details such as age, geographic location and more.
Beyond storytelling, an appeal letter can still be a place for statistics. Many of the executive directors and pastors we’ve worked with find success from clearly showing cost-to-impact figures to their donors. This means including statements such as “Your gift of $50 provides…” and filling in the blank so donors connect more meaningfully with what you do.
Reach Donors Where They Are: Go Multi-Channel
A well-written annual appeal letter is a great start. But it isn’t the only tactic.
The most successful fundraising campaigns we’ve worked on combine print, email, text, website, social media, phone calls and in-person events.
Not all of these may make sense for your own annual appeal based on goals, budget and staff size. However, be sure to leverage the various communications channels you have available to share your appeal messaging.
Email is a great way to supplement the initial appeal letter you send. Mailchimp and Constant Contact are common platforms that allow you to easily create and personalize donor messages.
One idea to try: Send an email update to warm donors before a direct ask. If you know you will mail your appeal letter in November, you could send an email in late August to say thanks and include a testimonial. Being mindful and strategic of the sequence of your communications can net big results.
As you share messages across multiple channels, we recommend maintaining message consistency across channels. Sharing the same story from your letter in new ways, reiterating your annual theme, focusing on 1-2 data points per touchpoint to remind donors of their impact – these are all ways to boost donor engagement and response.
Keep in mind: Even if someone can’t give right away, your letter should leave them feeling as though they’re valued. We want every reader to feel appreciated and connected to your mission.
Offer Flexible Giving Options
Annual appeal letters, email campaigns or social media posts should all include clear and specific calls to give. For example, “Donate now” is okay, but can you get more specific and urgent? “Give now to provide more local mothers in need with a one-month supply of diapers” or a similar statement usually works better.
Following these best practices so far means donors will want to give as soon as they’re done reading. If possible, offer multiple ways for donors to respond–checks, credit cards, reply envelopes, direct links to online giving forms.
No matter what platforms you use to collect donations, make sure donors know the next steps of how to make their gift. In your letter (and all communications about your appeal), include instructions about the giving options – e.g. send back the pre-addressed envelope with cash or check or include a written webpage URL or QR code.
Use the most direct link to the giving form that you can to limit the number of clicks for a donor. Once a donor lands on your giving page, you can also include information below the donation form about matching gift eligibility and the other ways available to donate (monthly gifts, stock, planned giving, etc).
Engage and Follow Up: Build Relationships, Not Just Donations
When a donation comes in, celebrate. Then, acknowledge the gift as soon as possible. You can send a letter or email that confirms their donation and provides a tax receipt. Doing something informal to provide additional thanks is also something to consider. Everyone wants to feel appreciated. It can go a long way to send a short but personal note from a leader to let a donor know you’re looking forward to the progress you can make together. Either way, the key is to be timely.
Another strategy we’ve seen is to pick up the phone to follow up with donors.
If a donor hasn’t responded to your first few touchpoints, it may be time to give them a call. You can frame the call as a way to confirm or complete information you may not have in their donor profile, such as address or employer, then send some additional information that could help motivate their gift (think copy of your annual report, case statement or otherwise). Or you could use their time on the phone to ask questions and get their input about something related to your organization. Both practices will make a donor feel like they matter and you care.
For board members and other high-priority donors and prospects, a phone call is also a great personal touch. All efforts around your annual appeal should be focused on building donor relationships rather than making a one-time ask.
Leverage Tech Tools to Streamline and Scale Your Campaign
Using technology can also improve the success of your annual appeal. As you know, a good donor database helps you track donor history, segment your audience and tailor your outreach. However, this can only happen with good data practices such as updating donor profiles with notes after phone calls and meetings, and regularly pulling reports to measure progress toward your annual goals. If that’s where you’re starting, that’s okay. Growing an annual appeal takes time and consistency.
Beyond a good CRM, there are many tools fundraising teams can use to help automate their donor communications. If you do have an email platform like we mentioned above, look into email scheduling and personalization options.
The goal is to limit the moments you and your team may feel overwhelmed–and increase the number of times your donors hear from you.
Data Analysis and Continuous Improvement
To maximize your annual appeal as the year goes on, monitoring and measuring your progress against your annual goals is critical.
Evaluating your efforts is the only way to know how to improve. Before you launch, decide the cadence of when you will pull reports and review your giving totals. After six months, and after the full campaign, you can compare your data against previous years to see what worked and what didn’t. Did your average gift size increase? Total dollars? Answering these questions will help you move forward more strategically, with more accurate targets for future appeals.
Marketing reports can also give you smart insights to strengthen your annual giving. Measure open rates, click through rates and replies to your emails to see if your message is effective. Feel free to get creative with testing subject lines and send times, too, if you see that your appeal is not off to a strong start.
Key Takeaways for a More Successful Annual Giving Appeal
Successful annual appeals are an ongoing and evolving practice. Combining thoughtful storytelling and data-driven insights, your organization can build deeper donor loyalty and more reliable revenue over time. Of all the best practices above, remember to keep the donor in mind as you plan and write your appeal messaging. When your supporters feel seen, valued and connected with your mission, they will be far more likely to walk with you in faith and generosity.
Sources
Capital Campaign Planning for Successful Fundraising. (n.d.). In Fellowship Development. Retrieved December 29, 2025, from https://www.fellowshipdevelopment.com/services/campaign-planning/
Christian Capital Campaign. (n.d.). In Fellowship Development. Retrieved December 29, 2025, from https://www.fellowshipdevelopment.com/campaigns/
Flesch-Kincaid. (n.d.). In WebFX. Retrieved December 29, 2025, from https://www.webfx.com/tools/read-able/flesch-kincaid/
Hemingway Editor. (n.d.). In hemingwayapp.com. Retrieved December 29, 2025, from https://hemingwayapp.com/
Nonprofit Fundraising Statistics to Boost Results in 2025. (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2025, from https://doublethedonation.com/nonprofit-fundraising-statistics/
Manson, B. (2025). What Is a Church Capital Campaign? In Fellowship Development. https://www.fellowshipdevelopment.com/blog/what-is-a-church-capital-campaign/
NU Editorial Contributors. (2025). 49 Adult Literacy Statistics and Facts for 2025. In National University. https://www.nu.edu/blog/49-adult-literacy-statistics-and-facts/
Steier, J. (2014). Understanding donor motivation is key to fundraising success. In Steier Group. https://www.steiergroup.com/blog/understanding-donor-motivation/
