Fundraising & Donations
October 1, 2025 · Last updated on November 4, 2025
Recipe: Send Automated Thank You Emails to Donors
# fundraising
# recipes for success
Makes: A daily thank you email for donors who gave the previous day
Donor stewardship doesn’t have to be time-consuming to be meaningful. With this recipe, you can automatically thank every donor who gave the previous day — keeping your messages timely, heartfelt, and consistent without manual effort.
- A Customer List Segment to identify yesterday’s donors
- A Customer List Schedule to run daily
- A connected Dotdigital campaign to send your message
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
- Daily, automated thank you emails
- More engaged and loyal donors
- Less admin work for your team
- A consistent tone of appreciation across all gift levels
- Customer List Segments: Define who donated yesterday
- Dotdigital campaigns: Send customized thank-you emails
- Schedules: Automate your segment + message workflow
- Personalisation/Dynamic content: Tailor messages by amount, fund, or donor type
Build Your Segment
- Go to Customer Lists in Spektrix
- Create a New Segment > Select Purchasing
- Under the Donations wrapper, drag in Date Transaction Confirmed
- Set the filter to Yesterday
- Optional:
- Filter by channel (e.g. online only)
- Limit to a specific Fund or Donation Amount
Create Your Dotdigital Campaign
- Draft a short, sincere thank you message
- Include:
- Personalised greeting
- A note about the impact of their gift
- Optional: story, photo, quote, or soft re-engagement ask
Save the campaign
- In Spektrix, go to Customer List Schedules
- Create a new daily schedule
- Attach your segment + the Dotdigital email you just created
- Choose the time of day you’d like it to run
Save your schedule — you’re good to go!
Already thanking donors who gave online? Consider adding a second message tailored to:
- First-time donors
- Higher gift amounts
- Specific funds (e.g. Education, Community Access, etc.) You can use additional criteria in your segment or dynamic content blocks in Dotdigital to tailor these thank-yous for more impact.
↗️How to Warm Up a Dotdigital Account
If your team is just getting started with Dotdigital, follow this guidance to ensure your sender reputation stays strong.
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