Fundraising & Donations

October 1, 2025 · Last updated on September 15, 2026

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.

What you need

A Customer List Segment to identify yesterday’s donors

A Customer List Schedule to run daily

A connected Dotdigital campaign to send your message

Time required

Prep: 15 minutes Cook: 20 minutes

What will this help me achieve?

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

Concepts we’ll be using

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

Prep

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

Remove specific recurring donation memberships

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

Activate

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!

Try this twist

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.

More to explore

↗️ 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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