Saying thank you to your organisation's donors is, of course, a lovely thing to do - but it also directly drives future support. Research shows that sending a prompt thank-you reaffirming the difference a gift made can increase any future donations made by a supporter by roughly 60% (Shang, Sargeant, Carpenter and Day, 2018).
Yet for most arts venues, ensuring consistent donor care without adding to your team's workload is a challenge. That is where automated workflows come in. Ticketsolve's New Order Product Email Automation solves this challenge at the source, allowing venues to send a warm, well-timed donor thank-you email every time a donation is made, simply by setting up the automation once and allowing it to run.
How donor thank-you emails works in Ticketsolve
The mechanics of an automated donor thank you are simple, giving your team complete control while removing repetitive admin:
- A simple trigger: whenever an order contains your chosen donation product, the automation is automatically triggered - including recurring gifts.
- Timing on your terms: you choose when the email lands. Send immediately after purchase, or schedule a delay such as 'in 30 minutes', 'in 1 hour' or 'in 2 days'.
- Set up once, run continuously: you set up your template once. Once activated, the automation runs in the background with no need to check or change it.
- Fully customisable: Customise the MJML template as per your venue’s branding and tone of voice. If you operate across multiple languages, simply set up a template per language.
Best practice for donor thank yous
Because this automation sends one prompt message per gift, making that email count is key. Here’s our suggestions to make your thank you email work as hard as possible:
When to send? Sector research recommends sending an initial thank-you within 48 hours of a gift (Shang et al., 2018). The automation settings allow you to customise this to your preference - and to consider what would work best for your audience.
What to say? The rule of thumb is to ensure donors feel positive about the action they’ve taken and the difference they’ve made. Research shows that thank-yous that reaffirm a supporter's sense of their own worth can double how much willing they are to give later, compared with thank-yous that simply remind them of the cause they’re supporting (Shang et al., 2018)
What story to tell? Find a specific story that illustrates the difference that a donation will make. A single, identifiable story generally lands better with donors than a description of your overall mission. (Shang et al., 2018)
What about personalisation? It may be worth setting up separate automations for one-off and regular donations. Studies show that thank you messages resonate more with donors when you match the message to the stage of the relationship. Early on, reaffirm the difference the donation made. Later, once someone is an established supporter, shift to celebrating the donor themself, rather than the transaction. (Shang et al., 2018)
Taking donor nurture even further
Your initial, automated email could also be the starting point for a broader donor care strategy. Here’s some further ideas to grow your relationship with your supporters:
Thank your donors regularly. Improve donor retention by setting up consistent touchpoints. Research suggests that thanking supporters roughly four times a year across channels can improve donor sentiment and make them more likely to donate again (Shang et al., 2018).
Segment your donor stewardship efforts. Automated thank yous work well for regular donations and smaller gifts. By letting Ticketsolve handle routine donor acknowledgements, your team is freed up to give high-level donors the bespoke stewardship they deserve. Ticketsolve supports that work too: within Projects, our pre-made Fundraising Template lets you set clear goals, monitor secured donations and manage relationships with donors and sponsors through a custom pipeline.
Target subsequent asks intelligently. If and when you do ask supporters to give again, avoid blanket requests. Research suggests that it’s best to sent blanket 'give again' prompts only to lapsed or newer supporters. For loyal and frequent donors, opting instead for a “thank you” message can raise donation rates by 23–27% (Sudhir, Fong and Roy, 2021)
Ready to automate your donation thank yous? Existing Ticketsolve users can follow our step-by-step setup guide, Automations - Send an Email Based on a Product Purchase, in the Ticketsolve help centre. If you are new to Ticketsolve and want to explore our built-in fundraising tools, request a demo with our team today.