A first-year donor plan you can run with a team of one.

Give every first-time donor the same six touches in their first year: a thank-you within 48 hours, a welcome within two weeks, an impact story within a month, an invitation, a check-in with no ask, and a second ask near the anniversary of the first gift. Batch the work once a week and one person can run it in under an hour.

Why the first year matters most

In the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's Q4 2024 report, the new donor retention rate was 19.4% retained. The repeat donor retention rate was 69.2% retained. Most first-time donors never give a second time, and the ones who do tend to stay.

That gap is what first-year retention measures, and it is where a small shop has the most room to move. You do not need a bigger team or a new campaign. You need every new donor to hear from you on purpose, a few times, before you ask again. That is stewardship, written down as a plan. The longer version, with scripts, is in our first-year retention guide.

The six touches

Think of this as a donor journey with six stops. Each one has a deadline counted from the date of the first gift, and each one has a person's name on it, even if that name is always yours.

1. Thank them within 48 hours

Call if you can. Penelope Burk's research, as summarized by Big Duck, reported that donors who received a thank you call from a board member within 48 hours of making a gift gave 39% more the next time they were solicited. A board member is ideal. You or your executive director is fine. If you reach voicemail, leave thirty seconds: your name, thank you, one sentence about what the gift will do, and no ask.

Then send the written thank-you. A good acknowledgment letter names the amount and the date, says what the money is for, and sounds like a person wrote it. For a single gift of $250 or more, the IRS expects a written acknowledgment, so make sure the letter covers what your accountant says it must. The thank-you letter builder gives you a draft to start from.

2. A welcome within two weeks

A short email or card that tells a new donor who you are beyond the ask. Two or three sentences on what you do, the name of a person they can write to, and one thing they can expect from you this year. No donation button.

3. An impact story within a month

One story about one person, family or place their gift helped. A photo if you have permission. Keep it under 200 words. The point is proof: the money went somewhere real, and someone noticed it was theirs.

4. An invitation, around month three to five

Ask them to see the work. A tour, a volunteer shift, an open house, a 20-minute video call with a program lead. Many will not come. The invitation still lands, because it says you want them close, not just their card number.

5. A check-in with no ask, around month six to nine

A note, a call or a quick email: an update on the program they gave to, or a question about why they gave. Write down what they tell you. This is the touch most plans skip, and it is the one that makes the next ask feel earned.

6. The second ask, near the anniversary

About eleven months after the first gift, ask again. Make it personal: thank them for last year by amount, tell them what it did, and ask for a similar gift. Do not fold it into a mass appeal if you can help it.

Batch it in under an hour a week

The plan fails when it lives in your head. It works when it is one standing appointment. Pick a day, put 45 minutes on the calendar, and work through the same list in the same order.

1. Pull every first gift from the past seven days. These are your calls and letters.
2. Make the calls first, while you have energy. Short calls, no scripts read aloud.
3. Send the written thank-yous for anyone you reached or left a message for.
4. Look at donors whose first gift was two weeks, one month, four months, seven months and eleven months ago. Each group gets its touch.
5. Note what you did and anything a donor said, on their profile, before you close the laptop.

If a week runs long, cut the invitation and check-in, never the thank-you. A late thank-you costs more than a skipped newsletter.

What to track

Keep it small enough that you will actually keep it. For each first-time donor:

• the date and amount of the first gift
• each touch, the date it happened and who did it
• anything they told you, in their words
• whether a second gift came, and when

Once a quarter, count two things: how many first-time donors you had in the twelve months ending a year ago, and how many of them have given again since. That is your first-year retention rate. Watch it move over a year, not a month.

Four more second gifts is a concrete target. It is roughly one extra second gift a quarter, and the six touches are how you earn them.

In Steward

Steward has a journey card called New donor, first year. A journey starts when something happens to a person, such as a first gift, and puts each step in front of whoever owns the relationship at the right time. It never sends anything. Every step waits for a person, and if a step has a draft, it is still yours to read and send.

Start with last week's gifts

You do not need to wait for January or a new system. Open your gift list, find everyone who gave for the first time in the past seven days, and call them today. Then put the same 45 minutes on next week's calendar and write the five deadlines next to each name. By the time the first of them reaches their anniversary, the plan will be a habit, and the second ask will reach someone who already knows you.

Sources: Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2024 Quarterly Benchmark Report · Penelope Burk, Donor-Centered Fundraising, as summarized by Big Duck

Terms in this articleFirst-year retentionStewardshipAcknowledgment letterDonor journey