Yes, you still have time: 10 Act-now tips to boost your year-end email success
✍️ By Lisa Sargent
December 2025
Year-end fundraising is... a LOT.
There's direct mail, if you do it. Which of course should have your reminder appeal packs at least
at the printer right now, and nearly ready to send. (And if you don't do direct mail or you can't yet, I hope 2026 is your year, because it's still getting great results and helping drive online giving).
Then there’s email and digital.
By this point your irresistible year-end homepage image... best-ever call-to-action... and bright, gorgeous give button are
alive and clicking, above the fold, with a donation landing page that does all the things it needs to (and is your point-to URL for direct mail, QR codes, socials, etc.).
Maybe you have an email or two ready to roll, with extra for that countdown to year end.
But... to see if there are places you could still do more with email, have a peek at these:
(1) Sending one or two? Make it a series instead.
In
the US, you can easily send 6-8+ emails if you start the week of Thanksgiving. Other countries (including Canada, where Thanksgiving this year was October 13th) start earlier.
One of my favorite things to do with these messages is to make them feel like a series. You can share stories of rescue animals, or work on the ground, or smaller pieces of a larger whole. Or just wrap the whole thing around your direct mail campaign theme and think of it as an ongoing conversation
(note: remember not everyone will read every email).
One more tip around multiple emails. You can incorporate asks to become a monthly giver in more than one -- or even every -- message. Make sure the link you share goes to the correct place on your website.
(2) Try for some Friday sends, if you can.
I follow the fabulous Jess Campbell on LinkedIn and her post about Friday email sends was gold.
She wrote:
“In 2022, appeals sent on December 30th performed BETTER than December 29th AND December 31st.
Specifically, appeals sent on December 30th raised 21% more than on December 31st and 90% more than on December 29th. NINETY!
What
day of the week was December 30th in 2022? A Friday.
In a perfect world, you'd send an email on all three dates, but if you were my client—I'd make sure to send an email out on Friday, December 26th (last Friday of the year!).”
You still have three Fridays to test this. Why not try it?
(3) Email series already in the works? After email 2, consider two versions of each.
I promise, this doesn’t add a lot of
extra work.
For our year-end email series, everything after the first email gets an “ask” version (for folks who haven’t yet given) and a “thank” version (for everyone who has). It’s such a timely way to spark gratitude for folks who’ve just given, by modifying the story in your “ask” version so you’re thanking donors by showing them how they’re part of the story and saying thank you.
(4) Send one captstone gratitude message.
Everyone gets this
email, givers and non-givers.
For us it’s almost always on January 1st (or December 31st, usually in countries where there’s not the tax deductibility piece as in US).
We use a hearfelt, sweeping message of gratitude with universal truths and a forward-looking wish for the coming year – and cue upcoming messages. There is a VERY soft ask at the end to give.
Now I can hear you asking, “Why would you
thank people who didn’t give... and why include an ask for people who did give?”
Two reasons. Because there's loads you can thank non-givers for, and because if you frame your ask right, it isn't off-putting.
For the thanking part, your message can be something simple and human, like:
“I’m sending this to everyone on this first [last] day of the year, to thank you warmly from all of us
here.
Whether you donated from the heart, ran a race, baked a cake, sent a caring thought, told a friend or read every email story this holiday... etc... we see you for the wonderful person you are. Thank you.”
You’d add more, of course – and none of it will sound awkward to someone who hasn’t given, because you set the right tone from the start.
And for the ask piece? See tip five...
(5) Use a PS. Yes, in your
emails.
In #4 above, I mentioned that we add a VERY soft ask to that captstone message.
Where do we put it? In the postscript!
The overall structure looks something like:
P.S. [Say how grateful you are to everyone who’s given, and note how their gifts are already working and describe another detail of that. Then say “This work always needs generous hearts like yours, so if
you haven’t given yet, you can help here, anytime. Thank you so very much.”]
In a non-capstone, you can also use the PS to mention the next thing that’s coming... newsletter? Letter? Or invite people to explore another resource online.
(6) Spend time on subject lines.
General rules?
- Frontload your subject lines (put the good stuff first)
- Keep characters to
less than 45 or 50 (not just the letters, use character count)
- Personalize your subject lines sometimes (ONLY if you have clean data! {FName} as a greeting is less than ideal)
- Try questions and numbers (MailModo via Nonprofit Tech for Good showed question marks in subject lines boost
open rates – numbers, too!)
- Use the preheader (keep that short, too)
- Send a test to see what people will see
- And see more general tips on emails from me here
(7) Don’t assume plain is always better.
There’s a LOT of coverage around
“out of wrapper” emails. The ones that look like two people, just messaging each other.
No fancy photos. No borders. No buttons.
The prevailing notion is that these are the way to go all the time. I can tell you, they might not be – at least not every time.
A client of mine tested plain emails against emails with beautiful banner image (by beautiful I mean emotional, showing eyes and teeth, not a giant logo) and donate button
in the image, and guess what?
The designed email won across multiple sends.
Do we still send plain ones? Yes, from time to time, and from different senders. But a lot of the time, we use images and buttons, because they work.
And for your buttons, test language other than just "Donate."
(8) Have a deadline if you can.
If a
date doesn't jump out? The end of the year is a natural deadline.
And it doesn’t have to get complex or boggy.
You can easily write:
“The best gift you can give this [year-end, holiday, season, etc] is the gift of a brighter new year for [who you’re writing about, the work, etc], and your amazing donation by December 31st can make that happen. Please give today if you
can.”
(9) Start scheduling your new year now.
You don’t need a full-on Excel spreadsheet extended out to next December yet... though at some point, even half year would be a great way to plan.
Maybe just begin by thinking about what you can share in January and February... or by considering:
- Can you send one email each week?
- How does it
connect to direct mail if you send it?
- Holidays to mark?
- Special days?
- What kinds of series could you run, or stories could you share?
- Who could you feature? (Real-life here: we’ve featured everyone from groundskeepers to helicopter pilots flying rescue animals to hospital chefs. Supporters LOVE this! And how great to build anticipation? When you follow through, you grow trust and
loyalty!)
(10) Remember the three thank-yous!
Wait, there are three? Oh yes, yes indeed.
When it comes to online giving, the three thank-yous are:
- Your post-donation redirect page (what supporters receive after they give, which should be warm and grateful and say what comes next) Redirect page sample in link I shared on email tips
- Your thank-you email (equally warm and grateful)
- Your thank-you by mail. Yes, by mail... post if you're outside the US. Send a thank-you in the mail if you can, in addition to that email thank-you, if you have your permissions for mailing donors who give online.
(We often have the thank-you email come from a member of the fundraising team, and the TY by mail from CEO). When you cross channels, donors stay longer and often give more.
There are so many opportunities for you to engage with your email donors between now and the start of the new year... I hope you'll try even one or two of these tips.
