What to Send New Donors in Their First 90 Days

A new donor gives on a Thursday. By the following Thursday, they've forgotten the exact amount. By month three, if they haven't heard from you, they may have forgotten why they gave at all. The first 90 days are when a new supporter decides, mostly without noticing, whether you're an organization they give to or one they gave to once.

So what should you send new donors in their first 90 days? Four things: a personal thank-you within two days, an optional thank-you call, a short progress note somewhere in weeks three to six, and a second update in weeks eight to twelve. No new ask until they've heard what their first gift did. That's the whole plan. It fits on an index card, and it works for a one-person shop.

Why do the first 90 days matter so much?

Because first-time donors are the most fragile people on your list. The Fundraising Effectiveness Project found that only 18.9% of donors who were new in 2024 gave again in 2025. Repeat donors came back at 59.3%.

That gap is where most of the losing happens in a donor journey. And it isn't usually a dramatic exit. It's a slow fade: a receipt, a newsletter that could have gone to anyone, then an appeal. The first 90 days are your window to interrupt that fade before it starts.

A welcome series is just the name for what you send in that window. Big organizations build elaborate automated sequences. You don't need one. You need a few well-timed notes from a real person.

What does a 90-day plan look like for a small nonprofit?

Here's a plan built for an executive director who is also the development department:

When	What to send	Who sends it	Time it takes
Day 1 to 2	Personal thank-you that names what the gift is for	You	2 minutes
Week 1	Thank-you call or voicemail (optional but powerful)	You or a board member	3 minutes
Week 3 to 6	Progress note: one specific thing that happened, no ask	You	3 minutes
Week 8 to 12	Second update: a story, photo, or number, plus an invitation to stay involved	You	3 minutes
After day 90	A modest, specific second ask, tied to the progress they've seen	You	Part of your next appeal

Notice what's missing: no appeal in the first 90 days unless the donor has already heard about progress. If your year-end appeal lands inside someone's first month, send them a two-line progress note a week before it goes out.

What should the day-one thank-you say?

Keep it short, personal, and specific about what the gift will do. It should arrive within a couple of days. (We go deeper on timing in how soon you should thank a donor.)

Hi Sam,

Thank you for your gift this week. It's going to our after-school meals program at Hillcrest, where we're feeding 60 kids a day this fall. I'll send you a note in a few weeks so you can see how it's going.

Grateful you're with us.

Rosa

That last line before the sign-off does real work. It promises a follow-up, which tells the donor you aren't about to vanish, and it gives you a reason to write again.

Your automated receipt is separate. Keep it, because donors need it for taxes, but don't count it as the thank-you.

Is a thank-you call worth it?

If you can make the time, yes. In a study of nearly two million donors across 3,729 nonprofits, Bloomerang found that first-time donors who got no thank-you call in their first 90 days were retained at about 33%. One call: about 41%. More than one: about 58%.

That's a correlation, not a controlled experiment. Organizations that call their donors probably do other things well too. But the pattern is consistent with what EDs tell us: donors remember being called.

A good call is under a minute. "Hi, this is Rosa from Hillcrest Kids. I just wanted to thank you for your gift. It's going to our meals program. That's all, have a great day." Voicemail is fine. Board members can make these calls too, and it's one of the most valuable things a board member can do with ten minutes.

What goes in the first progress note?

This is the most important touch in the 90 days, and the one most often skipped. Somewhere between week three and week six, send a short note about something that actually happened. One fact, one human detail, no ask.

Hi Sam,

A quick update on the meals program you supported. Last week we served our 2,000th meal of the fall. One of our volunteers told me a third grader asked if he could take an apple home for his little sister. We said yes.

Thanks for being part of it.

Rosa

Specific beats impressive. "2,000 meals" and one small story land better than a list of accomplishments. If you want more ideas for what counts as progress, here's how to show donors their impact without writing a newsletter.

What about weeks eight to twelve?

The second update keeps the thread going and sets up the second gift. It can be a photo, a short story, or a number that's moved since the last note. This is also a good place for a soft invitation that isn't money: come see the program, follow along, reply and tell us why you gave.

Hi Sam,

Here's a photo from Friday's cooking class at Hillcrest. The kids made their own tacos, which went about as well as you'd expect. We're now serving 72 kids a day, up from 60 when you first gave.

If you're ever nearby on a weekday afternoon, I'd love to show you around.

Rosa

After these two progress notes, a new donor knows their gift became something real. That's the foundation for the next step: getting a second gift.

What if you have dozens of new donors at once?

Campaigns, events, and giving days can bring in a wave of first-time donors in a single week. The same plan works, adapted for volume:

• Thank-you: a personal-sounding email to the group is fine if individual notes aren't realistic. Use their name and the campaign.
• Calls: pick the first-time donors you can reach and start there. Ten calls beats zero.
• Progress notes: one update to the whole group, written as if to one person.

What matters is the sequence, not the polish. Thanks, then progress, then progress again, then an ask.

Where Perennial fits

The hard part of a 90-day plan isn't writing the notes. It's remembering, for every new donor, which week they're in. Perennial Giving tracks that for you. It notices each first gift, drafts the thank-you that day, and flags new donors who haven't heard any progress yet, pulling from your own recent updates to draft the note in your voice. You approve it in a tap. A spreadsheet with a "first gift date" column and a weekly reminder can do the same job if you keep it up.

Ninety days, four notes

You don't need a welcome series with branching logic. You need four short notes, from a person, in the right order. Thank them fast. Tell them what happened. Tell them again. Then invite them to keep going. Do that for every new donor and you'll keep a lot of the people most organizations lose without ever noticing.