Are you clear on which donor category your newsletter should actually target?
As a person in your position already knows, major donors expect personal conversations and relationship-building, so a monthly email alone will never be enough for someone considering a $50,000 gift.
But that doesn’t mean newsletters aren’t valuable.
In fact, newsletters play a very important role in fundraising — just not the role many organizations assume.
A newsletter is primarily designed for your broad base of supporters: the many donors who give smaller amounts but want to stay connected to your mission. These donors do not need personalized attention.
These supporters may give:
• $25 or $50 occasionally
• $100 once a year
• $20–$30 per month
Individually, their gifts may be small.
But collectively, they can represent a meaningful portion of your funding — and they often become future mid-level or major donors.
To see how this works in practice, imagine an organization running a $500,000 fundraising campaign.
Example Gift Table for a $500,000 Campaign
Number of Donors | Gift Amount | Total Raised |
1 | $100,000 | $100,000 |
1 | $75,000 | $75,000 |
2 | $50,000 | $100,000 |
3 | $25,000 | $75,000 |
5 | $10,000 | $50,000 |
10 | $5,000 | $50,000 |
25 | $1,000 | $25,000 |
100 | $25/month for 12 months | $30,000 |
147 donors | $500,000 |
Look closely at what this table reveals.
Just seven donors generate $350,000 of the campaign.
Those gifts typically come from personal relationships and direct conversations, not newsletters.
But further down the table, you’ll see something just as important.
More than 100 donors contribute through smaller recurring gifts.
These supporters may never require personal meetings — but they do need to feel connected to your mission.
That’s where your newsletter becomes powerful.
A consistent newsletter helps you:
• keep supporters informed
• remind them why your mission matters
• build trust over time
• encourage recurring giving
• grow a pipeline of future larger donors
In other words, your newsletter isn’t just an update.
It’s a relationship-building system for the largest segment of your donor community.
The challenge most nonprofit leaders face is this:
Creating consistent, meaningful communication for supporters takes time — and many teams simply don’t have the capacity to do it regularly.
That’s exactly why I created a digital resource designed specifically for nonprofit leaders like you - the Nonprofit Email Newsletter Content Vault that includes story prompts for 10+ topical areas including fundraising, appreciation, leadership updates, education, advocacy, events etc.
It helps you produce consistent donor communication without starting from scratch each month, so your supporters stay engaged and your fundraising pipeline keeps growing.
Cheers to your impact
Carol
PS: Never wonder what to email donors
If you are ready for donor emails that increase engagement and drive more donations—but without the stress of figuring out what to write each month?
I put together a Nonprofit Email Newsletter Content Vault with story prompts, clear calls to action, and a simple story collection form so you’ll never start with a blank screen again. CLICK HERE to access it.