Year-End Fundraising Appeal Checklist Template

Start this checklist at least nine weeks before the appeal closes, and earlier if a mail house or a match funder needs more time. Enter the closing date on the first task: every task before it counts back from it in business days, and the January tasks count forward from it.

• Set up the appeal: the name, the closing date and who is involved — the appeal’s name, the date it closes, where the organisation is registered, whether the appeal takes part in Giving Tuesday, whether a printed letter goes by post, and the people who run each step
• Review last year’s appeal results — income, number of gifts, average gift and response rate by segment and channel, what it cost and what the team would change; with no previous appeal, use the last campaign that asked the same supporters
• Set the goal and the budget — the income target, the number of gifts it needs, the cost of print, postage, design and any paid social, and who approves the spend; base the goal on last year’s results and the segments you will ask
• Choose the need the appeal asks for and what a gift does — one clear need, what a typical gift pays for, and whether gifts are restricted to that purpose; if they are, the appeal says what happens to money raised above or below the target
• Agree the channels and the key dates — the launch, any Giving Tuesday sends, the letter’s mail date, the reminders, the final days and the close; the due dates in this checklist are the latest for each step

The data selection decides who is asked and how. Clean it and apply every suppression before the approval in Phase 5, then run the suppressions again before each send.

• Choose the segments and how each one is asked — recent donors, lapsed donors, regular givers, major donors, new supporters and event participants, each with its channels and, once the suppressions are applied, its count
• Plan separate approaches for major donors and regular givers — a personal letter, call or visit for major donors, agreed with whoever manages each relationship, and a decision on whether regular givers get the appeal, a lighter ask or a thank-you only
• UK: check the lawful basis and consent for each channel — email and texts only to people who consented or who meet one of PECR’s soft opt-ins, and post and phone under consent or legitimate interests, with every objection to direct marketing honoured
• Clean the data — duplicates merged, addresses checked, names, titles and salutations right, email addresses that bounced removed, and each donor’s last gift date and amount up to date
• Apply the suppressions — people who asked not to be contacted, people known to have died, gone-aways and bounced email addresses, recent complaints, and anyone a relationship manager has asked to hold back; run them again before each send
• Set the ask amounts and the source codes for each segment — ask amounts based on each donor’s last or highest gift where you have it, a default for new supporters, and a source code per segment and channel so every gift can be traced in the results

Write the appeal around one story and one need. Every claim needs its evidence and every person shown needs to have agreed, so the approver in Phase 5 signs off copy that is accurate.

• Choose the story and get permission from the person in it — a real person or situation that shows the need, written up truthfully, with clear and informed permission from anyone who could be identified, and photos you have the right to use
• Agree the match funding in writing — the funder, the amount, the dates gifts must arrive between, which gifts count, what happens if the match is not used up, and the words the appeal may use to describe it
• Write the appeal letter or main appeal copy — the story, the need, a clear ask with amounts, what a gift does, a deadline, how to give and a postscript, signed by someone the reader knows; the email, web and social copy are cut from it
• Write the email series — the launch email, any Giving Tuesday emails, a reminder for people who have not given, the last-days emails and the thank-you email, each with one ask, a source code in its links and an unsubscribe link
• Plan the social posts and the website changes — posts for each stage of the appeal, images sized for each platform, a banner or homepage panel linking to the donation page, and alt text for every image
• Design the reply form and the printed pack — a reply form with the donor’s details, ask amounts and ways to give, the envelope and any insert, and a print quote with the quantity, the postage method and the mail house’s deadline for data and artwork
• Check every claim in the copy — figures, what a gift pays for, the story’s details, any match claim and the deadline, each with its evidence, in plain, accessible wording that puts no undue pressure on anyone to give

The donation page and the thank-you journey are tested with real payments before the approval, so the first gifts are banked, coded and thanked properly.

• Build the appeal’s donation page — the story and the need, ask amounts that match the letter and emails, one-off and monthly options, the source code captured from each link, and a page that works on a phone
• US: confirm the charitable solicitation registrations — the states where the organization needs to be registered before asking for gifts, checked against where this appeal’s letters and emails go; state rules differ, so take advice where you are unsure
• UK: add the Gift Aid declaration to the page and the reply form — the charity’s name, the donor’s full name and full home address with its postcode or other postal code, that they are a non-UK donor if they do not live in the UK, a description of the gift, and a statement that the donor has paid at least as much Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax in that tax year as the Gift Aid claimed and agrees to Gift Aid being claimed
• US: set up written acknowledgements for gifts of $250 or more — the organization’s name, the amount of a cash gift, a description but not the value of any property given, and a statement that no goods or services were provided in return, or a description and good faith estimate of what was (IRS Publication 1771)
• US: check for quid pro quo disclosures — if a donor gets goods or services for a payment of more than $75, the appeal or receipt says the deductible amount is limited to the payment minus the value of what they get, with a good faith estimate of that value (IRS Publication 1771)
• Set up the thank-you emails and receipts — an automatic thank-you and receipt for online gifts, a printed thank-you for gifts by post, wording that names the appeal and what the gift does, and who signs it
• Test the donation page from start to finish — a test gift by each payment method on a phone and a computer, the confirmation page and email, the receipt, the gift landing in the database with its source code, and every test gift refunded
• Agree the gift processing plan and holiday cover — who banks and records gifts each working day, how post and cheques are handled, the target for sending thank-yous, and who covers between Christmas and New Year while gifts are still arriving

Nothing goes to supporters until the approver signs off the copy, the ask and the data selection. The approval is the gate: no task after it can be completed until it is recorded.

• Send the approval pack to the approver — the final letter and emails, the ask amounts, the segment counts and suppressions, the send schedule, the donation page test and any match terms
• Approve the appeal before anything is sent — the approver reads the copy and checks its claims, the ask and the data selection, and records the decision; Approved with changes lists what must change first, and Not approved gives the reasons
• Make the approver’s changes before the first send — each change made and shown to the approver, who confirms it in writing; the sends can go once this task is complete
• Rework the appeal and take it back to the approver — change the copy, the ask or the data selection as the reasons say, send the approver a new pack, and ask them to change the decision on the approval task to Approved; nothing is sent until it reads Approved

Each send goes to the approved selection with the suppressions run again that day. This template leaves people who have already given out of the later asks and thanks them instead.

• Approve the print proof and send the data to the mail house — the proof checked against the approved copy, the data file run against the suppressions again and sent securely, and the mail date and postage confirmed
• Launch the appeal by email, on the website and on social media — the launch email to the approved segments, the donation page live and linked from the homepage, and the first posts published, each link carrying its source code
• Confirm the letters were posted — the mail house’s proof of posting with the quantity and date, and the team told when letters should start to arrive
• Keep the match funding claims accurate — how much of the match is left, checked every working day from the launch, with the page and the emails updated and the wording changed as soon as the match is used up or the matching period ends
• Schedule the Giving Tuesday emails and posts — the Giving Tuesday email and its reminder, the posts for the day and any change to the donation page, all ready the working day before
• Run Giving Tuesday — the emails sent, posts published through the day, the page and payments watched, gifts thanked quickly, and any running total you planned to share kept up to date
• Send the reminder to people who have not given — a reminder email, and a follow-up letter or call where planned, to the segments that have not responded, with the appeal’s progress, the suppressions run again and donors left out

Gifts can arrive from the launch until well into January. Bank, record and thank each one quickly, and act straight away on any complaint or request to stop contact.

• Check the first gifts are banked, coded and recorded — online payouts matched to gifts, post opened and cheques banked, and each gift recorded with its source code; carry on the same routine every working day until January
• Send every thank-you within the agreed time — the thank-you and receipt sent within the target set in Phase 4, naming the appeal and what the gift does, with any delays logged and fixed
• Thank larger gifts and first-time donors personally — a call, a handwritten note or a message from the chief executive, at a gift level the team chooses
• Log and act on complaints, refunds and requests to stop contact — every complaint answered, refunds handled through the payment provider, and every request to stop contact recorded and applied before the next send
• UK: check the Gift Aid declarations as gifts arrive — each declaration complete, the gifts that cannot be claimed left out of the claim, and declarations kept for six years after the most recent donation claimed

Gifts can still arrive while much of the team is away. Schedule the last sends early, agree who is on cover, and keep the page and the payments working until the appeal closes.

• Schedule the last-days emails and posts — the emails and posts for the final days, the page updated with the closing date and the appeal’s progress, and people who have already given left out
• Confirm the holiday cover for gifts, the inbox and the page — a name and contact details for each working day between Christmas and New Year, who can fix the page or the payment form, and who answers supporters
• US: tell donors how year-end gifts are dated — IRS Publication 526 says a check mailed to a charity is considered delivered on the date it is mailed, and a gift charged to a credit card is deductible in the year of the charge; tell donors the last day to give online and to mail a check, without giving tax advice
• Watch the donation page and payments on the last day — the page and payment form tested in the morning, gifts and errors checked through the day, and the final email sent
• Close the appeal — the page changed to thank supporters and keep taking gifts or point to general giving, scheduled appeal sends stopped, and the last date a gift counts towards the appeal agreed with finance

Gifts by post can keep arriving into January. Count them, claim what can be claimed, and write down what to repeat next year while it is fresh.

• Process the last gifts and reconcile the income with finance — late post and payouts recorded, and the appeal’s income agreed with the finance records by payment method and source code
• UK: claim Gift Aid on the appeal’s gifts — the claim made through Charities Online with eligible software or a spreadsheet (software for claims of over 1,000 donations), within four years of the end of the financial period the gifts were received in
• US: check every gift of $250 or more has its written acknowledgement — each one sent with the required wording; Publication 1771 says charities typically send acknowledgements no later than 31 January of the year after the gift
• Report to the match funder and claim the match — the gifts that counted, the amount matched and the report the agreement asks for, sent by its deadline
• Report the results against the goal — income, gifts, average gift, response rate and cost by segment and channel, new donors recruited and income for each pound or dollar spent, compared with last year
• Record the lessons for next year’s appeal — what to repeat, stop and test next time, which steps to start earlier, and the notes to read when next year’s checklist starts
• Hand new donors over to stewardship — new and returning donors added to the welcome or stewardship programme, so their next contact is a thank-you or an update rather than another ask