E-BOOK
Call. Text. Retain: A Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits
Your complete, practical playbook for building phone and text programs that retain donors, reactivate lapsed supporters, and compound over time.
Most nonprofits are leaving their best outreach channels on the table.
They send emails. They run campaigns. And then roughly half of their new donors never give again.
Phone and text are the two channels most likely to change that. But most small-to-mid-size development teams either skip them entirely or run them without a system.
This guide gives you the system.
It covers how each channel works, when to use each one, and how to build a 12-month outreach calendar that turns first-time donors into retained supporters.
What you will be able to do after reading this
- Make thank-you calls that measurably improve first-time donor retention
- Build a clean, compliant text list from scratch
- Sequence cultivation texts before fundraising asks so donors respond
- Identify which donors belong in a phone call versus a text sequence
- Run a coordinated year-end campaign across phone, text, and email
- Connect your outreach program to your CRM so nothing falls through the gaps
What’s in this guide?
Channel strategy
A clear framework for deciding when to call versus when to text, built around what the data shows actually moves donors, not just what ‘feels’ right in the moment.
A 12-month outreach calendar
A ready-to-use touchpoint map designed for small-to-mid-size development teams, from first-gift thank-you call through year-end deadline push.
Seven ready-to-use templates
Call scripts and text sequences for every major outreach moment: first-gift thank-you calls, lapsed donor reactivation, sustainer conversion, mid-level check-ins, and year-end campaigns. All with bracketed placeholder fields so they are ready to use immediately.
Compliance guidance
A plain-language overview of what TCPA means for nonprofits, what consent you need before texting, and how to build a compliant program from day one.