Stop Copying Last Year's Appeal.
Start here instead.
Last week I said if you wait for October, you’ve already lost the weeks you needed. This week, let’s talk about what actually goes into a plan — because I see the same shortcut over and over.
A client hands me their draft year-end appeal, and I can tell within the first paragraph: it’s last year’s letter with the dates changed. Same ask, same story, same email schedule. Nothing wrong with reusing what worked — except nobody stopped to ask if it’s still working.
Here’s what I mean. Every year I ask clients three questions before we write a single word:
What actually happened this year — the real wins, not the highlight reel?
What have donors and prospects told you, in conversations, surveys, or declined gifts, about what matters to them right now?
And what’s the specific dollar goal, and what has to be true by December 31st for you to hit it?
Most organizations skip all three. They pull last year’s letter, swap the year, maybe update a stat, and call it done. Then they wonder why response rates are flat, or why the same donors who gave last year quietly don’t this year.
A real year-end plan isn’t a template swap. It’s built from three things: a goal that’s specific enough to work backward from, a sequence of asks and touchpoints that reflects what you learned this year, and a timeline that holds up once life gets in the way — because it will.
I had a client last fall who almost sent out the same appeal as the year before, tweaked slightly. When we sat down and actually planned — pulling in what her donors had told her all year, and being honest about what had actually moved the needle — the letter she ended up sending barely resembled the old one. She was stunned by the difference in response.
That’s not a fluke. That’s what happens when you plan instead of copy.
So before you open last year’s file and start swapping dates: stop.
Pull together what actually happened this year.
Listen back through what your donors have told you.
Get honest about your number.
That’s the plan. Everything else is decoration.
If you want a simple way to start pulling those pieces together, the Fundraising Focus Planner walks you through exactly that — the wins, the feedback, the goal — before you write a single line of your appeal.
