Your winter appeal will bring them in. We’ll make sure they stay.
Secure second gifts and deeper engagement from your winter appeal donors next year and tell your board you’re waaay ahead with retention plans 👀
Only three slots available 🚨
And the award for the appeal you've poured your heart into goes to... you. 💖
You've planned it, written it, chased sign-off on it and probably dreamt about the subject lines. Now let's make sure the people it brings in stick around, and want to do more with you.
Right now, what happens after someone gives feels a bit like this…
You throw a brilliant party, everyone arrives, and then you go to bed before anyone's taken their coat off.
A supporter gives, they get a lovely thank you, and then it's anyone's guess. Maybe two emails land in the same week. Maybe it's tumbleweed until February. Maybe the next thing they hear from you is another ask.
You know it's where you're losing people you worked really hard to bring in. You just can't see it all in one place, and you definitely don't have the time to go looking.
Why the first 90 days after a donation reaaallly matter
In my experience, how someone engages with your emails in their first 90 days is one of the clearest signs of whether they'll stick around.
If they're opening, clicking, reading a story, signing something or coming along to an event, they're getting to know you.
If all they get is silence or maybe even worse, a monthly newsletter crammed with calls to action that literally induce decision paralysis, they tend to drift away quietly before anyone notices. 🪦
So this isn't only about hanging on to the people your appeal brings in.
It's about turning a one-off gift into someone who signs your petitions, shares your stories, volunteers and gives again next year.
A note from Alex
The First 90 days is a practical retention roadmap that gives your team everything it needs to grow email engagement and repeat gifts in Q1 next year ⚡️
Investment: £2,500 + VAT
What you get
The 90-day map. Everything your supporters receive after your appeal, laid out in order, so you can see the gaps, the clashes and the awkward silences.
The honest notes. Kind, clear notes on up to 12 emails, whichever team sends them. What's working, what isn't, and why.
The to-do list that fits your team. Changes in priority order, with a rough time for each, sized to the hours you actually have. It covers what to fix, and where to invite supporters to take their next step with you.
What to measure instead. Three or four signs to track whether supporters are staying and getting more involved, beyond open rates.
The one-pager for the boss. A single page you can hand to your director or trustees.
The chat before Christmas. A one-hour call to talk it all through and agree what to do first in January.
Does any of this sound familiar?
The newsletter goes out because it's the first Tuesday of the month, not because anyone's waiting for it.
It's a chore on the to-do list, so it gets done at 4pm on the day, and nobody has time to ask whether it's working.
Stewardship belongs to fundraising, the newsletter belongs to marketing, and nobody's sure what the other team is sending.
Supporters don't know or care which team an email comes from. They just know what lands in their inbox.
Your supporters hear from you when you need something, and not much in between.
The appeal gets all the attention, and there's rarely a simple next step for people who've just given, other than waiting for the next ask.
You'll love this if you're a...
Head of Fundraising.
You want this winter's donors to give again, and you’ve done work on your stewardship, but you’d love an outsider perspective from someone who has reviewed 100s of journeys
Head of Marketing.
You want your marketing emails and newsletter to give supporters a reason to stay involved, not just fill a slot every month.
Here’s what clients say about working with me:
As a time-strapped organisation who have been attempting to make these improvements for some time, it was fantastic to have Alex join the team to guide us through, write and implement the work in a short turnaround period, and deliver a project which will have a real impact on the charity.
- MedicinemaAlex really knows her stuff. She can take a vague brief from a senior leader and be trusted to dig into it as much as is needed to get to a good resolution! She provides clear recommendations and is focused on ensuring the organisation is left in a stronger position at the end of her work.
- CARE InternationalAlex is a dream! Right from the get-go, the way that she works is so structured and clear; I always felt like I knew where we were at with the project and what the next steps needed to be. As someone with a very overwhelming workload, this took so much pressure off. She also brings so much expertise to the table - any question we had, she could answer!
- Sheffield Futures
Your Questions, Answered
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No. Giving again matters, but so does signing a petition, coming to an event or sharing a story. The report looks at how your emails help supporters get more involved in whatever way suits your organisation.
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Not at all, it’s really common. BUT, I will push you to tweak the content as well as ask you to share how these emails performed in Q1 of this year.
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Yes. You can send your stewardship emails or your newsletters on their own. If you can get both, you'll see the fullest picture, but it isn't a requirement. 10,000 BONUS points if you can get both streams to submit emails for this project
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No, never. Screenshots, PDFs or links and your performance reports are all I need.
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Honest, yes. Harsh, no. Every note comes with a reason and a next step, and I'm always looking at it from your supporter's side, not scoring your team.
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A 45-minute kickoff call, pulling together your emails and numbers, and a one-hour debrief call.
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The report is written so your team can make the changes yourselves. If you'd like me to rewrite any of the priority emails, I can quote for that separately.
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Because I do every audit myself and I want them all finished before Christmas, so you've got a plan waiting for you in January.
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£2,500 + VAT
Only three spots left for 2026
Book by Tuesday 10 November
Report and debrief call by Wednesday 16 December