Leveraging Smart Appeals during CYE
Oct 2025 - READ IN 4 MINUTES
This blog was originally published in December 2023 and updated in October 2025 for content and clarity.
As fundraisers prepare for the most critical giving stretch of the year, the pressure to break through crowded inboxes and meet ambitious goals has never been greater. Donor behavior is shifting—according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, overall dollars raised grew 3.6 percent in 2025, yet the number of donors declined by more than 1 percent. Retention rates are slipping and “inbox exhaustion” is real.
So how can advancement teams stand out, inspire generosity, and hit every metric in the final weeks of the calendar year?
Enter Smart Appeals —a proven low lift way to renew your most loyal donors and capture those who just lapsed. Below you’ll learn how to use this automated solution to identify high-potential target segments. Plus, find messaging best practices for communicating with these key donor groups.
Smart Appeals—Simplify Donor Retention Strategies
In the world of educational fundraising, prioritizing donor retention remains a cornerstone of sustained success. On the heels of GivingTuesday and amid the peak of the global giving season, calendar-year-end is a pivotal period for retaining valuable supporters. Luckily, Smart Appeals by GiveCampus helps streamline your retention efforts—and is available to all GiveCampus partners with **GC Online Giving.**
Smart Appeals uses your institutions historical gift data to identify and surface high-priority donor segments—recurring and anniversary donors—so you can focus your energy where it matters most. These segments refresh automatically using your latest donor data, so you can feel confident about who you’re sending appeals to—no manual list management required.
Read How Westminster School Leverages Smart Appeals Ahead of their Annual Giving Day
Send personalized emails and texts to these donors directly from the GiveCampus platform using easy-to-customize templates that include merge tokens for personalization and custom links for each recipient. These built-in links pre-populate donor information and suggest strategic ask amounts based on their giving history—creating a seamless, personalized experience that reduces friction and increases the likelihood of conversion. Smart Appeals also respect donor communication preferences through integrated solicit codes, ensuring that your outreach is both targeted and compliant.
Beyond simplifying retention-based outreach, GiveCampus provides real-time insights into the performance of your Smart Appeals solicitations—a critical advantage during the busy giving season. You can track open rates, clicks, dollars raised, and donor conversions in one place, empowering you to fine-tune your strategy and maximize giving before December 31.
Smart Appeals makes it simple to reach donors with timely, targeted messages that feel personal and relevant. But identifying the right donor segments is just half the battle. Below, you’ll find more practical tips for crafting compelling CYE messages to key audiences.
Crafting Successful Anniversary Donor Solicitations
Whether you put all your fundraising fuel behind GivingTuesday or have various CYE campaigns, chances are you have some donor anniversaries that recently lapsed or are fast approaching.
An anniversary appeal is exactly what it sounds like–an appeal made on or near the date a donor previously made a gift. This is a prime opportunity to recognize your donor’s loyalty, remind them of their previous gift’s impact, and encourage them to make another contribution this year. Anniversary appeals can be a highly effective retention-based strategy that helps you close the gap on your year-end fundraising goals. Below are some best practices for crafting successful messaging for anniversary donors.
1. Keep It Simple and Direct
Stay focused on what is special about this type of solicitation: it’s based on their anniversary and the importance of regular support. Don’t write a novel, but remind them that it’s been a year since they donated and why ongoing support is important. Highlight some of the ways their past gift or gifts have made an impact and how their continued support will help make a difference at your institution.
2. Be Personal
Consider writing your appeal in the voice of your annual giving director—not the institution. Donors receive many general solicitations from the school. Try to make this one feel a little more personal with the tone and signatories. Make it feel like someone in the advancement office is personally reaching out with a reminder about their anniversary.
3. Don’t ‘Thask’
Don’t thank the donor, and ask them for another gift in the same breath. You can remind them of the impact of giving more broadly without ‘thasking.’
4. Set Up Templates and Adjust for Topical Content
Set up your upcoming, current, and anniversary email templates to be broad and usable year-round. Then, when you send emails each month, you can adjust for more timely content. For example, you might reference the nostalgia of going back to school during September or you might adjust the language to reference a CYE campaign. GC Outreach simplifies setting up email templates within the GiveCampus platform and even offers the option to streamline your copywriting with a little help from generative AI that’s been custom built for educational fundraising. You can also use custom links to pre-populate donor information and ask amounts, creating an easy, tailored giving experience for returning donors.
Notifying Recurring Donors About Renewals
Many major gifts and estate gifts end up coming from donors who have given year after year, even if their initial donations were modest. With the subscription economy normalizing recurring payments, more donors are likely to be receptive to setting up an automatic annual recurring gift.
The GiveCampus platform makes it simple for schools to offer donors the option to make a set-it-and-forget-it gift. It also makes it easy to notify donors when their commitment is up for renewal or expired.
Smart Appeals helps fundraisers stay on top of this critical window, so they maintain recurring donors or recapture recently lapsed ones. Here are a few messaging tips to consider when speaking to these key segments of donors.
1. Highlight Impact
Clearly communicate the impact of their recurring donations. Share success stories, achievements, and milestones that were made possible through their consistent support. This helps donors see the tangible outcomes of their contributions. Offer exclusive content or sneak peeks to recurring donors as a token of appreciation. This could include behind-the-scenes updates, exclusive reports, or invitations to special events.
2. Create a Retention-Focused, Recurring-Only Giving Form
Consider creating a retention-focused giving form specifically for recurring donors that you link to in your solicitation. Keep the content and visuals donor-centric to help these recurring donors feel known and not like they’re just a fish in a sea of many prospective donors.
3. Offer Options for Modification
Provide easy-to-follow instructions on how donors can modify their recurring donations if they wish to make changes. This could include adjusting the donation amount, changing the frequency, or updating payment details. Make the process as seamless as possible.
Use the tips above to craft Smart Appeals email templates that strengthen your relationship with recurring donors and encourage continued support.
Make Smarter Appeals This CYE and Beyond
As year-end approaches and inbox competition intensifies, Smart Appeals helps you keep your outreach strategic, relevant, and impactful. Pre-built segments let you focus your energy where it matters most. Paired with predictive ask amounts and personalized multi-channel outreach within GiveCampus, Smart Appeals removes much of the heavy lifting in donor retention.
Looking for more smart strategies you can apply during this final CYE sprint? Check out 8 Tips for Fiscal Year-End Fundraising, where many of the same principles translate beautifully to the calendar-year end context. Equip your team with both the tools and tactics to finish strong—and make every donor touch count.
Curious how GiveCampus can support your advancement team in 2026 and beyond? Schedule a call with one of our fundraising experts.
