Building welcome journeys: what really matters for your newest supporters
- Sally Wintle
- Oct 29
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 4
First-time donors are critical to long-term fundraising success. Charities have a short window - just 60 days! - to convert them into loyal supporters. This article outlines the key elements of an effective welcome journey, and how to build one that drives retention and loyalty.
You never get a second chance to make a first impression - and this is true for your charity, too.
When someone makes their first gift, they are starting a new relationship with your charity.
Perhaps it’s just one gift – we know that many donors simply stop here. But then again, maybe it’s the start of a lifelong relationship – one that could lead to a gift in their will that honours that relationship long into the future.
How many supporters continue to give, and give again?
When we ran our original benchmarking research at About Loyalty, we identified that under 50% of donors were still supporting in their second year – but, if you can get them to that point, subsequent retention rises dramatically. More recent research suggests that the situation is even more challenging now - 69% of first-time donors never make a second gift[1].
Not only this, but you have just a short window to encourage that second gift; supporters are most open to converting to regular giving in the first 60 days – and that after just 60 days, conversion rates drops off significantly[2].
All the data points to the same thing – the crucial impact of the welcome journey. You have just a few moments and a short timescale to get it right. In a time that getting the first donation is increasingly difficult[3], charities can’t afford to waste the opportunity to quickly build the loyalty of their newest supporters.
"Under 50% of donors were still supporting in their second year – but, if you can get them to that point, subsequent retention rises dramatically."
What really matters in those first few months?
We dived into our benchmarked loyalty data from around 50 Chase Index member charities – and focussed particularly on the first 12 months of a supporter’s experience with their chosen charity to uncover what is most important for that pool of new donors.
And what we found was fascinating.
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Perhaps unsurprisingly, most supporters come in with low loyalty, and this grows over time as can be seen here:
But the drivers of loyalty - commitment, satisfaction and trust - increase at different rates and at different moments.
Commitment tends to keep growing throughout the relationship; trust grows moderately, and then plateaus. But it's supporter satisfaction that shows the biggest difference in the first few months of that crucial first year.
These drivers and the statements within them have been tried and tested over years of research, and are proven to be the best measures for understanding the emotional connection, or loyalty, of your supporters, that are influenced by their positive (or negative!) experiences with your charity.
Crucially, we see the biggest growth in loyalty scores within that first year of a person choosing to support you. All of which says: a good welcome is essential. You really never get that chance again.
In part 2 of this mini-series, we’ll share more about which statements within those drivers have the biggest impact on loyalty in those early months, illustrated by a great case study from Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation who have used these drivers to transform their welcome journey.
[1] Sequoia analysis of 2 million first-time donors between 2020 and 2024 shows that 69% of first-time donors never make a second gift.
Join Sally and the rest of the About Loyalty team at Loyalty Day 2025, a free online conference dedicated to all things supporter experience: Loyalty Day 2025 | About Loyalty
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