Scroll to the bottom for three text messages your team can copy, personalize, and send on November 25th.
By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA Author, The Nonprofit Fundraising Solution | Former Faculty, NYU Heyman Center for Philanthropy, School of Professional Studies
A four-minute read.
Thanksgiving is not far off. The day before, Nov. 25, arrives faster than you may expect, and if you plan for it now, rather than wait until the week before, you can have better results.
The day before Thanksgiving is one of the most emotionally open donor cultivation days of the year. Your donors are thinking about what matters to them. A single text message that asks for nothing, but that simply says we see you, we are grateful, is a communication strategy that is genuine and has impact. Here is why, and here is what to do about it as soon as possible.
Why a Gratitude Text Works So Well
Donor retention is 43.3 percent overall and a very low 18.9 percent for first-time donors. (Fundraising Effectiveness Project, Q4 2025.) That means that fewer than one in five new donors gives a second gift.
Yet we know that keeping a donor is roughly five times cheaper than replacing one. The tactic with strong documented evidence for improving retention is sending a personal, timely thank-you.
A Thanksgiving gratitude text is that thank-you, delivered on a day when the entire culture is oriented toward appreciation, to a donor, a volunteer, a prospect who is not expecting to hear from you.
The research on gratitude and donor behavior is consistent: donors who receive a personal, timely acknowledgment are more likely to give again. Not because you reminded them of a deadline, but because they felt seen.
The text that asks for nothing, that simply says we are grateful for who you are, not what you might give, is memorable more than other messages in your year-end sequence. It opens December from a position of relationship rather than transaction.
Why Text Works Better Than Email on This Day
Text messaging has a 99 percent open rate and a 90 percent read rate within three minutes of delivery. By contrast, Email averages between 20 and 25 percent open rates for nonprofit communications.
On Thanksgiving Eve — when inboxes are heavy with travel confirmations, grocery store promotions, and year-end appeals that have already begun arriving — a text cuts through in a way email does not.
The legendary nonprofit, Boys Town, based in Nebraska launched a text messaging program in the fourth quarter of 2023 and cultivated their text subscriber list throughout 2024 using gratitude messages, storytelling, and donor surveys. They reported significant improvements in their year-end campaign as a result. (NonProfit PRO, January 2025.)
The gratitude text is not the end of the relationship. It is the opening of the year-end season on a human note.
On the best send time: General best is to send your text mid-morning — between 10am and noon — as the window with the highest read rates for nonprofit text messages. However, your own experience with your donors matters most. If you have data on when your donors respond to texts, let that guide you. If you are avoiding a CRM platform, and texting directly to major donors from your phone, send when you would ordinarily call them. Your relationship is the best data you have.
Texting Technologies
Your options fall into two categories depending on your list size and budget.
If your CRM already has texting built in, check whether it is enabled and configured ASAP, but long before November 25th. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, DonorPerfect, and several other major CRMs have native SMS integrations — meaning donor records, communication logs, and responses can sync automatically without a separate platform.
If you need a dedicated nonprofit texting platform, her are three that I have used and liked:
SimpleTexting (simpletexting.com) — straightforward broadcast SMS, widely used, starting around $39 per month for small lists. No nonprofit-specific features but functional for a basic gratitude send.
EZ Texting (eztexting.com) — long-established, similar simplicity, good for organizations that want basic mass texting without a steep learning curve.
Rally Corp (rallycorp.com) — purpose-built for nonprofits, trusted by more than 1,000 organizations across the United States, no setup fees, transparent pricing, and a guarantee of at least a 15 percent click rate on qualifying campaigns. It’s worth looking at if you want a platform designed specifically for donor engagement rather than a general-purpose texting tool.
If you have no platform and no budget: A personal text from the executive director, the development director, or the staff person who knows the donor best costs nothing, requires no technology, and is more powerful than any mass send for your top 20 to 30 donors. Do not let the absence of a platform stop you from sending something personal to the people who matter most to your organization.
A compliance note before you launch: TCPA — the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the federal law governing text message communications — gives nonprofits more flexibility than for-profit businesses. If a supporter has voluntarily given your organization their phone number — through a donation form, event registration, or staff contact — that generally constitutes implied consent to be texted. A gratitude text should never go to someone who has asked not to be contacted. Two guides written specifically for nonprofits will get you up to speed quickly: Rally Corp's TCPA guide at rallycorp.com and Perlman & Perlman's legal guide at perlmanandperlman.com.
Checklist before Nov. 25th
Identify your text list. Your CRM has mobile phone numbers for a portion of your donor file. Pull that list now and check it to add new mobile numbers. If it is thin, that is useful information — it tells you that personal texts from staff are the right approach this year, and that building a text-consented list is a priority for improved donor hygiene.
If your text list is thin or nonexistent, four ways will help you build it. First, mine your CRM — mobile numbers may already be in your database but not tagged as such. Second, add a mobile number field with an opt-in checkbox to every donation form, event registration, and newsletter sign-up going forward. Third, phone append services such as NPOInfo by Double the Donation (npoinfo.com) can match your existing donor names and addresses against external databases to return mobile numbers. Fourth, ask your top donors directly. A personal email or call asking for a mobile number with a brief explanation of how you will use it gets a yes from loyal donors more often than you might expect.
Choose your method or platform. Decide now whether you are sending personally to a small list or using a platform for a broader send. If you need a platform, setup can take time.
Write and approve the message now. Do not draft this on November 24th. The three examples at the end of this post give what you need. Personalize the text for your organization's voice and have it approved fast.
Assign who sends it. For major donors — the executive director or development director personally. For mid-level donors — the staff person who knows them best. For the broader file — a platform send. The more personal the sender, the more the message is meaningful.
One rule above all others: do not include an ask for support. This text contains no appeal, no link to a donation page, no year-end urgency language. It is a thank-you. The ask comes later — in December, from a position of relationship rather than transaction.
For the full Thanksgiving Thank-A-Thon protocol — including how to organize your board and volunteers for a full day of gratitude calls on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving — read the companion post on this blog:
→ Read it at laurencepagnoni.com: The Thanksgiving Thank-A-Thon: How a Single Day of Gratitude Launches Your Entire Year-End Drive
Three Text Messages Ready to Send
Copy, personalize, and use these sample texts.
Keep each under 160 characters — one SMS segment. The more specific you make them to your organization and your donor, the better.
Text 1: "Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Please know how grateful we are for you being part of our community. Thank you — not for what you might give, but for who you are as a caring person. It matters to us more than you know. — [Name], [Organization]"
Text 2: "[First name], on this day of thanks, I want you to know how much your support of [Organization] means to us and to the people we serve. Happy Thanksgiving. — [Your name]"
Text 3: "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Because of you, [specific impact — e.g., 'families in our community will have meals on the table this week']. We are grateful for you. — [Organization]"
One text. One day. No ask.
Has your organization tried a Thanksgiving gratitude text — and what response did you get? Share your experience in the comments section of the website.
This post is offered freely for educational purposes. Please share it with development directors, executive directors, and board members who may find it useful — provided the author's byline remains intact: By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA.
My website is loaded with content written for you to use. Take a few minutes while there to explore the search bar. It has blogs and White Papers on nonprofit fundraising, governance, and strategy. Visit laurencepagnoni.com
