Your fundraising email did its job. Someone opened it, clicked “donate,” and landed on the giving page.
Then they left without completing the gift.
Think about how much effort went into that click: the list segmentation, the subject line, the creative, the ask.
All of that worked, and the donor was ready to give.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) built a system to win those donors back.
What NPCA built
Most donation pages convert fewer than one in ten mobile visitors, according to M+R’s 2026 Benchmarks.
That’s a lot of expressed intent going nowhere.
Working with Avalon Consulting, NPCA set up a two-layer recovery system adapted from e-commerce abandoned cart tactics.
About 70% of online shopping carts get abandoned before checkout, and recovery emails are among the highest-performing automated sequences in retail.
NPCA applied that same logic to its donation page.
The first layer is an exit-intent pop-up. When someone moves to navigate away, a prompt appears encouraging them to complete their gift before they go.
The second layer catches the donors who leave anyway.
An automated email sends a personalized reminder and a direct link back to the donation form, reaching supporters while their intent is still warm.
The emails are short and specific to what the donor was about to support, built around a single “Complete My Gift” button that takes them right back to finish.
The results
The recovery emails generated a response rate 10x stronger than NPCA’s standard email appeals.
Average gift came in 22% higher than what the organization sees from organic web donations.
But the real value showed up after launch.
The system kept running month after month with virtually no hands-on management, delivering incremental revenue the team didn’t have to actively campaign for.
That’s the difference between a campaign win and a system.
How to build your own
The first question is whether your donation platform captures an email address before the transaction is complete.
Platforms like Engaging Networks and Fundraise Up both support this natively.
If you’re on a different platform, check whether your CRM or donation platform tracks form starts, because many do.
If yours does, set up a triggered email that fires when someone starts a gift and doesn’t finish.
Keep it simple and send it within the first hour: a quick reminder of what they were about to support with a direct link back to the form. UNICEF USA recovered more than 26,000 donations this way.
If your platform doesn’t capture pre-transaction emails, an exit-intent pop-up on your donation page could be a simpler starting point.
The bottom line
The highest-performing email in your program might be one you build once.
Donors who already clicked “donate” might be quietly leaving your donation page with no follow-up.
A recovery automation fixes that gap.
Industry events
Free: How best-in-class fundraising teams are preparing for big gifts at year-end
Tue, Sep 15, 12:00 PM ETThu, Sep 24, 12:00-5:00 PM ET
Sep 30-Oct 1 – Online
Check our events list for more or reply to this email to submit one for consideration.
Quick hits
New M+R research on non-cash giving finds that 81% of donors already know what DAFs are, but most nonprofit landing pages are still explaining the basics instead of making it easy to give.
The Center for Sustainable Giving published five strategies for growing revenue from existing recurring donors, anchored by a stat worth remembering: 97% of a sustainer’s value arrives after their first gift.
A Give.org donor trust report from earlier this summer found that 60% of giving platform users want charities to consent before being listed, and only 49% expect platforms to ensure the information displayed is accurate.
Public Rights Project is hiring a remote Email Manager to lead email communications strategy for the national civil rights nonprofit — remote, Central time zone preferred, $87,550–$118,450.
‘Til next time!
Sara