The post-donation ask you should try

You’re likely very familiar with the petition-to-donation daisy chain. 

Someone signs your petition, and they’re redirected to a donation page.

After someone donates, what happens next? 

For most programs, it’s usually a confirmation screen with a message of gratitude and an email receipt.

The Born Free Foundation, a UK wildlife charity with about 108,000 email subscribers, tried the reverse during a major campaign — and shared the intriguing results at ENCC London.

The campaign
The “Clawing at the Cages” campaign had two goals: to collect 5,000 petition signatures calling on the UK government to stop the continued breeding of big cats in captivity, and to raise £20,000.

The team built a page chain linking both actions. Dead simple yet incredibly creative.

If you signed the petition, the thank-you page directed you to an ask to give. If you donated to the campaign, you were redirected to the petition rather than a standard confirmation screen.

The post-donation petition was stripped down, with personal details and opt-ins removed since they’d already been captured with the donation.

They also built versions of the donation page tailored to whether someone came from email, the website, or was an existing monthly donor.

The auto-response emails followed the same play. Thank-you-for-signing included a donation ask, and thank-you-for-donating included the petition.

Almost two-thirds of donors then immediately signed the petition.

How the emails were structured
The page chain handled the flow between actions, and the email strategy solved for who saw what first.

Prior donors received the fundraising ask first, and everyone else received the petition ask first.

Two weeks later, they reversed each ask, acknowledging what each person had already done.

The results
The campaign raised £22,500 in online donations, 12.7% above the £20,000 target.

£2,500 doesn’t sound like much, but it helped Born Free blow past their fundraising goal.

They’ve since built the two-way daisy chain into every new campaign.

How to apply this to your program
Look at your donation confirmation page. If there’s no next action after the gift, you’re missing an opportunity.

Add the reverse ask to your auto-response emails. If you’re already sending transactional emails after a gift, adding a second ask into that email — like signing an urgent petition — takes minutes.

Reduce friction where you can. If your daisy chain drops people onto a petition page with fields they’ve already completed on the donation page, you might lose them.

If possible, remove any fields you’ve already captured.

The bottom line
Your donors cared about your work enough to make a first, second, or tenth gift.

Asking them to take action while they’re still warm is one of the lowest-lift additions you can make to a campaign you’ve already built — and the results will add up.

Check our events list for more or reply to this email to submit one for consideration.

‘Til next time!
Sara