Thoughtful, well-executed upgrade campaigns will get the job done without scaring off your most loyal donors.

By Jerry Huntsinger

3. New-donor welcome letter: After the new donor has made a gift and you send out that quick thank-you letter and the response item, then send out the welcome letter, the strongest appeal you have, suggesting higher dollar amounts.

These steps are quite basic, and a lot of organizations have a variety of other techniques they use to achieve the same upgrading results with a new donor.