Sending thank-you emails to donors

Purpose

1.1. To automate sending personalized thank-you emails to donors, immediately acknowledging gifts and fostering ongoing engagement.
1.2. Ensures all donors receive immediate gratitude, improving donor retention and supporting fundraising transparency.
1.3. Automates compliance with record-keeping for donation receipts and provides the foundation for future automated donation campaigns.

Trigger Conditions

2.1. New donation received via online form, payment gateway, or CRM entry.
2.2. Manual entry by ashram staff triggers automation for cash/check/offline donations.
2.3. Donor opt-in for communications enables further automations (e.g., newsletters).

Platform Variants

3.1. Gmail API
- Feature/Setting: Automate email drafts with "users.messages.send" endpoint using template and merge donor data.
3.2. Outlook Graph API
- Feature/Setting: Automate transactional emails by POSTing via "/sendMail" endpoint with HTML content and donor name.
3.3. SendGrid
- Feature/Setting: Configure "Mail Send" API to automate templated thank-you emails using substitution tags.
3.4. Mailgun
- Feature/Setting: Automates thank-you with "messages" endpoint and sender domain authentication.
3.5. Amazon SES
- Feature/Setting: Use "SendEmail" API to automate emails with confirmation/thank-you templates.
3.6. Mandrill
- Feature/Setting: Automate transactional emails by POSTing to "/messages/send-template" API.
3.7. Postmark
- Feature/Setting: Automates using "Send email with template" API, passing donor data fields.
3.8. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)
- Feature/Setting: Automate email sent via "/smtp/email" API with personalized templates.
3.9. Zoho Mail
- Feature/Setting: Automates via "SendMail" API with donor fields sourced from form submissions.
3.10. HubSpot
- Feature/Setting: Automate email workflows using "Create and send a single email" workflow action with donor triggers.
3.11. Mailchimp Transactional
- Feature/Setting: Automate by triggering email from webhooks with merge variables pre-filled.
3.12. ActiveCampaign
- Feature/Setting: Automate thank-you series via "Automations" triggered by new contact or tagged donation.
3.13. Salesforce Email Studio
- Feature/Setting: Automate thank-you journeys on donation triggers using "Send Email" activity.
3.14. Pabbly Email
- Feature/Setting: Automate email sending via "Send Transactional Mail" API integrating donor names and amounts.
3.15. Klaviyo
- Feature/Setting: Automate triggered flows using donations as events; use "Send Email" action.
3.16. Drip
- Feature/Setting: Automate via workflows with entry point on new donation event; automate thank-you emails.
3.17. Constant Contact
- Feature/Setting: Automate email sequence with "Email Automation" campaigns started on new donation form fills.
3.18. Freshdesk
- Feature/Setting: Automate ticket triggers to send donor acknowledgment emails using canned responses.
3.19. Keap (Infusionsoft)
- Feature/Setting: Automate email follow-up using "Send Email" campaign builder on payment received.
3.20. Intercom
- Feature/Setting: Automate outbound custom emails using "Messages" triggered by donation event in CRM.

Benefits

4.1. Automates timely gratitude, increasing donor satisfaction and loyalty.
4.2. Eliminates manual follow-ups, freeing staff for higher-value tasks and automating workflows.
4.3. Provides a scalable, automatable system for ashrams with varying donation volume.
4.4. Enhances data accuracy for donor records and automates audit readiness.
4.5. Enables automating related communications, nurturing donors automatically post-donation.