As we wind down 2026, it’s a good time to think about your renewal program. Whether you have an expire-date driven renewal campaign or do annual renewals at the start of the year, renewal campaigns are often one of your best performing campaigns.

Why? Because the word renew sends a message to your donor. “It’s time.” Donors who like you want to keep supporting you, but they lose track of when they last gave. So reminding them when it’s time to renew is very powerful. Even if they ignore other mailings, they are likely to pay attention when they see the word renew.

Oftentimes I hear organizations say, “Our renewals are performing well we don’t need to change them.” However, if it’s one of your best performing campaigns of the year, then tweaking it to improve response can pay big dividends.

Here are a few ideas to consider as you plan for your 2027 renewals:

1. Add one more effort. Evaluate the final effort in your renewal series. If it is still making money, then you should probably send another one. After all, you SPEND money to acquire new donors, so getting them back in the renewal campaign while still making money is smart.

2. For mid-level donors, consider a content-rich insert in your first renewal notice. We tried this last year for one of our clients. They mailed a 20-page impact report that was very substantive. The piece had been created by the communications team, so it did not require more effort from the mid-level team. We included it in the first renewal notice to all $1,000+ donors and saw our response rate increase to 15.2% —more than double the response rate of the previous year.

3. Add a telephone touch. You know what they say, it’s the next best thing to being there. Adding a phone call to your series can help improve overall retention. Consider adding it mid-series to get them to renew earlier, which will save you on sending the remaining efforts in the series.

4. Use all your tools. Since the word renew is so powerful, it pays to create surround sound with your message. Add an SMS reminder or a couple of emails into the campaign. These will not only drive outright gifts within their channel, but will also remind donors to send back their gift by mail, boosting your direct mail response.

Remember, your renewal campaign drives significant revenue. Taking some extra time now to tweak your strategy could make it even more successful. Do you have tips about what’s working in your renewal campaign? We would love to hear from you. Drop us a note at connect@impactdc.com.