How to Follow Up After an Auction: 3 Emails to Retain Donors

The last item is sold, the final paddle dropped, and the doors closed at your auction. But your work isn’t over. 

Beyond analyzing your auction performance, it’s time to show your donors some post-event appreciation. Donors who feel seen after a fundraising event are much more likely to come back next year, sponsor future events, or even make donations outside of your auction.

To help, we’ve built a 3-part post-auction sequence to send to your donors, plus additional tips and troubleshooting to improve your auction follow up.

Why Follow-Up Matters

Follow up is so important because donor retention is a more effective use of your resources than new donor acquisition. It costs about five times more to find one new donor than to keep one current donor.

So take the time to say thank you to show donors you care about their continued support. Donors also want to see that their donations are used responsibly, and by showing them the tangible impact of your auction afterwards, you deepen trust.

Three-Step Post-Auction Sequence

1. Thank Donors Immediately and Send Tax Receipts

Send your first follow up message within 48 hours. First-time donors who receive a thank-you within 48 hours are four times more likely to give again.

Your first email should hit a few key points: genuine donor appreciation, auction highlights (with photos and videos), tax receipts or statements, and instructions for anyone who won an item.

Tailor the messaging for your different segments, including sponsors and volunteers.

2. Offer Leftover Auction Items and Collect Feedback

Your second email is your opportunity to collect important feedback and give a second chance for items that didn’t sell.

Send a short donor survey (keep it under 5 minutes) asking what worked and what they'd change. Frame it as giving supporters a voice—people get more invested when they feel like co-creators.

For leftover items, you have a few options. You can:

• Set up discounted "buy now" options on an auction page.
• Auction off in-person items in a follow-up online auction.
• Return items to their donors.
• Donate leftover auction items to volunteers or other causes. (Just make sure your item donors are okay with this!)

Read more about what to do with leftover silent auction items here.

3. Share the Impact of Donations

The last email comes later—sometimes a month or more after the event—once you have real results to share. 

The impact email is what separates your nonprofit from the thousands of others they support. Most organizations never follow up this way, yet 97% of donors say that seeing the impact of their donations is a major motivator to give. 

When sharing your impact, highlight one beneficiary story, and share a few statistics about your program progress. Make it visual and emotional, not just a list of accomplishments.

Tips to Make Follow Up More Effective

While you’re customizing our email templates to fit your organization, apply these strategies to make your message stick.

Make Communications Personal

Organizations that personalize outreach generate 40% more revenue.

So address supporters by name and reference their specific contribution if possible. For example, you can write, “Thank you for your winning bid on the lake house package! Your donation will go a long way in helping us fund our after-school program.”

Tier Your Outreach

Not all donors are the same, so your follow-up shouldn’t be either. Segment your communications to make them feel more personalized. 

• First-time donors: Don’t overwhelm this segment with too many messages (don’t send any more than 3 follow-up messages maximum). Also ask them to sign up for monthly giving and to sign up for your newsletter.
• Repeat donors: Highlight their loyalty and show how their continued support creates long-term impact.
• Major donors and sponsors: Provide more personal, high-touch outreach like phone calls, hand-written notes, or full impact reports.

Include Sponsor Materials in Thank You Messages

For auction sponsors, don’t just thank them, showcase them too. They paid for brand recognition after all, and you can continue to showcase their logos on post-event materials.

Share their logo in a social media thank-you post, mention them in your follow up emails, and highlight their contribution in your annual report. Recognition makes them more likely to sponsor again next year.

Ready to Automate Your Follow Up?

If you're managing all this manually—tracking who won what, scheduling emails, organizing donor data—you know how fast it gets messy.

CharityAuctions.com handles the logistics so you can focus on relationships. Automated thank-you's go out to your list, donors get segmented automatically, and your impact reporting is built right in. 

See how it works with a free demo.

For more auction strategies, see our complete Auction Best Practices Guide.

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly, TEDx speaker and CEO of CharityAuctions.com, helps nonprofits raise millions through auctions and AI. He hosts The Million Dollar Nonprofit podcast and inspires leaders to live their legacy, not just leave it.