By the time you’ve reached the thanking portion of your campaign, you’ve already engaged your networks, made the asks to donors, and turned contacts to donors. That probably feels good! At this point, you might be tempted to put your asks into hyperdrive—posting more asks to social media, attending events, and more. Those are all good things! But as you’re doing them, it can be easy to forget a crucial and critical step: thanking your donors.

Taking the time out to thank your donors will pay for itself in dividends. It’ll make your donors feel appreciated and honor the gift that they’ve given to you, meaning that you can likely come back to them later down the line—maybe even during the same campaign, if you’re running a months long campaign—to make an additional gift. And perhaps even more important, a grateful and generous donor might consider asking their own friends and family to also give to your campaign, extending the network of people who learn about your project and are asked for a donation.

Remember that prospect chart? Growing your prospect chart is one surefire way of increasing the potential amount of money that you can raise. One way to expand that prospect chart without adding too much work to your or your teammates, plates is by encouraging your donors to ask their own networks. Appropriately thanking them for their generous gift is a key way of encouraging that.