When Martha Hagedorn-Krass wrote a thank you letter to President Clinton after his appearance at the Association of Fundraising Professionals March conference, her intent was to show appreciation for his comments on “green” energy projects at the Empire State Building and the Chicago Merchandise Mart. Hagedor-Krass, who is executive director of the Ronald McDonald House of Topeka Kansas, told the former president about the house’s current fundraising campaign to install new 80-to 95-percent energy efficient systems.
As reported in The Chronicle of Philanthropy, four months later, she found a donation from the Clinton Family Foundation in the mail—a check for $5,000.
Right now, most of you are thinking about developing the best appeal letters for your annual fund campaign. Are you thinking just as hard about the thank yous that follow the donations? Thank yous are an integral part of cultivating and stewarding your donors.
Kivi Leroux Miller of nonprofitmarketingguide.com conducted a little experiment that revealed what we’d call an “epic fail” in communication. Calling her experiment “What I Got When I Gave,” she made $20 donations to 10 national nonprofits she had no connection with. The donations were made in mid-January, and by mid-February, she received three thank yous. And all three were pretty generic.
“None of these thank you notes wowed me, but hey, at least they exist,” Miller blogged. “How can nonprofts expect to thrive off the kindness of others, when the kindness of a simple thank-you note to an unsolicited donation is too much to ask?”
You can read Miller’s blog about her results here.
You should have the structure of your thank you letters in place when you start soliciting donations, and be prepared to send out thank yous almost immediately when you receive the gifts.
Joanne Fritz, who has more than 30 years experience in non-profit fund raising, provided the following 10 tips for thanking donors on About.com.
1. Get your thank you letter out within 48 hours of receiving the donation. You may stretch it to a week if you have to.
2. Personalize! Use names, mention something about the donor and his or her connection with the school (such as an event recently attended).
3. Customize! This goes hand-in-hand with personalizing.
4. Tie the donation to how it will support the school. This gives you the opportunity to show the donor how they have made a difference.
5. Sign it. With a pen…not a .jpg.
6. Add a personal, handwritten note, from the School Head or the Board President.
7. Include a reply envelope to invite further donations.
8. You can make the thank you the donor’s tax letter. If you choose not to, the tax letter can serve as a “second touch” to engage the donor.
9. Speaking of future engagement, your thank you can invite the donor to a future event or to tour the school (if your donor is not a parent, for example).
10. Give contact information…a name, phone, and e-mail …that invites the donor to keep in touch, to ask questions, to get more information.
Another idea is to send a thank you from your students. DonorsChoose.org, the online organization that allows donors to choose specific public school classroom projects to sponsor, provides thank yous written by students in the classrooms the donor supported (when the donor gives $100 or more to the project). You can adopt this idea for your school.
