Author: Jim Shapiro

Your Tax Receipts and Thank You letters are the “Thank” in Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat.  These letters are a FREE way to interact with your donors and to give them credit for making the world a better place through their giving.  Here’s why these letters are so important;

• Receipts and Thank You notes are the first sign to a donor that you have received their gift and that you appreciate them for giving it.
• Remember, after they gave you the gift they got nothing in return but a warm feeling. They don’t know that you received the gift, they don’t know that you value it. So tell them!
• If your receipts and thank you notes aren’t GREAT you’re missing a HUGE, free opportunity to make your donors far more likely to give you additional gifts.

Click here to see a 2 minute video that outlines how to make your thank you notes and receipt letters raise more money.

The previous post made the case for why appeal letters are such an important part of your Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat system. Now it’s time to uncover what ingredients are needed to write appeal letters that raise a ton of money.  Here is a short but powerful list!

• Tell a real-life story to illustrate the need.  Use stories, not statistics, to show donors the need your organization serves.
• Have an “offer” that summarizes and simplifies what the donor’s gift does.  It takes real work to develop good offers, but they will raise much more money than generic requests to send your organization a gift.
• Make your letter scanable because most people will scan it before they read it.  Underline or highlight the most important sentences in the letter.
• Get to the point very quickly.
• Ask three times.  Most donors won’t read the whole letter so you need to make a direct ask in multiple places to increase the chance they understand: Ask once in the first three paragraphs, once in the last three paragraphs, and once in the P.S.
• Remember that the letter isn’t about your organization.  Talk about the people who need help and talk about what the donor can do about it.  “Don’t ask the donor to send your organization a gift, ask them to send a gift to help the beneficiaries.
• Make it readable.  Most donors are older; so don’t use tiny type that they struggle to read.

Now that you know what it takes to write a great appeal letter, go out and do it!  Your donors are waiting to send you a gift to make the world a better place.  All you have to do is ask 🙂

To help you develop great appeal letters we created this short video to illustrate the above mentioned points.  Watch it here.

Do you know why your appeal letters are such an important part of your Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat fundraising system?  Consider this…

• First, very few donations come in unsolicited.  You have to ask for help to get it!
• Even your current donors don’t fully understand the real need facing the people you help.  They don’t spend 40 hours a week, or more, thinking about it like you do.
• So each appeal letter needs to powerfully describe that need and then Ask your donors to help in a specific way.
• And if you don’t Ask your donors to help your beneficiaries, no one else will.

I strongly urge you to consider the role appeal letters play in your fundraising efforts.  When done well, these letters are the bridge to people who desire to make the world a better place, who can do that by making a donation to your cause.

There is so much more to share, so we created this short video for you to watch and learn from.

How to Make Your Appeal Letters Raise More Money – (Vimeo video)

Giving days — community-wide campaigns to increase giving to local nonprofits — are growing in popularity. This spring, Spokane Washington launches Spokane Gives on April 25 and Seattle will celebrate the Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG on May 5. Other communities have United Way or other campaigns. What should nonprofits do to get ready for these fundraising opportunities?

The first thing you should do is register for a free 1-hour webinar I’m hosting via Washington Nonprofits.  During this webinar I will walk you through what you should be thinking about one month out, one week out, and right when the campaign is going on.  I’ll talk strategy and practical application of that strategy.  I’ll help you think about communications, from print to social media.

To register for this free webinar go to the Washington Nonprofits website.  The webinar is March 25th from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. PST.  Register today! 

When a someone makes a donation to your organization it is your number one job to thank him or her promptly and emotionally.  I try to thank my donors 5-times for every gift they make.  This includes the receipt letter, a hand-written comment on the receipt letter, a separate hand-written note, a phone call, email, gift, etc.

You goal this week is to find creative ways to say thank you  for making the world a better place.  To achieve this goal look for new ways to thank your donors promptly and emotionally.  Tell them what is going to happen in the world because they gave a gift.  Remind the donor whom they gave a gift to.  Don’t thank them for giving to your organization or to your programs. Honor the donor by telling them what is going to happen in the lives of the people you serve or cause you represent because they gave a gift.

Saying thank you is the best way to build genuine, mission-driven relationships with your donors.

Your newsletter is where your donors find out if giving your organization a gift was a good idea – or not.  Remember, your donors gave you their money but don’t know what happened to it once you received it. But they need to know if you ever want them to give another gift, so your newsletter’s one job is to show donors the impact of their gift. So here’s what you need to do if you want to keep your donors year after year.

• Tell real-life stories. Use stories, not statistics, to show donors the impact their gift made.
• Make your newsletter scannable. 80% of people won’t read it they will just scan it and look at the headlines and picture captions.
• Make your headlines and picture captions tell your donors about their impact. Use arrows to point to picture captions and headlines.
• Make it responsive. Send your newsletter in an envelope with a reply card and reply envelope because LOTS of donors give gifts in response to great newsletters.
• Use large photos of beneficiaries.
• Make it readable. Most donors are older, so don’t use tiny type. Use an arrow to nice, large, easy-to-read type.

There is so much more to teach you, so we created this short video.  Watch it here.

When most donors give a gift they have no idea what their gift did or if it was appreciated and used as they intended. It is your job to tell them. This line of thinking can revolutionize your fundraising results and donor retention. You can blow your past fundraising performance out of the water! In simple terms, reporting is telling your donor what happened because they gave a gift. It’s not telling them what you’ve been busying doing with their money. It’s not telling them all about your programs. It is telling them about the lives that were changed or how your cause was furthered because their gift was given. Talk to them about outcomes not the processes that produced the outcomes. If the donor feels like they made a positive impact in the world than you will build great donor relationships.

Watch this short video to learn more about reporting.  We even included a sample newsletter to show you how it’s done!

The Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat donor rhythm turns fundraising on its ear by moving the focus from the organization to the donor.  When you ask a donor to make a gift you are really asking her to make a positive difference in the lives of your beneficiaries.

The big takeaway here is that you are not asking them to give your organization a gift. You are not asking them to fund your programs.  You are asking them to contribute to your beneficiaries in a really specific way.  Directly asking donors to help someone today, by taking action right now, is the best way to raise money.

If you’d like to learn more about the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat donor-focused rhythm, watch this video.

The only way you can love your donors is to know who they are. Look back over 2014 and identify who gave a gift to your organization. Once you have identified them, thank them. Thank them right now! Pick up the phone, write them a note, stop by their office, and shake their hand. Do whatever it takes to let them know they made a difference in the word by making a donation to your cause.

Valentines day is almost here. This is a perfect time of year to tell your donors that you love them. Send them a Valentine’s card or email. This is a FREE opportunity to connect with your donors and build a deeper mission-driven relationship. As you apply the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat rhythm you are looking for simple ways to connect with your donors without asking them for money. The Love Your Donors concept during the Valentine season is one of those ways.

To learn more about Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat watch this video.