I recently asked some successful fundraisers how Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat had improved their fundraising. Here’s how that came about, and what they said.
Over the last 6 months I had the opportunity to teach Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat to a group of fundraising professionals from Yakima, Washington via a 4-part training series.
When I first started this training, most people in the room had never heard of Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat. By the time I had finished the training, most of the people in the room were more successful fundraisers and had implemented much of what they had learned from our time together.
During our last session together I asked for people to share their success stories. I was encouraged by what I heard:
- Newsletters were changed from being a report about the organization into reports of what the donor accomplished because they made a gift.
- More asks were made in person and via direct mail. The end result was more money was raised!
- Several organizations improved their thanking process by writing thank you notes, making phone calls and scheduling personal visits donors who recently made a gift.
The common theme in the room was that more money was raised and more donors retained because of the Ask, Thank, Report, Repeat fundraising rhythm!
