We are thankful to be Fundraisers. We get great joy from creating connections and funding good work – and hope that you do, too.
One of our favorite quotes is Dr. Martin Luther King’s: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” And I like to think that you and I have ‘bent the arc’ a little bit towards justice this year.
The work you do matters. And it makes a difference.
So Happy Thanksgiving, thanks for letting Better Fundraising be a part of your journey, and thanks for being a Fundraiser!
The following is a hand-picked guest post from Bill Jacobs. Enjoy, and you can read more about Bill below.
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On the first day of November, I sent out 49 small “white mail” donations to non-profits.
After three weeks, here is what I received:
Two of the gifts were returned because the address was undeliverable.
Of the 47 gifts that (I think) were delivered, I have received 14 acknowledgments (30% acknowledgment rate).
Now, there could be a lot of reasons why 70% of my received gifts were not (yet) acknowledged:
Maybe some of my gifts got lost in the mail.
Maybe some of my gifts are still being processed.
Some of my receipts might be using nonprofit (slow) postage and haven’t arrived yet.
Maybe some acknowledgments were batched and still waiting to be sent.
Maybe my gifts ($10) were too small to acknowledge.
Whatever the reason, we have to do better at acknowledging gifts.
In the 25 years I’ve been in this business, one of my consistent recommendations is making it a priority to acknowledge gifts. All gifts – even $10 ones – should receive a receipt sent first class. And yes, even online gifts should get a mailed receipt.
Every donor – whether they say so or not – wants to have their gift acknowledged. Plus, it’s just the right thing to do.
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Steven says: “Bill Jacobs is a fundraising analyst and founder of AnalyticalOnes. I’ve learned more from Bill about analyzing fundraising data and knowing what to do next than from anyone else in my entire career. You should subscribe to Bill’s blog, Data Stories!”
Before my time at The Better Fundraising Co, I used to be a Director of Marketing and Communications for a nonprofit. But then the nonprofit I was working at needed me to create their fundraising materials from scratch, and I discovered a whole new world of expertise — it challenged the beliefs that my nonprofit and I had for how fundraising worked.
But we started raising a LOT more money.
Before we learned direct mail fundraising best practices, thanking donors who gave in response to appeals and newsletters happened… sometimes. But thanking wasn’t built into our processes, so we dropped the ball more times than I’d care to admit.
We WERE thankful for our donors every time they gave, but we took it for granted that they knew we were thankful.
That was a big mistake.
When a donor makes a gift, they don’t know you’re thankful if you don’t tell them.
When we started building intentional direct mail “thank yous” into our internal processes, thanking started happening more consistently. And donors really appreciated being thanked.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how this consistent thanking process would change ME and my approach to fundraising.
One day I was sitting at my desk, writing thank you notes to everyone who had responded to our Christmas appeal. What started off as a tedious task became something else. As I wrote note after note, a wave of emotion hit me, and I could feel the tears in my eyes.
We had sent out a letter in the mail. And these kind, generous people chose to send money back to help. It felt… magical.
$50. $250. $5,000. I began to see each gift as a precious act of sacrifice from the donor.
What a gift.
I started to approach direct response fundraising differently after this emotional thanking experience. I was more comfortable boldly asking donors to give, because I knew they would be thanked personally and emotionally.
And most importantly, donors started to give more often through our appeals and e-appeals because they KNEW we were thankful for their gift.
I’m reaching out to you today because I want to encourage you.
Being a fundraiser can be a difficult and lonely job.
It’s a job where it often feels like nothing is ever truly done. The hours can be long and – honestly – fundraisers rarely hear these important words:
Thank you – you are doing a GREAT job!
Because you ARE doing a great job.
Friend, you have chosen to do a job not many people can do.
You combine your passion for your cause with your ability to invite donors to do something meaningful.
You make a lot happen without a lot of resources.
When things get tough, you dig in, find a solution, and make sure your organization has the funding needed to continue.
You are a gift to your organization and to your community.
Thank you for choosing to do a tough and necessary job as a fundraiser.
Today, why not help cultivate a culture of gratitude at your organization by taking a minute to thank a co-worker for what they do? This gesture doesn’t have to be limited to the people you interact with daily. You might like to thank a faithful volunteer for helping stuff envelopes, a colleague on your programs team, or the person who does your payroll (yes, definitely thank them!).
We work hard to thank our donors for their generous support, so why not thank each other too?
So whether it’s a high-five, a thoughtful email, or a plate of fresh-baked cookies, take some time today to thank your colleagues for making the world a better place.
Could you imagine a situation where one of your most dedicated and generous donors gives your organization a gift… and you never acknowledge or thank them?
That would never happen, right?
But it’s happening accidentally more and more often…
More and more donors are giving gifts through Donor Advised Funds (DAFs). Because the gift is often labeled as from “Fidelity Charitable” or “Network for Good” (or something similar), the donor who initiated the gift mistakenly goes un-acknowledged and un-thanked.
You might remember that a few years ago, when Twitter was still Twitter, there was an account called The Whiny Donor.
Whiny was a gift to the nonprofit world because she Tweeted what other donors were thinking but not saying.
And Whiny had some experience with DAF giving…
Yikes!
Another gem…
Whiny has since stopped Tweeting, but what she experienced as a DAF donor is still too common.
And here’s the thing… if this is happening to your donors, most of them won’t complain. They’ll simply stop giving because they start to feel like their giving doesn’t matter.
That’s why it’s so important to thank and steward your DAF donors.
As you’re looking at year-end reports, make note of any gifts that came from a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) like Fidelity Charitable, Schwab Charitable, Vanguard Charitable, Network for Good, or any community foundation. Double-check to make sure the donor who initiated the gift was thanked.
If you’re unsure whether a DAF donor has been thanked, reach out with a phone call, a handwritten note, a personal email thanking them for their kind and generous gift — I’m sure you would put a smile on your donor’s face.
Donors who give through DAFs are some of your org’s most faithful donors. You can stand out from the crowd by doing an excellent job of thanking and stewarding them when they give through their DAF.
It’s the perfect time to let your donors know how truly special and valuable they are. After countless emails, letters and phone calls (hopefully) towards the end of the year, January is a natural time to say “thank you.”
So, here are 3 ways you can thank your donors today… and they all take less than 5 minutes!!
1. Call a donor, say “thank you” and listen — Donors love to be thanked; they also love the chance to share why they gave. They’ll be surprised and delighted you took the time to reach out to them personally, even if they don’t pick up.
2. Write a handwritten note — Sending a personal note, written by a human (even if it isn’t you!), goes a long way. Mail it on personal stationery, or even in a hallmark card-sized envelope. It can be short and sweet. They won’t forget it.
BONUS TIP: Want to reach even more donors? Have a “thank you card party” at the office and give everyone 10 cards and a short script!
3. Forward an already-planned mass email — Does your organization already have a thank you email planned for January? Take a minute to forward that to a special donor right from your email before the main email goes out to everyone. You could even share a little “before and after story” that made you think of them.
Every 5 minutes counts! How many donors can you thank today?!
PS — Need more ideas for Thankuary? Use this Cheat Sheet (with examples) for how to run a great Thankuary campaign!
On behalf of your beneficiaries or cause, you make the generous act of asking donors to help. That’s a gift to who or whatever you serve, to your organization, and to your donors.
Fundraising is often hard, draining work. You have to see and hear so many stories that are tough. Then you have to share them. You have to be other-focused. All of which is wearing.
But there are so many parts of fundraising to be thankful for! For the funds you help raise that make your organization’s work possible. For increasing people’s awareness of what you’re working on and giving those people a chance to do something about it. For the incredible changes made possible by your organization.
You make the world a better place! As Dr. Martin Luther King says, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Thank you for “bending the arc” towards justice – and we at Better Fundraising love getting to be a small part of the great work you do.
Thank you for being a Fundraiser, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
I think we all know that calling your donors to thank them is important, but in the back of our minds it goes something like this…
“I don’t have time,” and “how much does it really matter,” and “they never pick up,” and “wait, what if they do pick up?!”
If you are an annual gift officer looking for leads, or a major gifts officer building relationships, or even program staff hoping to spread the word about an event, here are some helpful steps you can take to make sure your donor thank you calls are worth your time:
Do your research ahead of time — Spend 2 minutes in their donor record prior to the call. What you find could be crucial to your conversation.
When did they start giving? Previous board member? Where do they live? Which funds or campaign do they typically give to? Who do they have relationships with? Do they attend your events?
Ask Discovery questions — Don’t waste your time as a fundraiser; if the donor answers the phone, use the opportunity to thank the donor and gather some discovery information. Here are my Top 5 Favorites:
a. What inspired your gift?
b. Do you have any personal connections to <insert your organization>’s employees, volunteers, or events?
c. Can you tell me about your charitable giving? Are we in your top 3 charities?
d. Is our organization in your will or estate plan?
e. What’s the best way to contact you? Phone, email, mail?
Send an email or thank you card — No one picked up the phone? Didn’t have time to call everyone? Send a personal thank you email with a discovery question.
You might be surprised who responds to your email AND shares discovery information with you. Even if you write a handwritten note to put in the mail, add your business card. You NEVER know when they might call you back.
Take notes — Was their gift in memory of someone? Did they mention vacationing on their family yacht? Are their kids in high school? College? Are they retired?
If you don’t take a few minutes to call a donor to thank them, you’ll never know what you might be missing. You could be surprised at what you learn – once I had a donor notify me of a $100,000 estate gift during a thank you call!
Each donor will be grateful that you thanked them, and sometimes they might share a bit more than you expected. You will have deepened the relationship and increased your chance of another gift in the future!
