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Thank-You Thursday: Get on Their Screen with Video

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If you work at a nonprofit organization, you’re probably pretty charitable yourself. Are you getting a lot of thank-you letters in the mail? Great. But have you ever received a thank-you video on your phone or computer?

You would remember if you had.

The Personal Impact of a Thank-You Video

There’s something about the face and voice of a real person saying “thanks.” Yes, I love getting thank-you letters in the mail.Video can’t substitute for an envelope with a stamp on it that you can hold in your had. But it can add.

A video can show you where your donation made a difference. That’s the approach The Nature Conservancy takes.

It can present the faces of the people who are doing the work, as charity:water did with their staff.

Or it can show you the faces of the people whose lives are better because you helped. The Children’s Hospital Foundation took that approach. They even titled their video “Thank you for supporting kids like me.”

Making Your Thank-You Video

These examples come from larger organizations, but the thank-you video is a great tool for the small nonprofit too. If you have a smart phone, you have a video camera in your pocket.

Production values are not what matter in a thank-you video. Here’s what does (according to Raymund Flandez, writing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy):

  1. Be brief. Don’t send out a fifteen-minute description of everything you do. One minute of gratitude says it much better.
  2. Say thanks–and say why. Let the donor know the impact his or her gift has made.
  3. Speak personally. Make sure the donor can tell who it is that’s saying thank-you and why they care.

Sharing Your Thank-You Video

Once you’ve made your thank-you video, you have multiple ways to share it.

You can email it to the donor–but sending it as an attachment may make recipients worry about being spammed. Your video is more likely to be seen if you’re using an email service like MailChimp that allows you to embed the video in your message.

You can distribute the thank-you video through your Facebook page or other social media. You can post it permanently on your website or YouTube page, so you have the link to share in the future.

And you can personalize it. With a very little bit of editing skill, you can add the individual donor’s name to the basic video and thank him or her directly. Try personalizing some of your thank-you videos and see how that affects your donor renewal!

 

 

You should plan to thank your donors throughout the year. But how? Every Thursday, I’ll share a different idea. (The first one was Give Your Donor a Voice.)

 

Fundraising Tuesday: Last Things First

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Every Tuesday this season, I’m offering a tip on how to write better fundraising appeals. The first post was Call Me By Name.

postscriptBesides getting the donor’s name right, what’s the easiest thing you can do to increase the chance they will give?

Answer: write a good postscript.

 

The P.S. Matters as Much as the Letter

The National Mail Order Association says:

79% of all people who open your direct mail will read the P.S. first. Before reading anything else in the letter. Or any other part of the mail package.

And in fact, if you don’t catch the donor’s eye with your salutation, your postscript, and your photos, you might as well not send the letter at all. Into the recycling it goes.

This may seem harsh. It does to me. I’m a writer by nature, practice, and inclination. Looking for the right word feels something like meditation, where I let meaning float to the surface….and something like a wine tasting, where I savor each word on the tongue. How can my writing not matter to the reader?

The simple truth is that nothing we write matters if no one reads it. And the postscript is one of the most important tools we have for getting the donor to read the letter.

What to Put in a Postscript

Because the P.S. is the first (and sometimes the only) part of a letter that readers read, it is not a throwaway line. In fact, you should use it to make your main point clear.

One of my favorite approaches is to summarize the appeal in a few short words and then call for action.

Look at the example from the Clinton campaign above. “Stop the GOP power grab” was the theme of the letter, and here it is again, baldly stated, in a few words. “Respond by July 30” tells the reader what action he or she can take.

Other experts, like the late Ray Jutkins, say to emphasize “the special something they will get when they respond.” That might be the premium you are offering them for giving, or (as in the Clinton letter) the chance to see their donation matched. For a nonprofit, it can be a cogent statement  of the difference their donation will make.

What’s more, the P.S. can be used to repeat your telephone and fax numbers, physical address, e-mail and Web site. It’s almost impossible to restate your vital contact data too often, Jutkins says.

What NOT to Put in Your Postscript

“The primary thing not to do with your P.S. is state a new fact, introduce a new idea or start fresh with a different thought,” Jutkins cautions.

Why not? Because it just confuses the reader.If they read the postscript first and then find the letter is about something different, they think, “What is this nonprofit really trying to say?”

Remember how many pieces of mail we all get. I received 90 fundraising appeal letters between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, just myself. All 90 0f them were competing for the reader’s attention. A postscript that confuses the reader ensures the letter winds up in the recycling bin.

A postscript that moves the reader and makes her want to read the rest of the letter: now, that’s the last word in fundraising.

Thank You Thursday: Give the Donor a Voice

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You should plan to thank your donors throughout the year. But how? Every Thursday, I’ll share a different idea. Here’s the first installment of Thank You Thursday.

One great way to say “thank you” to your donors is to let them do the talking.

donor speaksIf you’re a Downton Abbey fan like me, you’ll recognize this face. For ten seconds before each episode, philanthropist Darlene Shiley comes on screen and tells us why she donates to keep the program on the air.

This is a fabulous thank-you idea that your nonprofit should steal, and I’ll tell you why:

  1. What’s a greater compliment to your donor than making him or her the voice of your organization?
  2. What’s more convincing to other donors than hearing heartfelt support from someone who already gives?
  3. No one reads the list of donors scrolling by except for fundraising professionals (and donors looking for their own name). But everyone watches a video.

Why Video is Right for Your Nonprofit

PBS provides a great example of using what you have to say thank you. They have Downton Abbey, a studio, cameras, lighting.

Your nonprofit might not have a TV show (unless you’re taking advantage of community access television), but you do have lots of media. Your website, your email, your social media…all of them offer you chances to give your donor a voice.

And sure, if you have someone on staff or on your Board who’s great with a video camera, call them in. But it doesn’t take a professional. If you can hold your smart phone steady, you can take a video. And there are tons of software programs that let you edit your video. A few rough edges may even make it look more authentic.

Thank You, Donor, You’re a Star!

Which donor should you ask to speak for your nonprofit? It doesn’t have to be the richest donor, or the one who gave the most. Jeff Brooks  lists Things no donor said, ever and includes this:

Would you please tell me more about your wonderful wealthy donors who give far more than I ever could?

That’s why you’re not telling us about all your donors. You’re choosing donors who will love the chance to tell us about your cause.

Darlene Shiley gives a lot–but she also speaks with genuine warmth. That’s why not only PBS but San Diego State University, California State University, and other organizations have given her a voice on video (out of all the philanthropists they could have chosen).

Find your Darlene. It may be someone who gives a tiny amount but gives every year. The amount doesn’t matter. What matters is that the person on screen wants to speak up for you–considers it a privilege to be asked. Find that person and put him or her on screen.

Why Stop at One?

You may be blessed with more than one person who can speak for you on video, especially if you let them tell their story. Don’t fret about which one to choose. You can say thank-you to all of them by giving them a voice on your different channels.

Asian Women for Health lets donors and activists tell their story on the News page of their website and on YouTube.

JOIN for Justice runs “Our Stories,” a series of videos, on its homepage and all over its website, and on Youtube, and periodically on its Facebook page.

In my community, the Somerville Homeless Coalition shared its new video, It Takes a Somervillage, by email. The video includes donors as well as public officials and partner organizations. All of them took it as a compliment.

You can feature the voices of many supporters over time. The important thing is to get started. You want to thank your donors all year long, and the time to begin is now.

 

 

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