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TY Thursday: Are You Leaving Out the Actual Thanks?

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Do you follow @DennisFischman on Twitter? If so, I’ve thanked you–I hope. (Did I forget? I apologize!)

But if you’re a nonprofit and you forget to say thank you, then you owe an apology to your donor and to yourself.

Twitter thank youHow I forgot to say thanks

Whenever anybody follows me on Twitter, I make a point of saying thanks.

I don’t always follow back. That depends on what you usually tweet about and whether it’s interesting to me. But I do say “thanks”–because, out of the gazillion people on the web, you chose to spend some attention on me.

So how could I ever forget to say thanks?

Sarah Gallo, who’s on Twitter as @5foottraveler, followed me one Sunday. I wanted to tweet back at her, “TY to @5foottraveler for following!” I copied and pasted her Twitter handle and added the “for following” part, and I was just about to schedule the tweet when I noticed something was missing.

That’s right. The “TY” part.

Fortunately, I caught it in time. But because I even came close to leaving out the thanks, I want to say to Sarah publicly, “Thanks, and safe travels!”

thank you signs

Nonprofits, Don’t Forget to Thank Donors

At your nonprofit, when you acknowledge donations, are you making the same mistake as I did? Are you leaving out the actual thanks?

You could be, if:

  • Your letter reads like a tax receipt instead of a personal note.
  • You’re talking about what a great organization you are, instead of what great things the donor’s gift is going to accomplish.
  • You’re congratulating the donor on helping you achieve your mission, instead of showing how you are going to help the donor realize his or her goals.
  • When you receive an online gift, you send out an auto-response but never follow it up with an individualized letter or email.
  • You send out the ideal thank-you letter but then don’t communicate again with the donor until it’s time to ask again for money.

Donor love means never having to say you’re sorry. Don’t forget to thank your donors in a way that’s clear, timely, ample, honest, and ongoing. You won’t regret it.

TY Thursday: Let Your Actions Say Thank You

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Action speaks louderAre you trying to come up with more and better ways to thank your donors? Sometimes, what you need is not a new and improved thank-you letter, video, gift, or donor appreciation event.

Sometimes you just have to give the donors what they want.

What do the donors want?

Tom Ahern, the dean of donor communications, says the content donors want is the answers to the questions, “What did you do with the money I gave you? What difference did it make?” And they want the joy of feeling they have helped make the world a better place.

Take Tom’s advice and you’ll know what to put in your newsletter (and on your website, and on your social media)–and what to leave out. Put in stories about real people whose lives are better “because you helped.”

Everything else–the grant you got, the award your Executive Director won, the amount of money you have to raise before your fiscal year end–is what you should leave out. Unless you can find a way to present it so that your donors feel great about themselves! Then, include it. But check with some actual donors first!

Kivi Leroux Miller, who’s always both practical and inspiring, says donors want giving to be easy–and after they give, they want you to know who they are.

Take Kivi’s advice. Giving can be easy if your website has a good landing page and if once they give, you immediately acknowledge the gift (so they know “it worked!”)

Knowing who your donors are is so vital, and yet so neglected! “It’s amazing how little many nonprofits can tell you about their donors beyond their giving history, and that makes good marketing and fundraising tough,” Kivi says. If you know what your donors care about–including interests that don’t seem at first to touch on your mission–you can send communications that make them feel “This was written just for me.”

Joe Garecht, The Fundraising Authority, says donors want non-reciprocated value. In other words, be generous to them, too! Don’t just trade return address labels for a donation.

Take Joe’s advice. Find ways to be helpful to your donors, without expecting anything in return, “such as when you come across two donors who might find value in working together in their businesses, and offer to set up and attend a lunch meeting to introduce them.”

Customer service is the best thank you.

People in business know that their customers’ experience with them is reason those customers come back–or don’t. No amount of advertising can overcome a customer’s interaction with an employee who is rude, inattentive, poorly informed, or just plain unhelpful.

For nonprofit organizations, donors are our customers. Yes, they are “buying” services for other people–our clients! But customer service is still the key to seeing those donors again. Let’s put it in terms that fit the nonprofit sector:

The best way to thank your donors: think about what matters to the donor--and give it to them. Share on X

What have you done for your donors that they will remember with a smile?

TY Thursday: Steal from the Best

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steal from the bestAre you trying to come up with an original way of thanking your donors? Don’t worry too much about that. Instead, follow comedian Milton Berle’s advice: “If you’re going to steal, steal from the best.”

(That must be good advice. Kurt Vonnegut stole the quote from him!)

Steal These Top Ten Thank-You Ideas

There are lots of models for saying thank-you out there. Here are my top ten.

  1. Michael Rosen shows you how to thank your most loyal donors. (You should certainly make your supporters feel as appreciated as a big corporation like Marriott does with its guests!)

2. Ann Green tells you to create a thank-you experience that begins with the thank-you landing page on your website and goes on through email, mail, and phone calls.

3. If you’ve ever considered using video for your thank-yous to donors, take a look at these examples presented to you by Bloomerang.

4. Joe Garecht says you can take the classic thank-you letter to a whole new level. Take a look at his sample letter. And Pamela Grow’s thank-you letter template, too!

5. While you’re at it, take a look at my blog The Ideal Thank-You Letter Went Out Today–one of the most popular I’ve ever written–because you want to know the single most important thing about thanking your donors.

6. Gail Perry gives you a checklist of do’s and don’ts if you want to write a killer thank-you letter.

7. It’s a lot easier to say thanks if you develop an “attitude of gratitude” in everyday life. Mary Cahalane shows you how thanking donors can make you happy.

8. A thank-you can win the trust of your donor. Kivi Leroux Miller says your TY can be specific about how the gift is being used and show results: two things donors say they want above all else!

9. Rachel Muir tells us about The Best Thank-You Letter I Never Got, in her guest post on John Haydon’s blog. Do you donate? Can you put yourself in the shoes of the donor? Follow the golden rule of nonprofit writing.

10. Does someone at your nonprofit say, “Let’s just send out the same letter we sent before”? Lisa Sargent suggests you do a thank-you letter audit–and she provides a 17-point checklist to help you show the skeptics where you could be doing better.

Because Your Donor is Worth It

Are you as good at building loyalty as an airline?

pilot thanks you

Thank you for flying our nonprofit!

Every time I’ve flown in recent years, I’ve heard the flight crew say something like this upon landing. “We know you have many choices for your air travel. Thank you for choosing North-South-East-West Airlines.”

Your donors have many choices about what to do with their money. They could give it to another nonprofit in your field. They could give it to a completely different cause. They could blow it on pizza and beer. They could leave it to their grandchildren.

But they chose to make a gift to you. You are better off because of it. And you want them to make that same choice next time.

So, it’s worth sending that donor the best expression of thanks you can. Especially when you have so many good ideas to steal!

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