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Fundraising Tuesday: I Got Your Letter. Phone Me!

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Waiting for the mailYou’ve written the best fundraising letter you can: maybe, the ideal appeal letter.

It’s in the mail. The donors received it last week.

Now what? Is there anything you can do besides waiting for the return mail? (Or the online payments, of course.)

Yes! There are three ways you can follow up on that fundraising letter: by phone, by email, and by social media.

Follow Up with a Phone Call

Even a polite voicemail message greatly increases the chances that your donors will renew their support for you this year. A personal conversation increases them even more! But there are worse and better ways to make that phone call.

The worst thing you can do is to call someone who doesn’t want to hear from you by phone. My wife and I tell everyone who calls us, “We prefer not to give over the phone. Mail us.” If they call again, we send our donations somewhere else. And there are lots of people like us!

A good way to reach out is by having a well-trained volunteer call and start by thanking the donor for their past support. Give the donor a sense of accomplishment: “Thanks to you, twenty children had lunch every day this school year.” Tell them, “Your help is still needed.” Ask for a specific amount.

It’s even better if the caller is a donor like them. “Thank you. Here’s what we did together.” Better still if the caller is a donor AND a board member. You’re complimenting your donor by letting them know they’re worth the board’s attention and time.

The best, the absolute best thing you can do? Find a friend of that donor to make the call. Someone who knows them well and can speak to them from the heart about how much they appreciate the donor’s gift. When your friend is grateful for your donation, of course you have to renew!

ET, Phone from Home?

phone bankNow, to my mind it’s a real toss-up whether it’s better to ask your volunteers to call from their homes or get them together for a “phone bank.”

  • Ask them to call from home and it’s more convenient for them, but they may forget… and you may have to work harder to find out who they reached and who they didn’t.
  • Invite them to call together and you create camaraderie among those who show up, and you can be on hand to answer any questions, live…but fewer people will volunteer in the first place.

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Do what fits your organization the best.

Those are the whys and hows of picking up the phone to boost your December donations. We talked about using email to follow up your fundraising letter already this season. Next week, we’ll talk about using social media.

Use as many of these approaches as you can to make sure your end-of-year appeal touches your donors’ hearts.

 

 

TY Thursday: Your Board Will Thank You for Doing This

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ty-quote1

Over here, you’ve got a pile of donations. You sent each of these donors a thank-you letter, on letterhead, signed by your Executive Director, within a week of when you received their gift. But you haven’t been in touch with any of them personally since then.

And over there, you have your Board of Directors. Several of them have said, “I love this organization. I’ll do anything for this organization–except ask for money. I’m just no good at asking.”

Do you want to make your donors feel flattered and your directors feel useful, all at the same time? Then ask your Board of Directors to start saying thanks.

Donors and Your Board, A Match Made in Heaven

Every thank-you matters, but an expression of gratitude from a Board member to a donor matters more. No matter how sincere you are, when you, a staff person at a nonprofit, says thanks, the thought crosses the donor’s mind: “I’m paying your salary.” When a member of your Board of Directors is the one thanking the donor, they have these advantages:

  • They are volunteers. They’re regular people who care about the organization enough to give their precious time.
  • They are donors themselves. When Board members make a monetary contribution, of whatever size is significant for them, they can talk with fellow donors about why the organization matters “to both of us.”
  • They are leaders. It’s impressive when someone who holds a position of authority is the one making the call. It makes the donor feel valued and honored.

Getting thanked by a Board member helps donors think, “I made a good decision when I gave.” But it helps your Board of Directors, too. It confirms their own commitment to the organization…and it gives them valuable firsthand information about how their organization is perceived.

5 Ways a Board Member Can Say “Thank You!”

Thanks in many languages

  1. Add a personal note to a thank-you letter. Especially if the donor knows the Board member, but even if they haven’t met…yet!
  2. Follow up with a phone call. Penelope Burk found that donors who got a call within 24 hours gave 39% more than those who simply received a thank-you letter…and check out Gail Perry’s story of how a thank-you call made her boyfriend a major donor for life.
  3. Throw a party. Maybe one of your Board members loves to entertain. Your staff have been meaning to hold a donor appreciation event for ages but never find the time. Ask the happy host or hostess to have the party at their place. (They will still need help inviting the donors to come, but it’s less work, for more return, than if staff do it.)
  4. Send a gift. Who’s the shop-a-holic on your Board? Ask her to pick out a small but thoughtful gift personalized to your donor, wrap it, and mail it with a note. Your donor will be surprised (and maybe make a new friend for life).
  5. Tell the world. Someone on your Board is on social media all day. Chances are you can figure out who it is–if you don’t know already! Ask that Facebook fanatic to “friend” a donor and then sing his or her praises online. Not only will you be thanking the donor all over again, you’ll be making the donor’s friends ask, “What’s that organization that loves my friend like that?”

If you ask a member of your Board of Directors to thank donors by doing something he or she likes to do anyway, you will have a happy Board, a happy donor base…and a happy result the next time you ask for money!

TY Thursday: How to Make a Donor Thank-You Call

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thank donors by phone

Does everyone like a thank-you call?

Sometimes the best thank-you letter a donor can get isn’t a letter. It’s a phone call.

Ideally, you’d do both. When the donation arrives, call and say, “You’ll be getting an official thank-you letter in a couple of days–but I wanted to call and thank you personally.”

Or, after you know the letter should have arrived, follow it up with a call. “I wanted to thank you again and tell you how much I appreciate your gift.”

What Calling to Say Thanks Does for Your Nonprofit

First off, you will feel great about talking to a donor.

Sure, there may be an awkward moment at the start of the call. The donor isn’t used to getting called out of the blue to be told “thank you.” (Sad,  but all too true!) She or he may be wary, thinking you’re about to ask for yet another gift.

When the donor realizes that you took the time to call just because they did a good thing and you want to acknowledge it, they are delighted. They may end up thanking you!

Second, you may learn more about the donor.

If you get a live person on the call and not a voicemail, they may be in the middle of something, or just not talkative. You respect their time, thank them, and move on. But if they seem open to conversation, then do what Tina Cincotti advises:

Say — “I don’t want to take up much of your time but would you be willing to share with me what inspired you to first give to ___________ (org name)?”

You can also ask things like:

  • Why does this cause matter to you?
  • What interests you most about our organization?
  • What expectations do you have of the organizations you support?
  • How often do you want to hear from us?
  • Would you like to be involved with us in other ways beyond being a donor?

(And don’t forget to make a note of what you hear, in your donor database!)

Third, even if you leave a voicemail, you build trust.

Your donor’s relationship with you follows a predictable path: first they get to know you, then they decide they like you, and finally they come to trust you. Leaving a personal message is a step along that path.

What all this adds up to is: your nonprofit makes more money!

According to Tom Ahern, first-time donors who get a personal thank you within 48 hours are 4x more likely to give a second gift. And you want that second gift, since donor retention rates skyrocket from 22.9% to 60.8% when a donor gives again.

So, let’s see.

Don't call. That first-time donor never gives again. Call. They give and keep on giving. Share on X

Seems like a simple choice, doesn’t it?

That’s why Gail Perry says using the phone to thank donors is “highly profitable fundraising.” And Steven Shattuck of Bloomerang says you should call every new donor: no excuses!

How to Make a Thank-You Call

Who should call your donors? The best people to make those thank-you calls are Board members and volunteers. Like the donor, they have given time or money, or both, because they care about the organization and its mission. They reinforce the donor’s decision to give, because they are other people “just like you” who give.

Should your callers follow a script? They should have a script (and look at the Gail Perry and Tina Cincotti links above for examples). But they should feel free to adapt it so it sounds like their own voice. That’s particularly important when leaving voicemail. If the donor thinks it’s a sales call, she or he will hang up before hearing your gratitude. A conversational tone of voice can keep them listening.

How long should you stay on the phone? That depends entirely on the donor. If the reaction you hear is, “Oh, that’s so nice! Thank you, goodbye,” don’t try to extend the conversation. If the donor is willing to have a conversation with you, so much the better. If you reach voicemail, say what you mean to say, slowly, with feeling, and that is that.

Thank-You Calls to Mobile Phones

I’m a baby boomer. Most donors are my age or older, and we’re used to getting phone calls on our land lines (or what we used to call just “the phone”).

Increasingly, though, Generations X and Y are starting to give…and increasingly, the mobile phone is the only phone they have. On mobile phones, it’s a nuisance to see that you’ve missed a call, go to voicemail, and play it back. So, leaving voicemail on mobile is not effective: few people are picking it up.

The etiquette among younger donors is that if you call them and they recognize the caller, it’s up to them to call back. (If they don’t, then it’s your problem!) So how do you use the phone to thank a donor who’s mobile?

Text them. At least, that’s what a mobile phone expert told our friends at Blue Avocado. Actually, he advised matching the channel of the thank-you to the channel of the gift.

If someone makes a donation as a result of a text, text them right away with a thank you. A day or two later, send another thank you by email so they get two thanks. If they donated as a result of an email, send them a thank-you email right away, and then follow it up with a snail mail thank you.
Do you call donors on the phone to say thanks? What’s the one conversation you remember the best?

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