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TY Thursday: 5 Ways to Make Your Nonprofit’s Thank You Letters Stand Out

March 2, 2023 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

A guest post from Ann Fellman at Bloomerang

Picture this: You receive a letter in the mail from a nonprofit to which you recently donated. The letter reads, “Dear Donor, Thank you for your generous donation. It’s because of your support that we’re able to achieve our mission.”

How do you react?

You appreciate the thanks, but find it to be a little generic and bland. Plus, the letter doesn’t say anything specific about how the organization used your gift or how you can stay in touch.

Now, let’s switch hats from donor to nonprofit. As a nonprofit professional, you want to make your organization’s thank-you letters memorable and meaningful, whether they’re going to donors or volunteers. But how can you make your supporter communications stand out? Follow these five tips to get started:

1. Send your thank you letters as soon as possible.

Sending out thank you messages as quickly as possible after supporters interact with your organization ensures that you won’t accidentally overlook the thank you process. Plus, it leaves a positive impression on supporters and keeps your nonprofit on their radar.

Whether donors give online, in person, or via direct mail, send a thank you letter right away. This letter should be separate from the automated donation receipt that you email donors right after they give. Take the time to craft a personalized, detailed thank you message and send it within 48 hours of receiving the donation.

If your nonprofit has a large support base, you can automate the thank you process using your donor management system. According to Bloomerang’s donor management software guide, robust donor database systems allow you to keep track of donors’ names and donation history using contact records and profiles. Then, when you use a CRM that has an integrated email marketing system, you can automatically plug donors’ names and donation amounts into each message. This keeps all your data and communications organized in one simplified database.

In addition, you should quickly send thank you notes after your volunteer opportunities. Follow up within a couple of days thanking volunteers for their hard work and recapping what they were able to accomplish during the volunteer opportunity.

2. Personalize each thank you letter.

A personalized letter catches the recipient’s attention, helping your letter stand out in their mailbox or email inbox. Use the information stored in your donor management system to personalize your thank-you notes with donors’ names.

However, personalization doesn’t mean just including each supporter’s name in your greeting. It also means referencing each supporter’s exact contributions to your cause and if possible the campaign or program they supported.

For example, you should thank a donor for their $78 gift sent on November 18, 2022 to your annual fund, or a volunteer for the three hours they spent sorting donated food on a Saturday morning.

Supporters will appreciate that you’ve taken the time to identify and recognize the specific ways they’ve advanced your mission.

3. Provide a compelling progress update.

Saying thank you to donors is powerful, but it’s even more powerful when you explain to them that your organization couldn’t propel its mission without their help.

Make sure your thank you notes show donors how their gifts made a positive impact on your cause. Describe the project or program that you were able to improve with their help.

For example, you might say, “Because of your $30 donation, a local elementary school student will be able to receive a brand new school backpack.”

It’s helpful to write your thank you letter in the form of a story. Stories help create emotional connections and bring your mission to life for donors and volunteers.

Meyer Partners’ guide to nonprofit storytelling recommends identifying a single protagonist and telling their story using interviews, images, and videos. These multimedia elements help donors and volunteers feel much more connected to your mission and those you work with in the community.

4. Handwrite your thank-you notes.

Amid the piles of junk mail your supporters likely receive in their mailboxes, a handwritten thank you note stands out and provides a personal touch. Supporters will be touched that you took the time to write out your gratitude using pen and paper.

It may not be feasible to handwrite thank you letters for every donor or volunteer, so you might focus your efforts on writing notes for long-time supporters.

Also, if you have a lot of letters to write, you can have your donor database generate your letters and leave a space for a short handwritten, personalized note. For instance, you might include a handwritten P.S. that says something like “Thanks, Josh for your support, it means the world to us!”

5. Highlight additional ways to get involved.

Show supporters that you appreciate their involvement, no matter the form it takes, by inviting them to engage with your organization in more ways than one.

For example, use your thank you note to highlight opportunities like:

  • Your annual peer-to-peer fundraiser walkathon event
  • A recurring weekend volunteer opportunity
  • A supporter appreciation gala
  • An advocacy letter-writing campaign

Also, invite supporters to connect with you on multiple platforms by following your social media pages or subscribing to your email newsletter.

As you can see, an effective appreciation letter requires a little more than just a simple “thank you.” With the right timing, thoughtfulness, and personalization, your supporter thank you letters can be a powerful tool for building stronger relationships and bringing in reliable support for your fundraisers, volunteer opportunities, and other initiatives.


Author: Ann Fellman

As the Chief Marketing Officer at Bloomerang, Ann is responsible for the company’s overall thought leadership, brand, marketing, and community outreach programs that work to strengthen relationships with customers and the broader nonprofit community. Ann brings with her more than 24 years of experience in business-to-business (B2B) marketing in the technology industry, including time spent working at a nonprofit organization.

 

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TY Thursday: Your Favorite Posts of 2021

January 13, 2022 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Thanking your first-time donors turns them into repeat donors.

Thanking your repeat donors turns them into loyal supporters.

Thanking your loyal supporters makes the lifetime value of their donations multiply. It’s the most important thing you can do to improve your fundraising!

Here are your favorite posts from 2021 about expressing an attitude of gratitude and #DonorLove. Please write me back and tell me which of these you are going to put into practice in 2022!

TY Thursday: How to Thank Recurring Donors

Recurring donors give automatically. When you thank them, though, it should be anything but automatic. You need a deliberate and thoughtful approach to showing donor love to this special group.

TY Thursday: Your Board Will Thank You for Doing This

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.

TY Thursday: A Toast to You, Generous Donor!

The essence of a toast is not the liquid you drink. It’s the words you say. What can you say to make your donors feel extra special–right now?

TY Thursday: Thank You, Donor–You’re Welcome!

A welcome kit (also called a packet or package) tells the donor, “You matter to us. You’re not just a cash cow. We’re in this together for the long haul.” What should go into a welcome kit?

TY Thursday: The Ideal Thank-You Letter

I have seen the ideal appeal letter.  I haven’t yet seen the ideal thank-you letter.  But it went out today.  Did you send it?

 

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Fundraising Tuesday: Will Your Nonprofit be Golden in December?

October 5, 2021 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

December is a crucial month for your nonprofit. As Double the Donation points out, “30% of annual giving happens in December, with about 10% of all annual donations coming in the last three days of the year.”

What happens in December could make or break your nonprofit's budget. But what you do right now, starting today, can make your December golden. Click To Tweet

Here are the ten steps you need to take SOON to ensure a successful end-of-year fundraising campaign this December.

  1. Thank your loyal donors. Ideally, you would have been doing this all year long! But if the last time your donors heard you express your gratitude was a week after they gave, last December, the single most important thing you can do is to send a letter or email thanking them again, and showing the impact they made by giving.
  2. Go over your donor data. Remove any duplicates from your list. Check for any addresses that have changed, or anyone on your list who has died. Make sure that you are calling them by the name they prefer.
  3. Get to know your donors better. Spend a little time doing online research about a sample of your list. Call some of them. Do a survey. Find out what they care about at your organization and outside of your organization. That way, you’ll know what moves them!
  4. Segment your list. You’ll want to talk with renewal donors differently from prospects, and to people who care about (for example) your youth theater program because they care about theater differently from the one who primarily car about youth. Make sure you can find those different segments in your database or CRM.
  5. Collect stories. Once you know what your donors care about, find one person or family who faces great challenges in exactly that part of life. Tell their story, vividly, leaving off at the point where the donor can make the difference. (And give the donor the chance to be a hero of the story!)
  6. Collect photos. They’re one of the first things that donors look at when they get your letter in the mail. A photo on the envelope may tip the donor into actually opening it, and a photo inside may decide them to read it instead of throwing it into the recycling bin.
  7. Use your newsletters and social media to put donors in a giving mood. love lettersYour social media posts in October and November should should sound like to the donor. Success stories belong here. When you send the appeal letter, it should call the donor to immediate action.
  8. Write the ideal appeal letter. Direct mail still works the best at stimulating donations. If you have email addresses and no postal addresses for some of your donors, then send the ideal email appeal–but work on getting their U.S. mailing addresses for next year!
  9. Follow up your appeal. A letter in the mail will have even more impact if you use phone calls or email (or text messages, if you have permission) to remind donors how much they matter.
  10. Get ready to send the ideal thank-you letter within 48 hours of receiving the donation. That’s how you start this December to make next December golden!

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