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TY Thursday: Your Donors Need to Hear “Thanks” Right Now

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It’s always a good time to say thank you to your donors. Right now, in Fall 2020, it’s the best time. Because your donors need to hear from you.

Why Donors are Worried

worriedConsider how much uncertainty we are all confronting in Fall 2020.

  • We are still facing a worldwide pandemic that has killed over 200,000 people in the U.S.–and the numbers continue to rise.
  • Flu season is upon us, too, and while the vast majority of us get our shots, the few who don’t are a danger to themselves and all of us.
  • We may see another major shutdown of businesses and public facilities.
  • Millions of people are out of work. The first stimulus package helped many of them, but not all and not enough…and we will not know about a second stimulus until after the election. Possibly after the Inauguration in 2021.
  • The world is holding its breath for the results of the election, but we don’t and can’t know ahead of time how long it will take for those results to be official and what legal or extralegal challenges they will face.

In times like these–I’m not going to say “unprecedented” because that has become a cliche–donors are worried.

People who give money like to feel they are (more cliches coming here) changing the world, making a difference, having an impact. Right now, it’s hard to feel any of those things, and easy to feel out of control.

Why Your Donors Need to Hear “Thank You”

By thanking your donors, you help restore their sense of control.

By telling them stories about people they helped, you bring it down to a human level.

By making them the hero of the story, you make them feel powerful, instead of powerless; caring, instead of careless. You make them feel good to other people–-and you make them feel good about themselves.

Thanking donors gives them the best gift they could ask for, and it makes them want to keep on giving back. Click To Tweet

So, throughout October, on Giving Tuesday, on Thanksgiving, and any chance you get, make sure to thank your donors. You will feel better about yourself when you do! And you will build loyalty among your donors that will last beyond 2020.

TY Thursday: Thank Donors by Keeping Them Informed

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Why do donors give? Because they want to know they made a difference.

Sending the ideal thank-you letter is a good start. You can ward off donor’s remorse and make the person who pulled out their credit card or checkbook feel immediately, “That was a good decision. I did the right thing.”

But if that’s all you do to say thanks, chances are very high that the next time you ask, they won’t give again. They may not even remember they gave the first time!

So, one of the best ways your nonprofit can say “Thank you” to donors is to give them what they want. Show them the difference they made: the impact of their donations.

How do you do that? Who’s doing a good job of it now that you can emulate?

Example: The Welcome Project

The Welcome Project logo

Back in May, I asked my friends on Facebook:

Question for my friends who donate to their favorite charities: which organizations are doing an especially good job right now of letting you know what your donations are doing for people in need?

More than one person mentioned a local organization that I’ve supported for years, The Welcome Project. The Welcome Project builds the collective power of immigrants to participate in and shape community decisions.

Since the November 2016 election, TWP has pushed the city government and schools of Somerville, Massachusetts to serve the needs of all its residents–no matter what is happening in Washington. Since the start of the pandemic, it has created a fund to help immigrants who aren’t eligible for other kinds of relief.

What is TWP doing to tell its story…and to let donors know they are making a difference?

  1. On its website, TWP has helped immigrants to find the help they need during the pandemic, from food to small business loans. It provided the information in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Haitian Kreyol.
  2. By email, the Executive Director issued a strong and personal statement about the death of George Floyd. He also spotlighted the need to enforce the mask wearing ordinance without giving police an excuse to target people of color.
  3. By social media, TWP invited its friends and supporters to:
    • Advocate for efforts to clean up air pollution that’s affecting communities of color more than anyone else.
    • Stand up and be counted in the U.S. Census.
    • Assist TWP in analyzing the Mass. police reform bill being considered in the state legislature.
    • Lobby for a state law making drivers’ licenses easier to obtain. (One of Somerville’s state reps is the sponsor of the bill.)

TWP also presented useful information about events affecting immigrants at the local and the national level, from Covid testing to DACA.

As a donor myself, when I see and hear all this news from the Welcome Project, I feel:

  • Gratified that the organization I supported is so active.
  • Included in its efforts, almost as if I were there.
  • Informed about issues I care about.
  • Empowered to take action, from attending demonstrations to lobbying the legislature.
  • Identified with TWP. They make me feel, “This is my organization–I am a part of it.”

And although I have already donated to the organization and to the immigrant assistance fund, the next time they ask, I will be more likely to make an additional gift. Because I know it makes a difference when I do.

Does your nonprofit say thank you by keeping donors informed and involved? Look at this example to learn how. Click To Tweet

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.

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