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TY Thursday: What Nonprofits Can Learn from Facebook about Saying Thanks

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Can nonprofits learn something about thank-yous from Facebook memories?

Facebook memories

You’ve probably seen them on your own Facebook feed. Memories from a year ago, or two, or five, pop up at random intervals. In truth, some of the memories are pretty random, too. (Do I really need to see that on this date in 2010, my email was down?)

But every once in a while, Facebook really gets it right. One day, Facebook told me my niece Fay celebrated her bat mitzvah eight years ago this week. Now she is two years out of college, in California, in her first job.

Seeing that memory put a smile on my face. And it also made me wonder: can nonprofits say “thank you” to donors by sharing good memories?

Memories Make Relationships

Marriages are built of memories. So is the relationship between the donor and your  nonprofit. When that donor thinks back to a time they are happy about, or proud of–and you were a part of it–it’s bound to make the donor associate that pride and joy with you.

What could you do to remind them of that time? Here are a few ideas:

  • Find a photo of that donor volunteering for your organization. Email it to them, or post it on social media and tag them. “Janine, do you remember when you and Joe packed school supplies into back packs for a hundred kids from low-income families who were just starting school? We remember! Thank you!”
  • Find a photo of that donor having a great time at your organization’s event. Email it to them, or post it on social media and tag them. “Randy, remember when you won the safari at our auction? We do! Look at the expression on your face!”
  • Recognize long-time donors by reminding them what they accomplished. “In 2006, you helped prepare Cheri and dozens of other parents like her to give their newborns a healthy home. In 2010, you helped her make reading to her son James a part of the daily routine. With this current gift, you have helped James get free lunches all summer. What a lot you have accomplished with your donations! Thank you!”

I’m sure there are other ways to share good memories with your supporters. Have you tried anything I have mentioned here, or some other approach? How did it work out for your nonprofit?

 

TY Thursday: Checklist for Your Ideal TY Letter

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recipe for TY letterOne of the most popular posts on this blog is called The Ideal Thank-You Letter Went Out Today! It lists seven ingredients you need to stir in to your thank-you letter to make sure donors will read it, appreciate it, and remember it when you ask them to give again.

It’s more than halfway through 2017. I’ve made some donations this year, and received some thank-you letters. Here’s how they compare to the ideal, a checklist of all seven points.

1) Called me by name.

Happily, 100% of the TY’s my wife and I received got this right. Nobody said, “Dear friend.” 10% started out “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Fischman,” and another 10% called us by our first names and last name. 80% used our first names, like friends.

2) Confirmed how much I gave you.

Again, 100%. This is progress! But that’s where the good news ends.

3) Told me how my gift would make a difference.

Nearly all the letters bragged about the organization’s work and cast me as a very junior partner. I read a lot of general statements about how the organization couldn’t do its work without me. They were flattering, but not very convincing.

About a third of the letters included statistics about how many people the organization helped–but I know my $50 is not “providing care to 30,000 patients.” So, that statistic doesn’t mean much to me.

One in ten of the letters reminded me of the problem we both worried about and the solution my donation could help provide: in other words, the things that made me want to give to the organization in the first place. Thank you to those who did! You made me feel good about my gift all over again.

Only one in ten really got it right. Those were the nonprofits who drew a direct connection between my gift and a specific result I cared about. Here’s my favorite example, from Wellstone Action:

Every time a Wellstone-trained progressive convenes a press conference in Oregon, or turns hundreds of young people out to vote in Wisconsin, or is elected to public office in rural Idaho, they have you to thank.

4) Illustrated my impact with a story. 

None. Zip. Zilch. Not one of the thank-you letters I received used storytelling to make me feel and remember what my gift accomplished…or why I should I give again.

Nonprofits, I’m disappointed in you! Let me help you figure out how to recognize, collect, recall, and use good stories in your thank-you letters in the future. Sign up for a webinar,  Where’s the Story Here? Nonprofit Storytelling for Fun and Profit.

5) Included a photo or image.

I saw more organizations getting visual in their TY’s this year–but still only 20%. And only half of them used an image to show me the people I’m supporting, and captioned them in their own words. That was what I appreciated most. (I’m talking about you, Interfaith Worker Justice!)

6) Told me about how else I can help.

30% of these letters included the dreaded “thask” (a thank-you and a new “ask” on the same page). And I know some organizations raise more money in the short term with this tactic–but in the long run, you will burn through donors instead of making them loyal friends.

I liked the organizations that gave me a chance to see my money at work as the year goes on, on their websites.But that was about them. What could I do, besides give more money?

The Rosenberg Fund for Children’s Jennifer Meeropol “enclosed a card and sticker for our campaign calling on President Obama to exonerate my grandmother, Ethel Rosenberg. You can learn more and sign & share the petition at www.rfc.org/ethel.” That’s the call to action I’m talking about!

7) Signed it by hand, and wrote something just for me.

All of these thank-you letters included photocopies of a personal signature. As far as I could tell, none of them were actually signed on the spot. That might be too much to expect from a national organization, but if you’re a local organization with a smaller mailing list, this might be your chance to stand out from the crowd!

Only 20% of the organizations had added a personal note to the thank-you letter. This dismays me. Sure, it’s harder to send a TY in a timely manner AND personalize it–but it’s worth doing both. And it gets easier if you have a good donor database and a story bank, right at hand.

Please use this post as your checklist when you thank donors. Get ready now to send out the ideal thank-you letter this year!

TY Thursday: 3 Things You Need to Write a Great TY

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bride writingDid you ever sit down to write a batch of thank-you letters and realize, “I don’t know who half of these people are”?

If you’ve gotten married recently, you might know what I mean. There are all those gifts from people who are friends of your parents. You might know them by name…or not. You might recognize their faces…or not.

But they wished you well and sent you a gift.

So you want to thank them. You want to appreciate their time, effort, and expense. But you end up writing a dozen, or two dozen, or a hundred letters that all sound the same. “Why am I doing this?” you think. “Will it make a difference to this person anyway?” And what should be a joy becomes a tiresome duty.

It’s a sad situation. It’s a situation that too many nonprofits find themselves in when they sit down to write thank-you letters to donors.

And it doesn’t have to be that way.

The 3 Things You Need to Write a Great TY

You can make writing a thank-you letter a joy if you prepare in advance. Here are the three things you need to have on hand before you write your TY (or record it on video).Continue Reading

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