Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

TY Thursday: Honor Your Donors

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thanks in actionI recently received a thank-you that reminded me of what I’d given, warmed my heart, and made it clear that the people saying “thanks” really knew me. When was the last time you made your donors feel that way?

My day job, of course, is consulting to nonprofit organizations to help them win the loyalty of their donors.

But my longest-running job (although just a few hours each week) is tutoring Jewish students for their bar or bat mitzvah.

It’s an intense relationship. The students, usually at a tender time in their lives, take on a complex task: reading from the Torah and prophets, and leading services, in Hebrew. They study for eight months to a year, and at the beginning, they’re not really sure they will succeed.

Bar mitzvah studyI get the joy of coaching them along and instilling confidence. On the day they actually celebrate becoming full-fledged members of the Jewish community, I’m there to prompt, but mostly to kvell (beam with pride).

Just a week ago–months after they had originally sent me a thank-you note–the family of one my students made a donation in my honor to RAICES, an organization that supports asylum seekers at the southwest border of the U.S.

They knew that I consider the way the U.S. treats these would-be legal immigrants shameful, and that my car wears the bumper sticker Never Again Means Close the Camps.

They made me smile, and they nearly made me cry. And they made me wonder: how many nonprofits are doing as well at saying “thank you” as the Newman/Nedell family?

  • Are you saying “thank you” just once, in a formal letter after receiving a gift? Or do you have a plan for thanking your donors throughout the year?
  • Is your thank-you impersonal, the same for every donor except for name and address? Or does your thank-you tell your donor you know what they care about (which is probably the reason they gave to you in the first place)?
  • Does your thank-you tell your donor, “I see you, and we are on the same side”?
You want to build a relationship of loyalty with your donors. Are you honoring them with your loyalty first? Share on X

TY Thursday: What Your Nonprofit Can Learn from My Guest Bloggers

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How is your nonprofit like a guest blogger on Communicate?

Answer: You both have to put your audience before yourself.

How Guest Bloggers Succeed on Communicate

Amy Hufford

Amy Hufford

Laura Rhodes

Laura Rhodes

Tripp Braden

Tripp Braden

 

 

 

 

I don’t let just anybody post on the Communicate blog. It doesn’t matter how big a name they are or how long they’ve been in the field. What matters is that they serve readers like you: small- to medium-sized nonprofits that want loyal friends and donors.

Amy Hufford, Laura Rhodes, Tripp Braden, Brock Klinger, James Gilmer, Sybil Stershic, Tripp Braden, Rebecca Thompson, Lisa Dunn…all of these writers took the time and effort to do three things:

  1. Send tailored posts. Guest bloggers didn’t just grab something they’d written and chuck it my way. They came up with a topic and an approach that would interest my readers.
  2. Do the homework. They looked at other posts on the blog, figured out what you, the readers, like to see, and they wrote something like that.
  3. Be unselfish. Yes, of course we all know that the guest bloggers would like you to look at their websites too, and possibly to buy their products or services. But they thought about you first.

This Thank-You Thursday, I want to thank my guest bloggers. But more than that, I want to suggest you, the nonprofit organization, can follow their example.

Write For Your Donors, Not Just Yourself

This sounds obvious, but too often we forget: your donor has something valuable to give you.

I can only give space on this blog. Your donors give your nonprofit its lifeblood, the money it needs to keep running.

Or they don’t. Your donors can say no.

What do you need to do in order for them to say yes? The same things that bloggers do when they want me to say yes to their guest posts!

  1. Send tailored communications to your donors. Write first and most often about what they want to know–not what you want to tell them.
  2. Know your audience. Do research to find out who they are and what they care about. Segment your list so that you’re sending messages about housing to people who care about homelessness and messages about food banks to people who care about hunger.
  3. Make the donor the hero.
    • “We do great work” is selfish.
    • “We do great work with your help” is selfishness in a thin disguise.
    • “You do great work. Keep on doing it with your donation” is putting your audience before yourself–and paradoxically, that is what will benefit your nonprofit the most!

Learn from my guest bloggers: what they say, but more important, what they do. Put others first if you want them to help you.

TY Thursday: A Personal Letter is Better Than a Personalized One

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Laura Rhodes

Laura Rhodes

A guest post by Laura Rhodes, Third Sector Consulting

Are your thank you letters personalized, personal, or both?

Putting your donor’s name in the letter and referring to the gift amount? That’s personalization.

Thanking your donor for something specific that they did? That’s personal.

Let me give you a couple of examples of how I recently made some thank you letters personal. Then I’ll share some ways you can make your own thank you letters more personal, too.

You see, my thank you letter writing skills were put to the test late last year. My mother passed away in October.

While her death was unexpected, the outpouring of love and support that followed was not. As you might expect, our family received cards, calls, food, flowers and more after her passing. Many people sent memorial donations to her church and other charities.

It all added up to a lot of people who needed to be thanked, for a lot of different reasons.

Would it have been easier to send a generic thank you note, along the lines of “Our family appreciates your thoughtfulness during this difficult time.” Yes, absolutely.

Is that what I did? Absolutely not!

Just like your donors, my friends and family members are special people. And I wanted them to know that. To feel my genuine appreciation. To feel special when they received and read their thank you note.

So, for instance, in one letter to a friend, I told him how his was one of the first sympathy cards I received and how much his handwritten note meant to me. Then I thanked him for his memorial donation.

In a letter to one of my cousins, I told her that her hug was the very first one I received on the day of my Mom’s Celebration of Life and how it gave me strength. Then I thanked her for her family’s role in the service.

sympathy flowersAnd for the neighbor who couldn’t attend the Celebration, but sent flowers, I sent a picture of those flowers along with a copy of the service program. Then I thanked her for being with us in spirit that day.

 

I can hear you saying, “But that’s different. I don’t know my donors like that!”

You might be surprised at what you know about your donors. And with that information, you can make your thank you letters more personal.

First, pay attention to your donors’ giving habits.

For instance, did your donor make more than one gift this year? Did she give more this year than last? Has she given for 3, or 5, or 10 years in a row? Is she a first-time donor?

Acknowledge her gift, tell her that you noticed that it was an extra gift (or an increased gift, or a milestone gift, or a first-time gift, etc.). Then tell her what her donation will do and give a specific example of how it will make a difference.

Second, pay attention to your donors’ actions.

For instance, did she attend your fundraising event this year? Sponsor a table? Buy an auction item? Volunteer on a committee? Volunteer within your program?

You’re going to write a thank you whenever a donor makes a monetary contribution. When you do, look for and recognize the other ways that she supports your organization.

Making it personal is about letting your donor know that you noticed what she did. It also means telling her, very specifically, why her contribution (of time, talent, treasure or all three!) was meaningful.

One last tip to make your letters personal: Handwrite as many notes as possible.

In today’s digital age, where so much seems so impersonal, a handwritten note will stand out. Your donor will appreciate that you took the time to write. It shows that you really care.

At a minimum, pen a personal P.S. on your computer-printed thank you letter. Folks will read what’s handwritten, even if they don’t read the rest.

Bottom line: When you “Wow!” your donors with a prompt and personal thank you, you’ll be well on your way to giving your donors what they want – and what they deserve.

WANT MORE THANK YOU IDEAS?

Check out these posts from the Let’s Talk Nonprofit blog:

How Your Thank You Letter Can Put More Money in the Bank

Anatomy of a Stellar Thank You Letter

What a 10-Year-Old Can Teach You About Thanking Your Donors

P.S. If you liked this article, you can receive posts like these each month in your email. Topics include fundraising, grant writing, board development, and best practices.

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