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TY Thursday: Post-Donation Thank-You–on Your Website!

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post-donation TY pageCongratulations! You’ve cultivated your donor, and she has just gone online and made a generous gift. Now, post-donation, you want to thank her as personally as possible, as soon as possible.

But how?

Your First Chance to Show the Love

Just because a donor has made a gift to your organization, it doesn’t mean you have won their heart. Not forever. Maybe not even for today.

You’ve heard of “buyer’s remorse”? That feeling  you get when you’ve finally plunked down your credit card or signed on the dotted line and agreed to a purchase…and then you say, “Wait a minute, did I just make a big mistake?”

Donors to nonprofits go through that too. They give on impulse, and then they wonder, “Did I really do the right thing? Is that nonprofit really what I want to be supporting with my hard-earned money?”

The moment they give, you want to send them a message that says, “Yes! You did the right thing.”

Your Website Can Be Your Thank-You

All online fundraising tools will let you send a receipt to your donor automatically, to let them know their donation actually went through. But that’s the equivalent of the cashier handing you a receipt after a purchase. It’s minimal and impersonal. Your nonprofit can do better than that!

Some tools will let you customize the receipt. If yours allows you, definitely say “Thank you, Dennis, for giving $100 to Social Justice Organization. You’re already helping to save the world in this way!”

Some tools, like PayPal, won’t.

But–PayPal will let you return the donor to your website after he or she makes a donation. So, why not set up a post-donation thank-you page that shares all the love with the donor, right there on your website?

11 Things You Can Do on Your Post-Donation Thank-You Page

The thank-you page on your website can give your donors more than just a verbal “thank-you.” Here are 11 things you can do there to give the donor the feeling, “I made the right choice when I gave to this organization.” (The first nine are from Joanne Fritz  and the last two from Tina Jepson of Causevox.)

  1. Invite donors to follow you on social media. 
  2. Invite donors to watch a video.
  3. Invite donors to volunteer.
  4. Gather info with a little survey.  Ask just two or three questions on the thank you page, such as how they found out about your charity, why they donated, and how they want you to communicate with them.
  5. Connect your donor with resources.
  6. Gather feedback.  Explain to your donor that you always want to improve your service and ask her to help by leaving feedback about the donation process itself.
  7. Provide testimonials from the people you serve.  There’s no better way to reassure the donor that his decision to give was a good one than by listing a couple of testimonials from the people you help.
  8. Invite donors to something special.
  9. Remind your donor of an additional way to give (as charity: water does in the thank-you page pictured above).
  10. Add an email newsletter subscription option.
  11. Highlight impact.  By closing the loop on the donation, you ensure that your donor knows that your organization is making a difference because of their investment in your cause.

It doesn’t take any more technical knowledge to set up a post-donation thank-you page than to add any other page to your website. So, why not give it a try? See if your donors appreciate it!

Fundraising Tuesday: Make Your Donors Love You

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You’ve heard the saying, “It’s not what you eat between Christmas and New Year’s–it’s what you eat between New Year’s and Christmas”?  Similarly, it’s not what you write to your donors in your end-of-year appeal letter that determines how they feel about your organization. It’s what you write all year long.

Communication in marriageCommunications are the key to a good marriage. Your nonprofit’s communications are the key to a good relationship between your donors and you.

By next Valentine’s Day, make your donors love you. Here are the four steps to win their hearts.

This winter, work on your email.

When donors or prospects give you their email address, it’s like they met you on a blind date and decided to give you their phone number. What they’re saying is, “I want to hear from you.” It’s a huge gesture of trust.

Be worthy of their trust.

  • Find out the kind of content they want to see, and send it to them as often (and no more often) than they want to see it.
  • Write subject lines that signal, “I wrote this especially for you and I know you’ll want to read it.”
  • Personalize every email. “Dear friend” is not acceptable in 2017. It tells your donors they’re not worth your time.
  • Keep your list up to date. There are good email tools out there: MailChimp and Constant Contact are two that many nonprofits use. Buy one and learn how to use it. You–and your donors–will be glad you did.

This spring, take a good look at your website.

Your website is your online living room. If you’re going to invite donors there, you want them to stay a while.

  • Make the lighting comfortable. Is the font size large enough for middle-aged eyes? Does it read as well on Chrome or Firefox as on Internet Explorer or Safari? Can donors read it on their mobile devices? Can they read it with their screen readers (if they have limited eyesight)?
  • Make the room easy to get around. Place navigation bars on the homepage and on every page. Clearly label your pages and tabs, and don’t get too cute: “About Us” or “Who We Are” are better than “The 411.”
  • Put out the treats.  Your donors need to find what they’re looking for quickly or they’ll leave your site. Be sure everything is within three clicks from the home page: for instance, 1) home page, 2) contact us, 3) email. If you’re inviting people to sign up for an event, consider using a landing page with its own URL.

This summer, spice up your blogging life.

Did you ever meet someone and think to yourself, “I love talking with him. I could spend all night just listening to him?”

Writing a blog gives your donors a chance to say that about you.

Blogging is better for those long explorations than email. It’s more of a conversation than the rest of your website. Blogging is for lovers.

This fall, finally get social.

What would the love of your life think if when you were together, you only talked and never listened? Or if you only listened when he or she was talking about you?

Not very romantic, right?

But too many nonprofits think the reason to use social media is to have one more place to rattle on about themselves.

Social media are really more like social gatherings: parties, conferences, Chamber of Commerce meetings, public forums. You go those events to meet people and become an important part of the community. You go on social media to do the same.

Over time, if you pay attention to them, people come to know, like, and trust your organization. They actually seek you out for information and advice and opportunities to volunteer. They start thinking of you as “their” organization. They fall in love.

How do you use social media to make donors love you? I’ve been studying this subject for years, and I’m happy to share it with you.

social mediaThe No-Nonsense Nonprofit Guide to Social Media: How You Can Start Small, Win Loyal Friends, and Raise Funds Online and Off is your step-by-step guide to courting your donors.

Download it now, and by next fall, you can be happily engaged.

By next winter, you can be busy writing thank-you notes.

By next Valentine’s Day, your donors can be yours for life.

The No-Nonsense Nonprofit Guide to Social Media: How You Can Start Small, Win Loyal Friends, and Raise Funds Online and Off

How NOT to Market Your Services

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My wife, realtor Rona Fischman, was listening to a webinar when her phone began to ring. She didn’t recognize the number, but it might have been another realtor calling about a transaction in progress.  She decided to answer.

“Hello, this is [fill-in-the-blank] Media calling about your website.”

Woman grimacing at phone

Not the reaction you want.

Rona groaned. This company had been leaving messages on her voicemail for days.  “I’m listening to a webinar right now. If my website is on fire, tell me so.  Otherwise, call me back after the webinar.”

“Do you know that half the links on your home page are broken and that people who click on them will see 404 errors?”

“No, I didn’t know that. After the webinar, I will check on it.”

In fact, Rona checked her website–on Chrome, IE, and Firefox, just to make sure–and there were no broken links.  Later, she received an email from the company that had called her.  They apologized for “startling” her and listed several other “problems” with her website.  Some of them did not exist.  Others are not problems for Rona because her business model does not require a huge volume of clients.

In short, they lied to her and never took the time to find out what she really might need.

This is the internet age.  Wouldn’t it be easy to spend a little time looking at Rona’s website and finding comments about her on Angie’s List, etc., and figure out where you could really add value to her communications?

Whether you are out to make a profit or looking to recruit support for your good cause, you owe it to yourself to treat the client with respect and personalize your message.

Have you ever encountered a sales pitch like the one Rona heard? How did you react when you heard or read it?

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