The Least You Can Do

I hear grandparenthood is the best gig around. I wouldn’t know. But I sure did have some awesome grandparents of my own. 

Unfortunately, Grandma and Grandpa Long lived out of state, so we didn’t get to see them as much as my kids got to see their grandparents who were local.  However, we could always count on birthday cards with some crisp bills enclosed along with a stick of gum.  Always a stick of gum—that was their trademark move and I loved it.

They even kept it up while I was in college when they’d surprise me with an encouraging card, a twenty dollar bill for ‘pizza money’ and, of course, a stick of gum. I can’t say I always bought pizza, but I do know that it always came at just the right time. But it always came.

Why? Well, they loved me, yes. But more likely because I thanked them for it. I’m old enough to remember when long distance calls were expensive, so a phone call to say thanks was never in order. That’s why we wrote thank you notes.

We always thanked my grandparents. It was never a ‘War and Peace’ tribute but I was always heartfelt and truly appreciated. Whether it was true or not, I was taught that if the thank you letter didn’t make it back to Paul and Elvie, the next stick of gum wouldn’t make it back to me. Do they still teach that?

I ask because I had a conversation with a donor last week. A great person who is loved by many. And while I’m happy to report that the issue wasn’t with us, the term used that day was one I one that made me sad. The term…donor abuse.  

While I’m sure there are many different ways this could be defined, the issue at hand was with this donor was thank you notes. Specifically, some donors not getting any acknowledgement at all and other donors receiving the same thank you letter they have received each year five-ever.

Can you imagine if I never thanked Grandma and Grandpa Long? Or worse yet, if sent the same photocopied thank you note each time they sent me a card?  Maybe they’d keep blessing me for a while, assuming that I was busy or overwhelmed—essentially extending me some grace whether I deserved it or not. And I bet a lot of donors do the same—also whether it’s deserved or not.

But there is a better way. There must be a better way. Because this, THIS, is a basic fundraising tenant—show gratitude to your donors. Period. End of story. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Not doing so, makes all charities look bad. And we work far too hard to achieve our missions to go down because we don’t properly acknowledge the generosity that fuels our missions.

Of course, there are both Left Brain Marketing Methods and Right Brain Marketing Moxie that can be applied to this essential element of fundraising. All stick-of-gum-worthy in my book.

Left Brain Marketing Moxie:  There are some extremely logical ideas that must be adhered to if you accept the responsibility to fundraise for any cause. You don’t have to look far, but you do have to stop, collaborate, and listen—the foundation of our entire field depends on it.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie:  Not thanking your donors is simply not an option. If you can’t thank them, don’t ask them for anything…enough said. You need to respect the field and your peers more than that. Luckily, there are a myriad of ways you can thank donors. We’ll look at a few.

It’s time to adopt a ‘thank before you bank’ mentality and become professional thankers, not professional bankers.

Left Brain Marketing Methods:  Sadly, there are many articles to be found if you Google ‘donor abuse’. It’s truly awful that this even exists. And while I could go over the many ways that fundraisers have chosen to treat donors poorly, that’s not what this blog is about. This blog is all about how to do things better.

Ironically, the concept of properly thanking donors is as basic as my advice today, adoption of the Donor Bill of Rights. The Donor Bill of Rights was created by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and the Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits. In my opinion, this document should be adopted by all nonprofits and, in turn, shared with your donors.

Roman Numeral Five (V), of the Donor Bill of Rights is this:

V. To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.

Put some thought into the full Bill of Rights and consider how you might be able to utilize them. Many nonprofits officially adopt these and post them to their website—great idea! Or you could send them out when new donors open a fund with you, so they realize how  much respect you have for their generosity.

And for full transparency, you could include it in one of your donor mailings. If you’re following an Ask, Thank, or Report donor communication model, this would be a great piece to include in a donor thank you letter. And by this, I’m not talking about the receipt that they should be getting each time they donate. That should be part of your standard operating procedures.

The bottom line here is to make sure your donors know how much you respect their gift and how you’ll reciprocate by caring for it properly. It’s literally, the least you can do.

Right Brain Marketing Moxie:  Once I got over the disbelief that some nonprofits don’t properly thank donors, I started thinking about why that might be. And I think it must be time or lack thereof. And that’s probably because they don’t have a system in place that makes it do-able.

That means, you need a system. Devise a system to track all your donations and a system to utilize mail merge to let technology help you work smarter, not harder. Seriously, if you aren’t utilizing mail merge technology, you’re wasting valuable time. Stop what you’re doing and figure this out now.

That’s how you can easily craft what we call GALs, Gift Acknowledgement Letters, that serve as a donor receipt, thank you letter, marketing piece, and hug all wrapped into one. Writing a clever letter that oozes gratitude while also updating your donors with the biggest news that’s happening at your organization will not only get read, but it will be appreciated.  Plus, in my experience, it leads to donors contributing to your organization multiple times per year and that, friend, is what builds donor loyalty. While we don’t have time to talk about donor loyalty in this blog, it’s big! And it leads to bequests, estates, and end of life major gifts which are by far larger than all the cash gifts you get annually combined!

So, this is my challenge to you, adopt a ‘thank before you bank’ philosophy and don’t cash those checks until you have completed those thank you letters. Please for the love of all things charitable, do this for the profession.

Then, if you are one of those extra credit kind of fundraisers, think about putting your GAL game on steroids and writing a new thank you letter each month. I know, I know, it sounds impossible. It is, in fact, very possible. Heck, try a new letter every other month at first—see how that plays out.

Like my letters to Paul and Elvie, you don’t have to write a master’s thesis.  You don’t want to write that and donors don’t want to read it either. So, be light-hearted. Literally put a hug in their mailbox by thanking them, informing them, and confirming their donation--then, put a stamp on it. I’m sure somewhere in the archives, Beyoncé's song was titled, ‘If you like them then you shoulda put a stamp on it’. It didn’t work for the Billboard Top 100, but it will work for you.

Utilize your mail merge features of your database or simply leverage Excel to merge the proper donor information where needed and call it a day. And contrary to popular opinion, this doesn’t have to be done daily—that would be cumbersome with a small staff.  Decide if you want to make deposits once or twice a week and schedule it.

News Flash: If you’re sending out the same donor receipt that you’ve been sending for the past twenty years, your donors aren’t even opening it anymore. They’ve read it before. They throw it in a file folder and give it to their accountant once a year. Change up your letter monthly and they’ll begin opening those letters. And they’ll begin reading those letters. And they’ll find out how much they’re appreciated. And they’ll discover what the biggest wins you’ve had recently were. And maybe they’ll learn about another way to give or how their last gift made all the difference. The idea is that they’ll read it! And they’ll get to know you better. And that leads to more gifts and more gratitude. It’s the Gifts, Gratitude, Repeat model. The unsung understudy to Shampoo, Rinse, Repeat, only better!

Sadly, donor abuse is a real thing and that’s simply horrific. We can do better. You can do better. Your donors deserve better. It’s the most basic task fundraisers have. In fact, it’s so vital that I believe if you can’t make time to craft an authentic thank you letter, you might be in the wrong profession. Think about it.

I sure do miss those cards filled with Juicy Fruit and Fruit Strip gum. Who knows?  We might even place a stick in our next round of thank you letters—and that’s happening tomorrow at our office. All My Best,

Dawn
[email protected]
dawn brown creative, llc.

P.S.  Thank YOU for reading my blog.