Do your thank you letters need a little help?

I want you to raise more money.

So I want you to fix your thank you letters.

I understand why thank you letters might seem an afterthought.

When I first started working in development, I felt comfortable around data and record-keeping. It felt neat and orderly. You plug the numbers in correctly, and you get the right results. You spell people’s names right, and they don’t call and yell at you. Simple.

Then I learned to write appeal letters—hesitantly at first, but I got there and learned to love it. The challenge, the psychology of it—it was fun!

Thank you letters, though. Thank you letters were not fun. How many ways can you say, “thank you for your generous gift of $X”?

You’re thinking: “If they bored her, imagine how her donors felt!” Exactly. Though I don’t think my early thank you letters were any worse than most of what I see in my mailbox.

I’ve written about some of the awful ones I’ve received. (And how about just a tax receipt in an envelope?)

You get them too, I’m sure. The ones you swear were written by a bored cyborg.

There are so many crappy thank you letters out there!

So my advice: if you want to stand out, if you want to build relationships…

Fix your thank you letters!

I have to thank a couple of people for changing my attitude way back then. Lisa Sargent and Pamela Grow showed me how effective a great thank you can be. (Lisa even has a fabulous new book on this: Thankology.) I learned how important a good thank you is to donor retention.

But I also learned how rewarding it is to write one. Now I’m a devoted disciple of the School of Good Thanks.

Here are some tips for writing a good thank you letter.

Start by creating a donor profile.

This will be helpful as you try to craft a letter that’s meaningful to your donor. You’d probably write in a slightly different style to a friend or your grandmother. You don’t need something big and complex. (Don’t use this suggestion to avoid getting to the thank you letter!) But if you don’t already have a good feel for who your donors are and what they care about, take some time to learn.

Spend time on the thank you letter’s first line.

You know this already from writing your appeals, right? You want to open your letter in a way that immediately makes your donor feel great. Considering all the dull thank you letters out there, a great opening will immediately set you apart. Anything that starts with “On behalf of the board of directors…” needs to go. Aim for what you’d write to a friend who sent you a lovely gift instead.

Focus on your donor, not on your organization.

This isn’t about you. This isn’t about the great work your organization does. So your thank you letter is not the place to brag. It’s not the time to list all your fabulous accomplishments. This is entirely about your donor and the great work she does through you.

Thank the donor for something specific.

Thank the donor for the gift he gave. Mention the reason for the gift if it was sent in response to a particular request. If the gift was given for a program, talk about the program and the impact of his gift. Don’t fall back on generalities just to make it easier on you.

You should also thank the donor for who she is. The gift matters, of course, but we all want to know we’re appreciated for who we are, not just what we give. Keep that in mind as you craft your thanks.

Fix your thank you letter – be emotional.

Very emotional! Giving is not an intellectual, rational exercise. People give from their hearts. (They may then rationalize the gift with facts.) Speak to their hearts and wear yours on your sleeve.

Make it personal.

I’m not just talking about getting her name right. I mean, have the letter personally signed. Add a handwritten note. Let her know how to be in touch with you. You’re working on creating a personal relationship here!

Don’t be greedy.

Should you ask for another gift with your thank you letter? Some people can show evidence that an ask with acknowledgment brings good results. I’d rather focus on creating some good feelings around having given. You could try including a response envelope with a request for comments or questions.

But, you say, “how can I possibly generate letters that are warm and genuine? I’ve got hundreds, maybe thousands, to do and my boss won’t OK a clone!”

This is what I did:

Plan ahead.

Write the thank you as you write the appeal. They go together. And you’ll be in the right frame of mind then.

Set up your database.

If you have different requests going out, you can key each gift to its special letter. Then you can use that key to create the mother-of-all-nested-merges in Word. You can run one report and still generate different letters to reflect the gift (and giver). I built 20 or more different letters into one document. It’s a bear to create. But it saved lots of time later.

Keep it up to date.

Plan to update all those letters throughout the year. Consider coding second and third gifts in your database as well. Then you can acknowledge your donor’s extra generosity.

Then review.

This is where you make sure names, dates, and amounts are right. It may feel like more data to you. But a person’s name is… well, personal. Emotional. And don’t make assumptions. A married couple may not share a last name. A woman may not like being addressed as “Mrs.” A couple may not be a man and a woman.

Did the donor add a note to the reply form? Or call with a question? Add some personal touches… they’ve just taken a step toward a closer relationship.

A reminder:

These letters are just the “official” thanks. Don’t stop there. Donors deserve better. Think about personal notes, phone calls, and other ways to show them they matter.

I found the more organized I was up front, the less work I did overall.

You don’t want gratitude to feel automated. But unless you only have a few donors, you can’t write a completely new letter for every donor’s gift. A little smart automation can help you avoid robotic thank you letters.

So go write some fabulous thank you letters. No more robots. My family is tired of my grumbling as I open the mail!