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How to write a thank you letter when you’re feeling stuck

You’ve been working hard on that last campaign. And now, you have new gifts! After the celebration, you begin to wonder. How can you write a thank you that works? Where do you start? Here’s my quick thank you letter how-to First, a confession: I used to write rote, boring, perfunctory thank you letters. And […]

Filed Under: Blog, Thanks Tagged With: donor love, donor relations, thank you 16 Comments

What’s in a name? Respect

Do names matter? A few weeks ago, Roger Craver wrote about an issue dear to my heart. Having been caught in a tweetstorm with Whiny Donor, my tweets on the subject were mentioned. Whiny, Clay Buck, Tom Ahern, and I all complained about how organizations ignored our names because using two different names on a […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications, Donors Tagged With: donor data, donor relations 6 Comments

Who is your annual report working for, anyway?

Even in smaller organizations, an annual report has a way of taking up a lot of space. (Or time, but they’re the same thing, I’m told.) Day-to-day work halts. Reports are requested from all departments. Designers and writers are hired. An annual report is often seen as the one marketing piece worth investing in. After […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donor communications Tagged With: donor communications, donor relations, gratitude 2 Comments

How you can harness the power of a niche brand

According to Brand Marketing Blog, niche brands are better than broad brands. They say: A niche brand is one that is very meaningful to some people, but not applicable to most people. Niche brands seek to create deep relationships with a subset of potential customers, and ignore the rest.  Broad brands have high brand recognition […]

Filed Under: Blog, Donors Tagged With: donor experience, donor focus, donor relations 4 Comments

What Facebook can teach you about trust

Who do you trust? As I write, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is answering questions in the Senate. He’s avoided this session to date. Today, he can’t. And that’s because his business model and a sloppy thirst for income led to a frightening abuse of users’ information. Yes, we’ve all heard it before: if you’re not […]

Filed Under: Blog, Fundraising Tagged With: donor data, donor relations, donor stewardship 6 Comments

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