Too big to succeed?
My family recently made what was for us a large gift to a national charity.
The response was underwhelming, and that’s being kind.
An 8.5 x 14 sheet of paper, with the bottom being a tear-off, generic response form. The thank you letter – such as it was – consisted of 4 short paragraphs. Two of them mentioned us – or rather, our gift.
Then in response to another significant-for-us gift to an organization we’ve had ties to for decades, we received a receipt and a small postcard (not personalized).
Opening both with sadness and disgust, I thought of smaller organizations that I’ve written thank you letters for. Whether the gift was $3 or $3,000, the donor received the heartfelt thanks they deserved. And it cost us nothing more to thank the $3 donor as well as the larger dollar donor.
So why can’t a large organization with lots of staff take a few minutes to write a thank you letter that feels even a little sincere?
Donors deserve better
Yes, they do. All of them. Any of them.
After I opened the mail, I went back to my office. I hopped on the stationary bike, hoping to work off some of my annoyance.
That didn’t work, so I’m writing you. Though if you’ve been reading this blog, you already know how I feel about thank you letters.
They matter. Because donors – all donors – matter.
It’s just plain polite. And you can take the few minutes and bit of human feeling it takes to write one that touches your donors’ hearts. If it feels like a burden, then may I suggest you might be in the wrong line of work?
Your mission deserves better
When a long-time donor suddenly gives well above their usual gift, you should take notice. Every time you chose not to notice and let your donor know you noticed, you’re missing an opportunity to grow.
Do you have a plan in place for donors like this? Are you prepared to move them along to a different category of communication? Do you know when they should be responded to personally?
All of this deserves careful thought. And if a donor’s gift doesn’t qualify for attention from a major gifts officer, are you just dumping the donor back in the uninspiring communications pool?
(Note: there should be NO uninspiring communications pool.)
None of it needs to be uninspiring
The point is, whatever the donation amount, your donors deserve a little care. It’s not hard to write a warm thank you letter. But it does mean you need to let the feels rule for a bit. And when you put the care into thank you letters as well as your other donor communications, you’ll see donors respond.
Keep in mind that donors’ connection to your organization, and your mission, is emotional. Don’t leave them out in the cold. You don’t have to shower every donor with personal attention. But the attention you do offer should be warm and personal.
The good news is that warm and personal can easily scale. So there’s no excuse for taking any donor for granted.
Unless you’re hoping they go away.
Resource for you: How to write a better thank you letter and why it matters. Written by my friend Lisas Sargent, the best. Clear, simple, and easy to execute!
Mary, this is SO important. I had a similar experience recently. And also felt both sad and ticked off. There’s no excuse — except being too big to care. And that’s the antithesis of philanthropy (i.e. “Love of Humankind.”)
Whenever the donor thinks “Gee, I guess I shouldn’t have bothered to increase my donation,” that’s a bad sign. It’s not going to destroy the organization, but it IS going to make our world just a little bit less loving and beautiful.
We’re the “social benefit” sector. Where’s the social benefit in that? I hope the right people read your article.
Thanks Claire! It’s not hard to do things well, with care.
So why not do it that way?
I appreciate your comments!
hi, great post Mary, but here’s what’s even more annoying.
At least this organization appreciated you on paper. There are way too many nonprofits that assume that donors don’t want to receive anything by paper any longer… they take some type of arbitrary amount and figure that an email is good enough… NOT so.
At least this organization sent it to you within a reasonable time. Too many times, it takes months to get a thank you letter or response.
let’s get back to basics. A thank you letter should be sent by mail, it should go out quickly and it should be the most appreciative you can make it. And absolutely, follow Mary’s and Lisa’s advice on how best to write a thank you and then by golly, get it out pronto and correct.