Good morning, Marc,
With all the receipting and reporting you need to do this week, it’s easy to forget the most important part of the fundraising process: thanking.
Ok. The second most important. Asking is obviously more important.
But thanking is hugely important.
Survey after survey shows the top reason donors don’t give a second time: they never learned their first gift made a difference.
The best way for donors to realize their gift matters? THANK THEM.
Thanking doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be handwritten thank you notes.
Or actual phone calls. (In most cases you’ll simply be leaving a message.)
All you need to say is:
Hi [donor name],Thank you so much for your gift last year. We couldn’t do [your impact] without support of generous people like you.Thank you,[Your name]
That’s it.
If you’re a board member, start with “My name is _____. I’m on the board of ______ and the staff tells me you made a gift last year. Thank you so much…” then continue with the rest of the script above.
Longtime fundraising expert Jay Love says the best use of an Executive Director’s or CEO’s time is thanking. He recommends taking the dollar amount of all last years donations and dividing that by the number of donors. This helps you figure out an “average gift size.”
According to Jay, an Executive Director/CEO should call to thank everyone who gives over the average gift say.
When that become 50% of an Executive Director’s or CEO’s day, every work day, only then can you look to delegate it to staff or others.
Thanking is that important.
So block time on your calendar now to thank.
What if you make a call and the donor actually answers? I give an additional script on this thank you script page.
