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When you have time for ONE thing... do THIS - You Got This Fundraising
It is so easy to say and yet so easy to forget to do and then feel like it was just a nice thing...not an important thing. A Thank You is SO important that it may be the difference between making your budget of donations and not making it in 2019. Let’s talk about the gratitude journey of your donors, on You Got This Fundraising!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.
Hello fellow Simplifiers! A question this week brings me to the topic of thank yous. I was asked if I had one thing to suggest for increasing donations in the last quarter of this year, what would it be? That is easy and even if you are doing it well, you can do it better and still increase your donations, and that is thanking the donors. I have had many nonprofits swear to me they thank their donors and I can usually bet they are considering their tax receipt of donation as their thank you. The research is in on that one, donors perceive the receipt as just that, a receipt and they put it in their tax information. Emotionally and practically, they place the letter acknowledging their gift away for their accountant.
I have never seen a tax receipt sitting on the ledge of a donor’s window, but I have seen a handwritten thank you note saved and cherished. That is all well and good, but what about hard facts.
- first-time donors who get a personal thank you within 48 hours are 4x more likely to give a second gift. (McConkey-Johnston International UK)
Let’s take those apart a bit. A first-time donor who gets a personal thank you, not the receipt, within 48 hours are 4 times as likely to give a second gift. That is crazy huge when you consider that the likely hood of a second gift is only 22%, so even if they are half right, that is a large increase for donors. Don’t be skimpy on the thank you, call out their first- time donor status and welcome them into the ‘family’. Seth Godin in Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us said, “A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” Your donor has an interest in the good work you do, we will call it impact. That impact is important to the donor. So important, they gave you money! That is easy to forget sometimes, that the donor believes in the same thing you believe it at an extremely high level, they gave you cash. Now, they must be enticed to be a part of the tribe, your tribe. Give them a means of communication. Thank them.
Thank yous simplify your fundraising success! The podcast today is sponsored by You Got This Coaching at dawngabel.com. Simple solutions to your complicated world of nonprofit fundraising. Go to dawngabel.com and join us on the journey to your success! There you will find the podcast PDF for today. Take time right now to download our list of 10 Ways to Thank Your Donors!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.
The second point, from Penelope Burk’s research, says that a thank-you call from a board member to a newly acquired donor within 24 hours of receiving the gifts will increase their next gift by 39%. Whoa, they will give an extra .39 cents on the dollar more on average because we bothered to have a similar person in the tribe, a board member who is not only a leader, but a fellow donor, give them a phone call? Astounding! I hear from board members frequently, what can I do to help? Well, there you are! You as a board member can volunteer to call 10 first-time donors a month. You don’t have to ask for money to be a money making machine for the organization! I know this is true because I have seen it myself in action. When a board member does even less than this, if a board member calls donors at Thanksgiving or Valentine’s day as part of a thank-a-thon, the reaction is life affirming for both the donor and and the board member. I have had board members call to ask for more names because it made their week to speak to people who were so glad to have a call of thank you from a fellow tribe member.
To expand on Seth Godin’s pathway of communication, we only have to look at the means of which we are increasing their opportunity to belong and supporting the tribe. A personal hand-written thank you gives the receiver the permission to write back because it is personal. I took the time to write you so you are allowed to take the time to write me. The formal letter is a barrier of formality. It stops the perceived possibility of return. A phone call is a step further, a literal opportunity to communicate back along the pathway. But it is even more interesting than that, if you leave a voicemail, the outcome is the same as a call that was picked up. I believe it is the same reason as the handwritten thank you note, there is a permission to respond even if they do not take you up on the permission. They are given a pathway to communicate to the tribe.
Don’t stop there!
Now hit them with what they really want, full membership in the communication pathway. Jen Shang’s research says that in a database where the average number of gifts made by donors is three, a thank-you letter reaffirming the difference that their donations made increased average gifts by 60% without reducing response rate in comparison to a control group of donors who did not receive this thank-you communication.
This is a follow up thank you. A personal letter, it can be typed, with specific information about what their donation did, maybe that was feed ten homeless families or perhaps that sent three inner city youth to camp, whatever it was let them know. Tell a specific story about one of the recipients. If they sent a youth to leadership camp, get permission to interview that youth. A photo would be great. Get a real story about how it affected their lives to be given the gift. Include a personal note of thanks from the young person. It doesn’t really matter your impact, you will be able to link the donor to the impact in a follow up thank you letter. The letter should make them the hero. Make sure they are thanked for being the right person to do this very special thing. It is called being donor centered. Are you centered on the donor or are you centered on your nonprofit? Do not say XYZ nonprofit sent three youth to camp with your donation. Do say, You, donor, sent Amelia to the experience of her lifetime!
What a gift to know where your donation made a difference. I worked for the American Red Cross Blood Services and although we thanked donors and let them know great stories of people who were helped by their donation, Sweden’s blood services are taking it to the next level with this process in mind.
Blood donation rates are in decline all over the developed world, so Sweden decided to up their texting game. Donors are sent an automatic text message telling them when their blood has been used. People who donate initially receive a thank you text. You may get that in America also, but the Swedes get a text when it makes it into someone else’s veins. Now that is some thoughtful tracking that allows the donor to receive the communication pathway. Their donation was not just to the greater good but to a real person who had a medical emergency and I know when my donation mattered. Gives me chills.
What can you do to bring that communication pathway to your donor. One way on the highest levels, is to increase your personal contact with your major donors. Another way is to create the system of emails and letters that go out to every first-time donor. Do you have a drip campaign for emails to FTDs? What if you put into your donor management software a prompt to send the receipt, a hand-written note, and assign a board member to call the FTD? And, you had a programmed series of three emails that follow up with a prompt of in 90 days to send another letter of follow up that details the use of their donation? Too much? No, way.
There you are, one thing that will increase your donations this year. Simplify the process, but remember, simplifying the process does not mean there won’t be work. The bulk of the work is in the programming and planning and implementing the system. When you have control of your system, your stress level will go down. Evidence based fundraising and the technology to track and communicate with your donors. Never forget, you got this!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.
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By ugotthisIt is so easy to say and yet so easy to forget to do and then feel like it was just a nice thing...not an important thing. A Thank You is SO important that it may be the difference between making your budget of donations and not making it in 2019. Let’s talk about the gratitude journey of your donors, on You Got This Fundraising!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.
Hello fellow Simplifiers! A question this week brings me to the topic of thank yous. I was asked if I had one thing to suggest for increasing donations in the last quarter of this year, what would it be? That is easy and even if you are doing it well, you can do it better and still increase your donations, and that is thanking the donors. I have had many nonprofits swear to me they thank their donors and I can usually bet they are considering their tax receipt of donation as their thank you. The research is in on that one, donors perceive the receipt as just that, a receipt and they put it in their tax information. Emotionally and practically, they place the letter acknowledging their gift away for their accountant.
I have never seen a tax receipt sitting on the ledge of a donor’s window, but I have seen a handwritten thank you note saved and cherished. That is all well and good, but what about hard facts.
- first-time donors who get a personal thank you within 48 hours are 4x more likely to give a second gift. (McConkey-Johnston International UK)
Let’s take those apart a bit. A first-time donor who gets a personal thank you, not the receipt, within 48 hours are 4 times as likely to give a second gift. That is crazy huge when you consider that the likely hood of a second gift is only 22%, so even if they are half right, that is a large increase for donors. Don’t be skimpy on the thank you, call out their first- time donor status and welcome them into the ‘family’. Seth Godin in Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us said, “A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate.” Your donor has an interest in the good work you do, we will call it impact. That impact is important to the donor. So important, they gave you money! That is easy to forget sometimes, that the donor believes in the same thing you believe it at an extremely high level, they gave you cash. Now, they must be enticed to be a part of the tribe, your tribe. Give them a means of communication. Thank them.
Thank yous simplify your fundraising success! The podcast today is sponsored by You Got This Coaching at dawngabel.com. Simple solutions to your complicated world of nonprofit fundraising. Go to dawngabel.com and join us on the journey to your success! There you will find the podcast PDF for today. Take time right now to download our list of 10 Ways to Thank Your Donors!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.
The second point, from Penelope Burk’s research, says that a thank-you call from a board member to a newly acquired donor within 24 hours of receiving the gifts will increase their next gift by 39%. Whoa, they will give an extra .39 cents on the dollar more on average because we bothered to have a similar person in the tribe, a board member who is not only a leader, but a fellow donor, give them a phone call? Astounding! I hear from board members frequently, what can I do to help? Well, there you are! You as a board member can volunteer to call 10 first-time donors a month. You don’t have to ask for money to be a money making machine for the organization! I know this is true because I have seen it myself in action. When a board member does even less than this, if a board member calls donors at Thanksgiving or Valentine’s day as part of a thank-a-thon, the reaction is life affirming for both the donor and and the board member. I have had board members call to ask for more names because it made their week to speak to people who were so glad to have a call of thank you from a fellow tribe member.
To expand on Seth Godin’s pathway of communication, we only have to look at the means of which we are increasing their opportunity to belong and supporting the tribe. A personal hand-written thank you gives the receiver the permission to write back because it is personal. I took the time to write you so you are allowed to take the time to write me. The formal letter is a barrier of formality. It stops the perceived possibility of return. A phone call is a step further, a literal opportunity to communicate back along the pathway. But it is even more interesting than that, if you leave a voicemail, the outcome is the same as a call that was picked up. I believe it is the same reason as the handwritten thank you note, there is a permission to respond even if they do not take you up on the permission. They are given a pathway to communicate to the tribe.
Don’t stop there!
Now hit them with what they really want, full membership in the communication pathway. Jen Shang’s research says that in a database where the average number of gifts made by donors is three, a thank-you letter reaffirming the difference that their donations made increased average gifts by 60% without reducing response rate in comparison to a control group of donors who did not receive this thank-you communication.
This is a follow up thank you. A personal letter, it can be typed, with specific information about what their donation did, maybe that was feed ten homeless families or perhaps that sent three inner city youth to camp, whatever it was let them know. Tell a specific story about one of the recipients. If they sent a youth to leadership camp, get permission to interview that youth. A photo would be great. Get a real story about how it affected their lives to be given the gift. Include a personal note of thanks from the young person. It doesn’t really matter your impact, you will be able to link the donor to the impact in a follow up thank you letter. The letter should make them the hero. Make sure they are thanked for being the right person to do this very special thing. It is called being donor centered. Are you centered on the donor or are you centered on your nonprofit? Do not say XYZ nonprofit sent three youth to camp with your donation. Do say, You, donor, sent Amelia to the experience of her lifetime!
What a gift to know where your donation made a difference. I worked for the American Red Cross Blood Services and although we thanked donors and let them know great stories of people who were helped by their donation, Sweden’s blood services are taking it to the next level with this process in mind.
Blood donation rates are in decline all over the developed world, so Sweden decided to up their texting game. Donors are sent an automatic text message telling them when their blood has been used. People who donate initially receive a thank you text. You may get that in America also, but the Swedes get a text when it makes it into someone else’s veins. Now that is some thoughtful tracking that allows the donor to receive the communication pathway. Their donation was not just to the greater good but to a real person who had a medical emergency and I know when my donation mattered. Gives me chills.
What can you do to bring that communication pathway to your donor. One way on the highest levels, is to increase your personal contact with your major donors. Another way is to create the system of emails and letters that go out to every first-time donor. Do you have a drip campaign for emails to FTDs? What if you put into your donor management software a prompt to send the receipt, a hand-written note, and assign a board member to call the FTD? And, you had a programmed series of three emails that follow up with a prompt of in 90 days to send another letter of follow up that details the use of their donation? Too much? No, way.
There you are, one thing that will increase your donations this year. Simplify the process, but remember, simplifying the process does not mean there won’t be work. The bulk of the work is in the programming and planning and implementing the system. When you have control of your system, your stress level will go down. Evidence based fundraising and the technology to track and communicate with your donors. Never forget, you got this!
For your FREE podcast action sheet, visit my website, www.dawngabel.com
Be sure to like me on Facebook for additional fundraising tips. www.facebook.com/yougotthispod
This episode is sponsored by You Got This Coaching.