There is nothing I like better than a well crafted mailed thank you letter to donors.
But with so many communication options open to us, it's unacceptable not to vary our approaches to thanking donors and supporters. The way we thank supporters can also underscore the personality of an organization and help brand it as especially responsive, creative, and just downright fun.
Here are some awesome thank you ideas that I've seen lately that reflect the personality of some dynamic charities, and that are bound to charm donors.
Giving Everyone a Chance to Connect With a Phone Call
Operation Smile, a charity that provides surgery for facial deformities among children around the world held a telephone "thank-a-thon." They recruited non-fundraising staff to join in a coordinated effort to reach donors by phone and simply say thanks for their help.
SOFII has all the information about the campaign and a timeline of how it was put together. I love this idea because it is a great way to break down those "silos" that exist in all nonprofits and divide fundraising folks from those in operations or programs or support. I also love the careful way this campaign was put together...from recruitment to training to execution. Plus it was just before Thanksgiving! Read all about it at SOFII.
By the way, Operation Smile is an extremely creative organization. Read about its direct mail campaign that included an unusual "premium."
A Video Thank You to a Two Year Old
Beth Kanter wrote a great post recently about charity: water and its unique video thank you's. The videos are simple, unscripted, and sincere. They are loaded on the charity's YouTube channel and then donors are emailed an invitation to view them.
Beth explains all about the video thank you program, and you can see the heartfelt thank you to two-year-old Samenesh who donated her 2nd birthday to the cause. The September birthday donation is a hallmark of charity: water and has been unusually successful. You can see a photo of Samenesh on her birthday page and how much money she has raised.
Scott Harrison, the founder and CEO of charity: water did that video for Samenesh...what a great example of what the organization is all about.
Two Virtual Thank You's that Succeed
Email thank you's to donors are usually not very effective. They tend to be bland and serve mostly as a receipt.
However, Kivi Leroux Miller got one email thank you that knocked her socks off. It was just that good.
Epic Change raises money through social media campaigns for a school in Tanzania. Stacey Monk, the founder of Epic Change sent an email thank you that embedded a darling photo of a smiling student from the school, provided results that Kivi's donation helped create, included links to photos, a video and an invitation to participate and leave congratulations to the kids.
The thank you was brief but very powerful, and I'm sure that donors read it, printed it out, and cherished it just as Kivi did. See the note at Kivi's blog where she has helpfully pointed out all the things she loved about it.
Meanwhile, Pamela Grow received an email thank you from EMILY's List, an organization that supports women political candidates. What was unusual about the email was that it contained a link to handwritten thank you notes from some of the candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, running for the U.S. Senate in Mass. See the email and the note from Elizabeth at Pamela's blog.
Have you received an unusually creative thank you from a charity recently? Or has your charity come up with a different approach to thanking donors? Let us know. We love examples!
Related:
- Nonprofits Need Customer Relationship Management Too
- How to Make Customer Service Part of Your Nonprofit's Culture
- Top 10 Tips for World-Class Donor Relations
- Ten Tips for Thanking Donors
Photo: Getty Images
Comments