Soapbox Engage Blog

Repeat donors are essential to successful fundraising efforts. They can also be notoriously difficult to come by, and are becoming more so. Between 2008 and 2015, donor retention across the nonprofit sector declined 8%. Overall, just 45% of donors come back and give again to an organization in the year after a gift. That number becomes even starker when looking at just first time donors who give again only 23% of the time.

What’s more, post-election realities have affected giving in ways that require nonprofits to innovate in their fundraising efforts. Lynne Wester, famed donor relations expert noted in her blog recently:

“With a finite amount of charitable giving and an ever increasing number of nonprofits, the dollars simply cannot stretch equitably to everyone. Meaning that if one nonprofit experiences a windfall, like the ACLU raising $24 million dollars in one weekend, six times its yearly totals, that this money comes from another nonprofit's bottom line.”

To compete, you must set yourself apart in a sea of nonprofits. One powerful way of doing so is by expressing exceptional gratitude.

Exceptional gratitude is more than just sending a receipt. Donors need to know that you received their gift, it is being put toward its intended purpose, and it’s having an impact on your organization’s program or service.

Saying thank you is the first step to securing your next gift. In fact, Adrian Sargeant did one of the first donor behavior studies of its kind in 2001 to find that 13% of donors stop giving because the organization did not acknowledge them. Ever.

So, how do you thank a donor and exhibit exceptional gratitude? The rule of thumb I’ve always followed is to communicate with a donor the way they have chosen to communicate with me. If a donor mails you a donation, mail them a thank you. They’ve sent you a donation online? Communicate with them digitally. However you send your acknowledgement, here are some tried and true recommendations:

1. Grab the donor’s attention right off the bat

The first sentence should not be “Thank you for your gift of…“ This is your chance to reinspire the donor on why they gave to you in the first place. Thank you can and absolutely should be a part of the first sentence, but don’t bore the donors with what they already know.

2. Be personal

No “Dear Friend” option here. Make sure you’ve got the donor’s name correct. If your constituent relationship management system (CRM) and online donation tool can’t speak to each other, it may be time to look to another tool.

3. Be specific and share impact

Donors need to know how this gift will help. Note the gift amount and what you will do with it. Was this gift in response to a specific appeal? Use that same story from your appeal to connect the donor back to why they gave to you in the first place.

4. Say thank you more than once

On the outside of the envelope or in the email subject line, in the letter, in the signature, in the the P.S.. Donors may not read the whole letter, make sure they catch the idea that you are deeply grateful for their support by including thank you in a couple of places. Better yet, include thank you’s in the letter and follow up with a thank you phone call, a handwritten note and/or some other way of reaching out to the donor to let them know your appreciation.

5. Keep it short

Remember your carefully crafted marketing and communications language likely doesn’t mean much to donors. Speak to them like you would when you thanked your grandmother for your graduation gift. Heartfelt, real, no jargon.

6. DO NOT INCLUDE another ask

Even things like sneaky reply envelopes or monthly gift upgrades. They have their time and place and the thank you letter is not it. In her research, Penelope Burk, author of Donor-Centered Fundraising found that "61% of donors say they’ve received a request for a second gift with their ‘thank you’ and 81% of those folks have been offended by this.”

Take care of your donors. Let them know how much they mean to you and it will have an incredible long term impact on your fundraising program.

Ready to learn more about expressing exceptional gratitude as a thankful nonprofit? Watch our free strategy webinar recording, Operationalizing Gratitude: Effective and Timely Thank Yous for Increased Donor Retention. In this content-rich 45-minute webinar, we discuss strategies for exceptional gratitude as well as tactics in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack for further operationalizing it. We’ll empower you to:

• Know when, how and what to say in your thank you letters
• Look at a few examples of stellar thank yous and understand the components that make them so great
• Perfect your legalease. Know the IRS requirements so your donors have what they need for tax write-off purposes
• Incorporate different ideas for thanking donors outside of your letters and emails to improve donor retention
• Use the Email Acknowledgement feature in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack
• Customize the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack to further operationalize gratitude