SPURspectives

When people decide to make a charitable donation, they go through a process. Even a small gift can involve quite a bit of internal debate about where else the donation could do the most good - or, especially in today’s economy, about whether to make a donation at all.

The point is this: giving isn’t automatic. Whether it’s $10 or a $1,000, the decision to give is intentional. People have many reasons for giving - but they always have a reason. Something got them thinking about giving. Something got them interested in your nonprofit. Something convinced them to pull out their credit card or checkbook.

This is why saying thank you properly is essential. Because you’re not just thanking people for the dollars donated - you’re also thanking them for everything involved in making the decision to give.

Last week, blogger Kivi Leroux Miller described the disappointing results of an online giving experiment in which she cashed in credit card miles to make $25-dollar donations to 12 national charities through Network for Good. She made her gifts on November 24. Nearly three months later, she’s only received acknowledgment from four of the groups she gave to - and of those, only one thank you reflects a thoughtful communication strategy. (For all the depressing details, check out The Dismal Results of My Online Giving Experiment, and be sure to see Kivi’s follow-up post for more good thoughts on why saying thank you needs to be an organizational priority.)

Saying thank you isn’t optional

Kivi doesn’t call out the eight organizations that have failed to acknowledge her gifts - after all, her decision to support them was intentional. She believes they are doing good work, despite their critical failure to provide any sort of thank you for her support. But for those eight groups, the failure to send the most basic thank-you has arrested the process of giving - and if they’ve failed to thank Kivi, they’ve most certainly failed to thank others.

Why would someone give again if its unclear if the gift was even received? Why would someone give again if the nonprofit appears to be so disorganized (or so stretched to the limit) that it can’t handle the basic task of keeping track of donations and saying thank you? Why would someone ever give more, or ask others to support your cause, when the first experience giving to your organization was the equivalent of shouting into a well?

Being dismissive about the size of the gift is a huge mistake - you have no idea how much a donor could give, if they decided to. You don’t know what else they might bring to your organization as volunteers and advocates for your cause. You don’t know who they know.

Making excuses about how difficult it is to process donor data doesn’t cut it, either. If you have the capacity to accept and spend the money, then you need to make saying “thank you” an integral part of the process. In fact, as one of Kivi’s commenters suggests, you should strive to “thank before you bank.”

Saying thank you is a process

Not only should every gift be recognized, but the first thank you a new donor receives should be a starting point, not an ending point. After an immediate, personalized thank you, you want to find appropriate ways to invite each new donor into the fold and provide ways for them to learn more about what you do.

Social media provides a lot of great ways to do this. If the gift was made online, then you can invite the donor to become a fan or follower on the social-networking sites where you have a presence. You can send a link to a YouTube video that highlights one of your programs. You can send a link to your most recent newsletter or annual report - donor communications that their fellow donors have recently received.

Keep in mind that you aren’t asking for anything at this point - you’re giving things. You’re welcoming people into your community. You’re also listening and gathering information, so that you can learn more about why donors decided to support you in the first place and what they need to know in order to give again.

We’ve talked about the donor-recognition cycle before on SPURspectives, and it’s worth revisiting here. As Penelope Burk explains in Donor Centered Fundraising: If you want your next “ask” to resonate, you need to engage in a full cycle of communication that reinforces each donor’s decision to support your cause and lays the groundwork for future support. That cycle has three important stages:

1. Provide prompt, meaningful acknowledgment of each gift.
2. Reassure the donor that their gift was directed as intended.
3. Communicate the results of each gift in a specific manner.

This cycle holds true for every donation, large and small. Giving is a process, and if you don’t treat it as such, you’re guaranteeing that a lot of first-time donors will also be one-time donors.

Tags: donations, donor, fundraising, giving, nonprofit, thankyou