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What Makes a Great Donor Newsletter?

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, writing ,

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Most nonprofit organizations produce a newsletter, and many are one big snoozefest. They’re too long and filled with articles that brag about how wonderful the organization is.

Newsletters can and should be a great way to stay in touch with your donors and keep them updated on how they are helping you make a difference.

I recommend a short e-newsletter once or twice a month and one to four print newsletters a year.  If you’re getting stressed out about coming up with content for your newsletters, then a communications calendar is your new best friend. Stay Connected Throughout the Year by Using a Communications Calendar

It’s possible to create a great donor newsletter. Here’s how.

Give your donors what THEY want

You may opt not to do a print newsletter because it’s too expensive and takes too much time, but you’re making a mistake if many of your donors prefer print.

I think you’ll have more success if you can do both print and electronic newsletters. But ask your donors what they like, and listen to what they say. If a majority of them prefer one over the other, then doing both may not make sense.

You also want to share content that will interest your donors.  In my last post, I wrote about channeling your inner four-year-old and asking why. Why are you including an article about your CEO receiving an award?  Do your donors care about that?  Probably not. They care about how they are helping you make a difference.

Share stories

Each newsletter needs to begin with a compelling story.  Client stories are best, but you could also do profiles of volunteers, board members, and donors.  Focus on what drew them to help you make a difference.

Create a story bank that includes at least three client success stories.

Write to the donors

Write your newsletter in the second person, emphasizing you much more than we.  Be personal and conversational.  Say You helped give the Saunders family a new home or Because of donors like you, we were able to find housing for X number of families.

Don’t use jargon or language your donors won’t understand.  Write as if you’re having a conversation with a friend.

I’m not a fan of the letter from the executive director, because those tend to be organization-centered instead of donor-centered.  

Show gratitude

Never miss an opportunity to thank your donors.  Every one of your newsletters needs to show gratitude and emphasize how much you appreciate your donors.

Make it easy to read (and scan)

Most of your donors aren’t going to read your newsletter word for word, especially your e-newsletter.  Include enticing headlines, at least a 12-point font, and lots of white space so your donors can easily scan your newsletter.

Use the inverted pyramid and put the most important story first, keeping in mind your donors may not get to all the articles.

Also, make sure your donors can read your e-newsletter on a mobile device.

Keep it short

Your print newsletter should be no more than four pages.  Limit your monthly e-newsetter to four articles.  Some organizations send an e-newsletter twice a month.  Those should be even shorter – two or three articles.

You may find you have more success with shorter, more frequent e-mail updates.

Send it to the right audience

Fundraising guru Tom Ahern recommends sending your print newsletter only to donors.  This can help you keep it donor-centered, as well as cut down on mailing costs.

Send e-newsletters ONLY to people who have signed up for it. They may or may not be donors, but an e-newsletter can also be a good cultivation tool.

It’s possible to create a great newsletter, if you put in the time and effort.

Read on for more information about donor newsletters.

The Domain Formula for donor newsletters

Should you include a reply envelope in your fundraising newsletter?

10 Surprisingly Easy and Startlingly Effective Ways to Improve Your Nonprofit E-Newsletter

Photo by Sarah Reid

How Do You Acknowledge Your Memorial Gifts?

Ann Green donor relations, writing ,

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I’ve been to several memorial services over the last few years. I guess that’s what happens as you get older.  In most cases, the families designated charities to donate to, often in lieu of flowers.  I’ve always liked this.  You get to honor someone and support a charity, as well.

I gave five memorial gifts over the last two years. Unfortunately, the responses from the nonprofits were pretty marginal.   Four organizations sent generic thank you letters.  Three of them acknowledged it was a memorial gift. One sent a very generic email with no acknowledgement this was a memorial gift.

If your organization is a recipient of a memorial gift, don’t miss this opportunity to connect and build relationships with these donors. Just think, out of the multitude of nonprofits and charities out there, the family chose yours (they may have chosen one or two others, too).

How do acknowledge your memorial gifts?   Do you send the same old boring thank you letter, or do you give some thought to creating a personal and heartfelt thank you.  Here’s how you can do a better job of acknowledging your memorial gifts.

Work with the family

Most likely the family will contact you about being a recipient of a memorial gift.  Talk to them and ask why your organization was important to this person.  Perhaps he was a volunteer, donor, or patient.  Use this information in your thank letter.

Give the family the names and addresses (not amounts) of any donors in case they want to write their own thank you letters.

Thank your donors right away

This is basic Thank You Letter 101.  I received one letter four months after my donation and another came three months later.  In both cases the organizations weren’t spending the extra time writing a great thank you letter.  Instead, I received this – “We are sincerely grateful for your support. Our goals are ambitious ones and the charitable contributions we receive from supporters like you make our mission achievable.”  The other two letters arrived about a week after the donation.

Acknowledge that it’s a memorial gift

Segmenting your thank you letters is always a good idea, whether it’s a new donation, upgrade, or a gift in memory of someone.  You want to recognize each donor.

Be sure to add a field on your donation page and pledge form for memorial gifts.

Make the thank you personal

This donor just lost someone they knew, perhaps someone close to them.   Don’t send them an impersonal form letter, like the example above.

This is a great time to send a handwritten note.  You may not have that many memorial gifts and they’re going to come at different times of the year, not necessarily during a fundraising campaign.  Take time to create something personal.

As with all thank you notes/letters, let the donor know how her gift is helping you make a difference.

Here’s a sample.

Thank you so much for your donation in memory of John Smith. John was a longtime donor and was very committed to fighting homelessness.  Because of your generous gift, we can help more families find a place to call home.

Build relationships

Never miss an opportunity to build relationships.  Invite these donors to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, or volunteer. Only one of the letters I received listed ways to get involved with the organization.

Don’t take your memorial donors for granted. They may not have donated to your organization if they didn’t have some interest what you do.  Keep them interested and engaged.

Read on for information and sample letters.

In lieu of flowers: how to write lively memorial donation thank-you letters

Make a Resolution to Keep Your Donors

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, fundraising, planning, writing ,

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Happy New Year!   I hope you had a nice holiday.  I had a great two-week vacation in Florida with my family.

I also hope you had a successful year-end fundraising campaign.  Did you get a bunch of new donors and renewals, or did you lose some people?

One of the biggest reasons donors flee is because they believe the organization doesn’t do a good job of staying in touch and keeping them engaged. We can change this!

Charities That Focus on Retention Will Change the World

The Secret Sauce of Donor Retention: Gratitude + Great Communication

This year make a resolution to do everything you can to keep your donors.  Here’s what you can do.

Welcome new donors with open arms

The biggest attrition comes between the first and second donation.  Shower your new donors with love.  Call to thank them for their donation. Send them a welcome packet by mail or email, and include a short survey asking what drew them to your organization.

Welcome Your New Donors With Open Arms

Create a great thank you experience

Spend time creating a great thank you experience for your donors –  from the landing page to the email response to the phone call or handwritten note.   Make it personal and genuine.

Remember, thanking your donors doesn’t end after they make a donation.  Find ways to thank your donors throughout the year.

How to Create a Thank You Plan

Make Gratitude Your Nonprofit Organization’s Focus in 2015 – Here’s How!

More vs. better

You may already send monthly e-newsletters and regular social media updates, but that doesn’t mean much if you’re bragging about how great your organization is and posting pictures of your CEO receiving an award.

Do better. Share content that will interest your donors, such as success stories about the people/community you serve and engaging photos of your programs in action.  Let your donors know how they are helping you make a difference.

Listen to your donors

Find out how your donors want you to communicate with them.  Don’t spend a lot of time on social media if your donors aren’t using it.  You may find some of your donors don’t communicate electronically, which means you’ll need to plan to mail newsletters, postcards, and handwritten notes at least a few times a year.

Also, monitor how your donors are responding to email and social media.  Pay attention to what they’re telling (and not telling) you.

Use a communications calendar

This will make it easier for you to come up with and organize your content.  Take into account what your donors want to hear from you and which channels they prefer.

Besides newsletters, updates, and photos, you can also keep in touch with advocacy alerts and short surveys.

Stay Connected Throughout the Year by Using a Communications Calendar

Make it personal

Building relationships is the key to having long-term donors,  but who wants to have a relationship with someone who’s distant and formal?

Be personal and conversational when you write.  Ditch the jargon and use language your donors will understand.  Write as if you’re having a conversation with a friend.

Know what works

Again, measure how your donors respond to your messages.  Are they responding at all?  Perhaps short weekly updates get a better response than your monthly newsletter.

If you are not getting much of a response from your surveys, either do them differently or find another way to engage.

Don’t stop

Keep communicating regularly with your donors and keep them engaged so they’ll stay with you for a long time.

How do you stay in touch with your donors?

Photo by Carol VanHook

Be Thankful for Your Donors

Ann Green donor relations, fundraising, writing , ,

6342540955_625d662978_zThanksgiving is a time when we show gratitude to the special people in our lives.  Do you extend this same gratitude to your donors?  Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way.

Nonprofit organizations tend to treat thanking their donors as an afterthought.  But you need to spend just as much time thanking your donors as you do on fundraising.  Here are some ways you can create an attitude of gratitude.

Thanking donors isn’t a process; it’s an experience

First off, don’t think of thanking donors as a process.  Create an experience for your donors –  an experience that will last as long as your donor supports your organization.

Go beyond sending a boring letter that looks like a receipt.  I know you need to include the tax-deductible information, but put that at the end , after you shower your donors with love.

Thank your donors right away

Every single donor, no matter how much they’ve given or whether they donated online, gets a thank you card/ letter mailed to them or receives a phone call.

Try to thank your donors within 48 hours. Carve out some time each day you get a donation and thank your donors.  If this sounds impossible, find other staff or recruit volunteers to help you.

Kick it up a notch with a handwritten note or phone call

This will mean so much more to your donors than the usual generic letter. Calling your donors to thank them is something your board can do. It’s often a welcome surprise and can raise retention rates among first-time donors.

Get everyone involved. Find board members, staff, and volunteers to make phone calls or write thank you notes. Come up with sample phone scripts and notes. You may also want to conduct a short training.

Is this coming from a human?

If you can’t send handwritten cards or call all your donors, send them a personal, heartfelt letter. Don’t start your letter with On behalf of X organization we thank you for your donation of…. Open the letter with You’re incredible, or Thanks to you, Gina won’t have to sleep in her car anymore,  or one of these 22 Delightful Ways to Say Thank You!

I’m amazed how many thank you letters sound so stilted.  Just because it’s generated by a computer, doesn’t mean it has to sound like one.  The same goes for thank you landing pages and thank you emails.

Make it personal. Write as if you’re having a conversation with a friend.

This is the beginning a beautiful friendship

You want to keep thanking your donors all year round.  One way to make it easier for you is to create a thank you plan, which you can incorporate into your communications calendar.

Try say thank you at least once a month. Here are some ways to do that.

  • Send cards or email messages at Thanksgiving, during the holidays, Valentine’s Day, or mix it up a little and send a note of gratitude at another time of the year when your donors  are less likely to expect it.
  • Invite your donors to connect with you via email and social media. Keep them updated with accomplishments and success stories. Making all your communications donor-centered will help convey an attitude of gratitude.
  • Always thank your donors in your newsletter and social media updates. Emphasize that you wouldn’t be able to do the work you do without  their support.
  • Create a thank you video and share it on your website, by email, and on social media. A Few Great Thank You Videos
  • Hold an open house at your organization or offer tours so your donors can see your nonprofit up close and personal.
  • Keep thinking of other ways to thank your donors.

This Thanksgiving and throughout the year, be thankful for your donors.  Treat them well so you can ensure a long-term relationship.

This post was in included in the November 2014 Nonprofit Blog Carnival  November Nonprofit Blog Carnival | An Attitude of Gratitude

Your Donors Are Number One

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, fundraising, writing , ,

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Do you feel as if nonprofit organizations care about you as a donor?  Sometimes it seems like they don’t.

Some organizations brag too much about themselves.  I recently received an appeal letter from an organization that specializes in cancer research and treatment. In the first two paragraphs, they emphasize how they’re “a leading force in caring for adults and children battling cancer.”  That they’re a world leader in cancer research and ranked number one….

This organization does do amazing work, and if I were choosing a place to receive treatment, then this would matter much more.  But as a donor and someone who was drawn to this cause because I lost three family members to cancer in the past few years, I want I want to hear how I’m helping them make a difference.

Your organization is not number one.  Your donors are number one.

Always be donor-centered

I don’t mean to single out this particular organization because they’re not the only guilty party. Many organizations focus too much on themselves and not on their donors.

You see this often in a donor newsletter.  This is supposed to be a great way to engage with donors.  Yet many newsletters feature articles on the executive director receiving an award or a profile of a board member that focuses on her credentials and not on any personal connections she has to that cause.  Rarely is there anything thanking donors and letting them know they’re number one.

How you can do it

It’s not hard to be donor-centered, but you need to make a conscious effort to do it.

Instead of sending the same old appeal letters and thank you letters, take a good, hard look at the content.

  • Are you focused on your donors?
  • Are you showering them with gratitude?
  • Are you letting them know how THEY are helping you make a difference?
  • Are you letting them know they’re number one?

Your newsletters and updates also need to show your donors how they are helping you make a difference.  Share success stories such as – Thanks to donors like you, Steven doesn’t have to live in a shelter anymore and has a place to call home.

Always write to the donor and refer to them as you.  Make sure all your donor communications use the word you much more than we.  How to Perform the “You” Test for Donor-Centered Communications – Do You Pass?

What do your donors want?

Send your donors a short survey to find out what types of things they want to hear from you. Chances are it’s success stories and other ways they can continue to help you make a difference.

Donors also want to feel good about supporting your organization. Let them know they’re number one.

Is Your Annual Report Brilliant, or Boring?

Ann Green donor relations, fundraising, writing , ,

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Annual reports get a bad rap, and sometimes deservedly so.   They’re often these massive, boring booklets filled with mind-numbing text and statistics.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

Remember, your annual report is for your donors.  As you put together your report, think of what your donors will want to read.

It’s possible to create an annual report that will dazzle your donors and not put them to sleep.  Here’s how.

Create a gratitude report

You may want to stop using the term annual report and start calling it a gratitude report instead.  Donors want to feel good about giving to your nonprofit.

Focus on thanking your donors for their role in helping you make a difference.   Here’s an example.  It’s on the longer side, but it will show you how you can stay donor-centered. Interval House – Gratitude Report

How are you making a difference?

Donors want to see results. They don’t want a bragfest.   Share specific accomplishments that show how you are making difference.   Phrase it like – Thanks to you, 85% of the students in our tutoring program are reading at their grade level or above.

Tell a story

Donors love to hear about the people they’re helping.  You can tell a story with words, a photo, or video. Share a success story. For example, Lisa, a third grader at Northwoods Elementary School, used to get butterflies in her stomach if she had to read out loud in class.  The words didn’t come easy.  Now after weekly tutoring sessions with Jen, one of our volunteer tutors, her reading is much better and she doesn’t dread reading time.

Make it visual

Your donors are busy and don’t have a lot time to read your report.  Engage them with some great photos. Photos can tell a story in an instant. Choose photos of people participating in an activity, such as Jen helping Lisa with her reading.

Use colorful charts or graphs to highlight your financials. This is a great way to keep it simple and easy to understand.  Sprinkle in quotes and short testimonials to help break up any text.

Be sure your report is readable.  Use at least a 12-point font and black type on a white background.

Write as if you’re having conversation with friend

Most of your donors don’t use words like underserved or at-risk, and neither should you.  Use everyday language such as – With your help, we found affordable housing for over 100 homeless families. Now they no longer have to live in a shelter, motel, or their cars, and have a place to call home.

Write in the second person and use a warm, friendly tone.  Of course, use you much more than we.

Can you leave it out?

Annual reports often include an introduction from the executive director or board chair. I find these can drone on and don’t entice you to read more. If you do include an introduction, make it brief, friendly, jargon-free, and filled with gratitude towards your donors for their support in helping you reach your goals.

Many annual reports also contain a donor list, which have pros and cons. Some donors want public recognition, but these lists take up space and most people aren’t going to read them.

You’ll have to decide if it makes sense to include one in print. You could include a list of donors at a certain level in your annual report and all your donors on your website. Whatever you decide, be sure to thank all your donors in this section and double and triple check that their names are spelled correctly.

Your donors are not the same

You may want to consider different types of annual reports for different donor groups.  You could send an oversized postcard with photos and infographics or a two-page report to most of your donors.

Your grant and corporate funders might want more detail, but not 20 pages. Aim for no more than four pages.

This Annual Reports Wiki includes some great examples including postcards and videos.

Annual reports can be time consuming to produce.  Create one your donors will take time to read.

How to Create an Awesome Appeal Letter

Ann Green fundraising, writing ,

3698861511_3a03cbfe18It’s officially fall! Many of you are getting ready for your year-end appeal, and the cornerstone of your campaign is your appeal letter.

You want to create an awesome letter that captures your donors’ attention right away and convinces them to donate. Sounds simple, but it’s not. Here are some ways to ensure a successful letter.

Make a good first impression
First, you need to get your donor to open your letter. Give some thought to the outside envelope. You could include a teaser.

You want to be both personal and professional. If hand addressing the envelopes isn’t feasible, make sure your mailing labels look clean, are typo-free, and aren’t crooked. Use stamps if you can.

Create an inviting piece of mail.

Open with a story
Start your letter with a compelling story. Focus on a person or family and not your organization. Your donors want to hear about the people they’re helping.

Include a photo
Include an engaging color photo in your letter or on your pledge form. Photos can tell a story in an instant.

Here’s more information on creating stories and photos. How Are You Telling Your Stories?

Ask and you shall receive
Ask for a donation at the beginning of the next paragraph (after the story). Also, ask your current donors if they can give a little more this year.

Phrase your ask like this – We are so grateful for your previous gift of $50. Could you help us out a little more this time with a gift of $75?

If you have been doing a good job of engaging your donors throughout the year, they shouldn’t mind if you ask for a larger gift. BTW, including the amount of your donor’s previous gift is helpful since people often don’t remember what they gave before.

It’s all about your donor

It’s not about your organization. Show how are you are making a difference and how much you appreciate your donor’s role in that. Make your donor feel good about supporting your nonprofit.

Share your success
Highlight a few accomplishments from the year and show how you plan to continue your good work with your donor’s help. Remember to stay donor-centered!

Be personal
Send different letters to people who have donated before and thank them for supporting you. You can also tailor letters to other groups such as lapsed donors, people on your mailing list who haven’t donated yet, event attendees, volunteers, and friends of board members.

Your letter should have a personal salutation and not be addressed to Dear Friend.

Make giving a breeze
Include a return envelope with amounts to check off or an envelope and a pledge form. Show what each amount will fund.Here’s an example. Project Bread Gift Information

In addition, include a link to a user-friendly donation page on your website. Even if donors receive a letter, they may prefer to donate online.

Offer a monthly giving option

Monthly gifts can generate more revenue. Encourage your donors to give $10 or $20 a month. If they do, you are getting gifts over $100 each!

Make it easy to read
Use short paragraphs and bulleted lists. Use bold or color for key words, but keep it tasteful. Make it easy to read and scan. Use a simple font and keep in mind that 14 point is the new 12.

It’s fine to go over a page, especially if you are breaking up the text with a photo and short paragraphs, but I wouldn’t go over four pages. You can also add a quote or short testimonial. These can be powerful and it helps break up the narrative.

Write as if you’re having a conversation with a friend
Use a conversational tone and keep out jargon like disenfranchised individuals and underserved communities. Be specific and use everyday language. Refer to your reader as you and use you a lot more than we. How to Perform the “You” Test for Donor-Centered Communications – Do You Pass?

Too many editors spoil the appeal

Your entire staff shouldn’t need to be involved in creating your letter. Your best writer should craft it and then turn it over to your best editor. Whoever signs the letter (your Executive Director?) can take a quick look at it, but don’t go overboard.

Not only does involving more people take extra time, it usually weakens the content. Keep it fresh.

All’s well that ends well
Repeat your ask at the end of the letter. Don’t forget to say please and thank you.

Add a PS
People often gravitate to the PS as they scan the letter. Here you could emphasize monthly giving or ask if their company provides matching gifts.

Get your pens out
Include a short handwritten note. Make it relevant to each donor, such as thanking her for a previous donation or letting him know it was nice to see him at a recent event.

Hand sign the letters in blue ink.

Are you ready?
Send out an awesome appeal letter that will capture your donors’ attention and bring you the donations you need. Good luck!

Need some more inspiration? Read on.

112 Tips to Raise More Money by Mail

A winning formula to write your appeal letter

Is it Time for a Message Makeover?

Ann Green Communications, fundraising, marketing, writing

What would happen if you got your staff or board together and asked them to give a short description of what your organization does? Would you get a variety of different answers?

Now take a look at some of your communication materials – fundraising letters, thank you letters, website etc. Are your messages consistent in all your materials? Are they written in clear, conversational language or are they filled with mind-numbing jargon?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, then it’s time for a message makeover.

Create a message platform
Putting together a set of clear, consistent messages, also known as a message platform, is a good project for you to take on this summer.

Now whenever you create a fundraising letter or content for your website, you can draw material from this set of messages.

Having a consistent set of messages is essential when you have more than one person writing for your organization and as new staff or volunteers come on board. All your materials need continuity and a single voice.

Everyone in your organization – staff, board, volunteers – is a message ambassador, and needs to be involved. Although, that doesn’t mean they should be involved in every step of the process.


You may want to get some initial input from staff and board. Ask everyone a few key questions, such as:

  • Who is your target audience? You may need to cater different messages to different audiences.

  • What is important to them?

As you create your positioning statement and talking points, ask:

  • Who are you?

  • What do you do?
  • How do you do it?

  • Why is it important?

  • What makes your organization unique?

  • How are you making a difference for the people you serve and in the community?

  • What do you want to achieve?

Keep it simple
This may sound obvious, but your goal is to make sure your reader understands your message. Your messages should be clear, specific, and include a call to action. Again, they need to be conversational, so avoid using jargon. Most people respond better to a human interest story than a lot of statistics.

Your messages should not say something like – We make a difference for at-risk students. Instead, say Our volunteer tutors help students boost their reading and math skills so they’ll have a better chance to get into college.

Use language your donors will understand
Have someone outside your organization, a friend or family member, look at your messages. Something that’s clear to you may be confusing to others. What Does That Mean?

Stay consistent with a style guide
Continuing on the theme of consistency, I strongly recommend putting together a style guide. Create a Style Guide for Your Organization

Get everyone on board
A small group – marketing staff and board members with marketing experience – should put together the message platform and then introduce it to everyone else.

Resources
Here is some more information help to you create a message platform.

The 4 Cornerstones of Your Nonprofit Message Platform  

Build Your Message Team

Getting to Aha! The Nonprofit Marketer’s Top Challenge

Take some time this summer to make sure that your messages and materials are clear and consistent.


Before and After Kitchen Photo by Patrick via Flickr

Is it Time For an Extreme Thank You Makeover?

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, fundraising, writing

Summer is here! Yea, finally.  This may be a slower time for you, and over the summer, I’m going to give you some suggestions on how to improve your fundraising and communications to help you get ready for a busy fall.

One area where most nonprofits can do better is thanking their donors, something that often seems like an afterthought. 

A landing page is more than a receipt

Many people donate online now, and your landing page is your first chance to say thank you.  Make it personal and not transactional. 

Open with Thank you, Susan!or You’re amazing!  Include an engaging photo and a short, easy to understand description of how the donation will help the people you serve.  Put all the tax deductable information after your message or in the automatically generated thank you email.

If you use third party giving sites, such as PayPal or Network for Good, this is what your donors will see, and it’s not pretty.How to Go Beyond a Receipt Follow up with a personal thank you email message within 48 hours (see below).

Your thank you email should sound like it’s coming from a human

Set up an automatic email to go out after someone donates online. This will let your donor know that you received her donation and it didn’t get lost in cyberspace.

Again, make it warm and personal.  Just because it’s generated by a computer, doesn’t mean it needs to sound like a computer.

You’re not done yet

I’m a firm believer that even if someone donates online he should receive thank you card, letter, or phone call within 48 hours.

Make your donor’s day with a handwritten note

You can make a good impression by sending a handwritten thank you note.  Personal mail is so rare these days, and your card will stand out.

Now is a good time to create some thank you cards.  One idea is to use a picture of a client or group of clients holding a thank you sign.  If cost is an issue, you could get the cards donated.

Writing cards will take more time, so you’ll need to plan ahead. Craft a sample note; recruit staff, board members, volunteers, and clients to help write cards; and hold thank you writing parties right after you send out an appeal.

Phone calls make a difference, too

You can do the same thing for thank you phone calls.  Create a sample script, recruit people to make calls, and hold thankathons after your appeal. 

Create an awesome letter

If it’s impossible to write cards or make phone calls, then send out an awesome letter. 

This means something personal and conversational without any vague jargon.  Give a specific example of how the donation will make a difference. Something like this.

Dear Matt,

You’re incredible!   Your $50 donation will give a family two bags of groceries.  Thank you so much!

Here are some more examples.

Thank You Letters Donors Will Love 

Thank You Letters – Resources for You

Make new donors feel welcome

Approximately 70% of first time donors don’t give a second gift. Yikes! Don’t let that happen. 

Start thinking about creating a welcome package now.  A week or so after you send a thank you note, send something in the mail or by email, if money is tight.

 Make Your New Donors Feel Welcome

 How to Personalize and Automate the Welcome Series for Your New Supporters

It’s all about relationships

Keep in touch now and throughout the fall, so you stay on your donors’ radar. Thanking donors is not a one-time thing. 

Create a Thank You Plan

Image by Woodley Wonderworks

 

What Does That Mean?

Ann Green Communications, donor relations, fundraising, Uncategorized, writing
When you write an appeal, thank you letter, or newsletter article, are you throwing in terms like at-risk youth and underserved communities?   The problem with those terms is they’re broad and often meaningless. 
 
 
Here’s an example from a thank you letter I received from a social services agency. “As you already know, X organization serves individuals who are often the most disenfranchised members of their communities.” Yikes! What does that mean?
 
Let’s look at some of these problem terms and what you can say instead. You may use some of these terms internally and they might be in your mission statement, but try to limit them when you communicate with donors. How To Follow in the Footsteps of Your Nonprofit’s Promise
 
 
At- risk
At risk means there’s a possibility something bad will happen. Instead of just saying at-risk students or youth, tell a story or give specific examples of something bad that could happen. Our tutoring program works with high school students who are more likely to fail, be held back, and drop out of school.
 
Youth
I like this post How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Write Like a Human and some of the comments in which people describe their experiences of whether to say kids, children, or youth.
 
I’ve had that same discussion at different organizations.  We can say children and youth, but not kids because that’s too informal and demeaning.  

But why not say kids?  I’m sure most donors don’t refer to their children as youth.  Kids sounds warm and fuzzy and well, youth does not.
 
After having this debate, one of my colleagues said it made him think of the two yoots scene from the movie, My Cousin Vinnie.  
 
Disenfranchised  
Disenfranchised means being stripped of power, rights, or privileges.  It’s often used when talking about voting rights.
 
I’m not sure the organization I quoted above used it correctly, but either way, it’s a mouthful. If your clients fall into this category, show how you are giving them a voice or giving them back their rights.
 
Underserved
Underserved means not receiving adequate help or services. Instead of saying we work with underserved communities, explain what types of services the residents don’t receive.  Maybe it’s healthcare, affordable housing, or decent preschool.
 
Be careful not to just say services. The 3 Most Boring Words in Fundraising Appeals Again, tell a story or give a specific example.  Sandra isn’t able send her daughter Lisa to a good preschool because there isn’t an affordable one nearby.
 
Making a difference or changing lives
Yes, you need to show your donors how you are making a difference, but you can’t just say your organization is making a difference or changing lives.
 
How are you doing that, and why is it important?  Maybe you’re helping families find affordable housing so they don’t have to live in a shelter, motel, or their car.  Now they have a place to call home.
 
Use language your donors will understand
Most of your donors don’t use these terms when they talk to their friends and neither should you when you communicate with them.  Use language they’ll understand.
 
Do you have any terms to add to this list?
 
Photo by Colin Kinner via Flickr