Can you be too grateful?
Howard Lake | 16 January 2009 | Blogs
John Baguley’s blog post this week about Kate Winslet’s approach to ‘sincere thanks’ made me cringe. Not at John’s thoughts, (which were interesting as ever), but at the difference between Kate’s various ‘thank yous’ over the last couple of weeks.
She was predicted to win the best actress Golden Globe and, having done so, thanked her supporters in the way John highlighted as an example to us all (and rightly so). BUT, when our Kate also won her second, unexpected Globe, it became gushingly obvious that no prepared speech or rehearsal had gone into this one!
The lesson I take from this is that whilst it is absolutely vital to acknowledge supporters and donors in a genuine, sincere and timely manner, a plan B is always advisable. Not all audiences respond in the same way and personally, I now think Kate is a bit of a goof for not thinking it through.
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Back in the real world, I heard an appropriate story from a colleague just yesterday. An individual donor had responded to a direct marketing campaign and contributed several hundred pounds above the ask. The campaign team duly flagged said individual as a high value donor and wrote to him specifically to thank him for his generosity and highlight how the money was going to help.
Within 36 hours, the donor had written back, complaining that the charity was clearly awash with funds as they had sent him a hand-written letter, wasting both time and the cost of the stamp and envelope!
I’m not sure this view is particularly prevalent but it does perhaps illustrate the need for a plan B! We aren’t always able to rehearse our ‘thank yous’ but we certainly shouldn’t expect them to appeal equally to everyone. An alternative would have been as useful to this campaign manager as it might have been to Kate Winslet!
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.