The Guide to Major Trusts 2025-26. DSC (Directory of Social Change)

Is it time for ‘thank you’ version 2.0?

Thank you note

Commissioner Gordon says : I never said thank you.

Batman replies : … and you’ll never have to.

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Batman Begins

But human nature doesn’t generally work this way, right. We like being thanked for our efforts and there’s no shame in that. And its been empirically established that charities and social enterprises alike are more likely to be successful when they thank supporters and customers (see the blogroll for numerous examples).

After the latest round of Christmas donations, however, I am starting to think that we need to find a better way of doing it. I keep my thank you letters and emails to learn from professionally, and in 2010 I’ve received nearly 50.

Take the logos away, however and it gets much harder to discern who is thanking me and for what. I’m not suggesting this is a problem just yet but as I look into my crystal ball, I wonder about the merits of us all acting on exactly the same (good) advice. Doesn’t best practice just become wallpaper in any discipline once it’s adopted by everyone?

And couldn’t we think about ways to acknowledge support, contributions or custom that make us stand out from the rest of the crowd; helping to nurture a more positive relationship with individuals? So here are a few ideas to bend the system a little. And before various gurus get on my case, I’m not committing heresy, here – I’m just suggesting a few thoughts to build on established best practice in an increasingly communications-saturated world.

What do you think? Is it time to evolve our ‘thanks’ to be as tailored as the donation campaigns they follow? Can we still be grateful to supporters and customers and differentiate ourselves from other organisations? Add to DeliciousAdd to DiggAdd to FaceBookAdd to Google BookmarkAdd to RedditAdd to StumbleUponAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Twitter

* Original muchas gracias image sourced from http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist

 

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