Commission on the Donor Experience: thanking and welcoming
Howard Lake | 12 September 2016 | Blogs
In the second in our series on how fundraisers can get involved in the Commission on the Donor Experience’s research groups to help improve fundraising, John Grain looks at thanking and welcoming.
To thank or not to thank? That might be the question…
Or perhaps it should be how to thank faster? Or thank better? Or thank smarter?
Or thank cheaper?
Should we thank and inspire, or thank and ask again?
And is our donor stewardship no better than a case of “So long, and thanks for all the fish”, which the dolphins famously opined as they abandoned planet Earth in the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Does our thanking take our donors for granted or do they really feel we are genuinely grateful for their support?
How much time and thought and effort do we genuinely put into our thanking?
And what difference does good, or bad, thanking make to our donors?
And once we’ve thanked, what about welcoming new supporters? Worth it or a waste of effort? Do they have to give money to be welcomed or is signing up to a campaign enough to deserve a special welcome?
So many questions…
But as project manager for the Commission on the Donor Experience’s Thanking and Welcoming project I would love to be able to answer all those questions and more.
And by way of this post, I would like to invite you to contribute and help me. I am really keen to gather as many views, opinions, facts, figures, case studies and anecdotes about thanking and welcoming as I can.
Whether they are big or small, good or bad, charity or commercial – it doesn’t matter. Every little helps and everything is valid. Of course, there are already some good people working on this project with me, but the more material and information we can gather (from far and wide) the better the project outcome and content will be for everyone.
So if you have an example you can share then I would love to hear it. A short e-mail, a link, a PDF, a video – how or whatever you have to share is fine. Just drop me a line at
jo**@jo*****************.com
– I truly would love to hear from you.
If it is helpful, you can read more about the Thanking and Welcoming project.
And for all those that contribute and get involved, for now all I can offer you are the words of Sebastian in Act III of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night:
“I can no other answer make but thanks, and thanks, and ever thanks…”
I look forward to hearing from you.
With over 25 years experience of direct fundraising, John Grain has held senior posts in within Oxfam and Practical Action, and was Director of Fundraising for Habitat for Humanity (Western Europe). He founded John Grain Associates (JGA) in 2004 since when he has worked with clients large and small to develop innovative, sustainable and long-term individual giving programmes.
He is a passionate advocate of permission based, ethical fundraising with an emphasis on understanding our donors and how best to deliver an inspiring and motivating experience for them with every interaction they have with charities.
For the past seven years he has been a compulsive mystery shopper tracking donor communications from a wide range of charities and using a bespoke focus group of donors to help evaluate and assess them.
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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.