Send more thanks not less
Howard Lake | 7 October 2010 | Blogs
I, like many others in our sector I presume, receive a number of regular communications by e-mail from various sources, commercial and otherwise, that contain news, ideas, suggestions, and opinions about various different fundraising activities. Indeed, on an irregular basis, we send such e-communications ourselves.
Some I read, some I skim, and some I haven’t yet got round to removing myself from the circulation list. By and large though, they all seem to me to be aimed at helping fundraisers gain knowledge, improve techniques, or at least think about things in a different way.
However, there is one regular e-communication that I read without fail. It shall remain nameless other than to say it comes on a Monday morning. I read it because, as often as it contains something of interest and potentially thought provoking, just as regularly it contains something that makes me wince, recoil or occasionally (as this week) send me apoplectic with rage.
This week, part of the content of the email read as follows:
“1. It is vital to send a thank you letter after every donation.
Believers in ‘relationship fundraising’ will often preach that it is vital to send a thank you letter in response to every donation in order to ‘build a relationship’. Some practitioners modify this and only send thank you letters to donations over a minimum amount – say £5. However, when donors are asked if they want to receive an acknowledgment of receipt of their donation, most decline. The main snag with sending thank you letters after every mailing is that it makes it difficult to increase mailing frequency much above 6 mailings a year. The thank you letters create a gap in mailing and thereby increase the gap between asks. This goes directly against the main driver of response which is recency. We say ‘don’t send thank you letters, unless they themselves contain a further ask for money’.”
To which I say, what utter short-sighted, thoughtless, self-interested garbage.
In fact the statement seems to me to be so full of holes and so short-termist that in this day and age, no-one, other than the most naïve or most inexperienced, would do anything other than laugh at such nonsense.
Now I’ll nail my colours to the mast and say that I absolutely believe in relationship fundraising. I think I can also validate that claim in the sense that I have practised it for a good many years and have achieved a great deal of success in improving lifetime values, improving donor feedback, and increasing income from supporters by adopting the basic principles of relationship fundraising.
I have also spoken to donors from more than a hundred different charities over the years and one thing I can conclude from those communications is that given the choice (which isn’t always the case) they prefer a relationship with the charity whereby they are valued, seen as an individual, and (surprise, surprise) not treated as an endless source of cash for which they don’t even get thanked.
Now of course, far be it for me to think that such a suggestion might be more motivated out of commercial self-interest than a genuine desire to help fundraisers improve their efforts.
Although donors will often tick a box saying no acknowledgement is required, my experience from talking to them is that this is very often motivated by a sense of duty in trying to save the charity they support some money. When you talk it through with them it becomes clear that actually, a thank you is both very important, and done well, very valued. It can be motivating, inspiring, and result in increased long-term support instead of the opposite that seems to be the approach advocated by this e-newsletter.
In fact just this week in our office, as we discussed all the above, Claire mentioned that she had just realised that she had been supporting her favourite charity for more than ten years via a regular gift and except for the twice yearly supporter magazine her only communications had been more requests for money – usually 4 –5 times per year. This realisation and subsequent consideration has led her to decide to cancel and give elsewhere. After all, that is over 120 donations made without ever receiving a specific acknowledgement for her gifts.
So I would say, far from no thank you letters, we should send more thank you letters not less – and principle amongst these should be your regular donors. After all, we often refer to them as the most loyal and committed, yet that means we thank them less (if ever) and treat them worse than the one or two time cash giver. Surely, just an annual thank you for their continued and ongoing support, checking they are still happy and content with the relationship with you (let’s not forget the benefiting charity) would be simple, easy and above all effective.
There is a very well known, and excellent fundraising book by George Smith entitled, ‘Asking Properly’. Might it be time for a sequel?
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.