Thanking you!

The power of the thank you.
There's no doubt we need to build relationships with donors but how much effort do we put into the thanking process? In our direct mail campaigns we thank supporters for their donation along with the receipting process.But what about on line donations and regular givers? How do you thank the donor and how often?

At a conference last year I heard a very captivating presentation from Chuck Longford, Blackbaud's Chief Scientist. Chuck is the company's database wizard and so can prove anything he says.

Chuck reported on a couple of experiments undertaken by charities. The concept is simple. Get volunteers on the phone thanking first time donors for their first gift and guess what happens? In year two the donations from those who had been called increased by about 25 percent.

That's an exciting result isn't it? Wow, you'd think we would have already tried it wouldn't you? Well we probably have tried it but perhaps we haven't done so systematically. Perhaps our database isn't good enough to measure the results. Perhaps we haven't shared this knowledge with our colleagues. Perhaps we haven't been around long enough to measure a campaign from one year to the next.  Perhaps we aren't putting enough resources into relationship management! Perhaps we are more concerned with the numbers than with the people.

If you are looking to improve your fundraising results with very little financial input, try doing this experiment for yourself. And for the sake of someone coming in after you, test and measure everything!