When Amazon started, people were nervous about providing  a credit card number in hope that their books would arrive. (Don’t @ me, 25-and-unders, this was a real thing.)  Will my book arrive?  Will it be what I intended?  Is this whole Internet thing a scam?

So a large part of Amazon’s infrastructure works to convince people that it’s OK to buy things online by dealing with them quickly: instant email confirmations, package tracking, ratings, return policies, etc.

Now, it’s an Amazon (and Facebook, Google, and Apple) world – we’re just living in it.  People expect that experience even when not dealing with Amazon.

Whether you know it or not, your donors (especially your new donors) have those same questions.  Did my donation arrive?  Did it go where I intended it to go?  Is this charity thing a scam?

Consequently, a  large part of your donor services infrastructure must likewise be dedicated to convincing people it’s OK to donate to you by dealing with them quickly.

The longer the gap between the donation and the acknowledgment becomes the more mentally painful for the donor.  Questions arise.  And even though you may answer those questions with your thank you, the fact that they arose means that donor’s amygdala will warn them against donating to you again (as discussed yesterday).

Some experts say to get thank yous out in 48 hours; some say 24.  I would say “as fast as is possible,” ruthlessly cutting through barriers to get a stamp on your gratitude.  That is, other than the barriers that you need for good donor experience.  These include correct personalization and making sure that you are thanking the person for the impact they wanted to have when they made their contribution.

As a sector we’re still not  hitting on all cylinders:

Seriously. How long are you going to make me wait for that thank you letter?

— The Whiny Donor (@thewhinydonor) May 29, 2014

So…if you're going to host an auction event and expect guests to "raise their paddle" at the end to make a four-figure donation, you should be prepared to get those thank you's out ASAP. It's been two weeks. Still waiting.

— The Whiny Donor (@thewhinydonor) March 19, 2018

The slow journey of an acknowledgement: donation made on March 3, letter dated March 16, postmarked March 21 and finally received today. https://t.co/qxu1ds3WQm

— The Whiny Donor (@thewhinydonor) March 23, 2018

This speed can even be worth switching channels for.  Yes, you should acknowledge a gift by the channel it came in (mail for mail, email for email, etc.).  But that doesn’t mean you can’t also drop them a line by phone or send them an email to let them know you care.  Email is simple because it’s likely hooked into your donor database – you can send an immediate email upon receipt.  You can say you’ll be sending a  letter, but you wanted them to know immediately we got your gift and we appreciate it.

And there’s good evidence for phone calls increasing retention.  Penelope Burk’s research in Donor-Centered Fundraising indicates that 95% of donors say they would appreciate a quick thank you call and that doing so increased first-year revenue by 40%.  Chuck Longfield replicated this, finding that calling increases average gift and retention.

It’s fine (and better than fine) to give special donors special treatment. But don’t pull those donors out of the normal (read: fast) acknowledgment process to do so.  Send the normal acknowledgment letter/email, then follow up with your handwritten personal note.  Making a donor wait for your gratitude doesn’t make them feel special.  Or, rather, it may make them feel special, but not in a good way.

You should also not limit speed to the acknowledgment part of your donor services.  We’ve used the graph at right previously  to illustrate the importance of getting feedback.    But now look at the right part of the graph: the part where you want to live.  The biggest difference in this graph is the difference in retention rate between someone whose complaint was resolved and someone whose complaint was resolved quickly.

You can live on that right bar, sipping the cool-time-pool-time beverage of your choice, watching your colleagues scrambling to fill their buckets as fast as the water leaks out.  But it takes speed and planning to achieve first class donor relations.

Nick