I’m certain all Agitator readers have been devoting their locked-down hours concentrating on donor experience and retention,  while far too many of those non-Agitator folks have been frittering away time perfecting their Netflix schedule.

Consequently, as a reward for your diligence I want to introduce you to a powerful, easy-to-use tool that’s about as wonderful as fresh-baked, home-made bread in a pandemic when it comes to thanking, appealing to, and bolstering the bond with your organization’s donors.

It’s called ThankView and I learned about it from Lynne Wester of the Donor Relations Guru I owe Lynne big time because this is a real gem.

As its name implies ThankView was originally created to provide donors with a video thank you note. (One of the co-foundeers had fallen behind on his wedding gift thank yous and claims that  delinquency was the inspiration for this platform). In short, thankview lets you send 1 or 100,000 video messages to your donors.

HOWEVER…this is a tool/platform/swiss army knife for more than thank yous. Its uses are limited only by your imagination and in playing around with it you’ll quickly discover 101 uses from the all-important thank you, to promotion of events, fundraising appeals, leadership reports, you name it.

Whatever video you create (and yes, you can use your smartphone or any video camera) reaches the recipient encased in a personalized i envelope — so much more classy and intriguing than the usual digital link. Here’s the the envelope I received when I requested an example from ThinkView.

Click Here to Open Envelope to View the Video Inside

Here are some of the features I found particularly valuable –particularly given the ease of use:

• Video messages and the digital envelope in which they’re delivered can be created as one-offs for individual purposes or you can create one and send it to 100, or 1,000 or 100,000 folks on your list.
• The message and the packaging can be styled and branded to fit your organization.
• Donate pages or other Call To Action landing pages can be quickly linked to the video, so everything’s right there for the donor.
• In addition to reaching your stakeholders the platform is also designed to create public links to use on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
• There’s an almost endless array of applications you can use the ThankView platform for. You can find examples of how others are using it on their website here.

How well does it work?  According to the folks at ThinkView the platform has been used by hundreds of universities, hospitals and other nonprofits and —get this–they claim an average 61% email open rate.  The platform also comes with a dashboard providing key audience metrics that enable users to continually improve conversion and pledge fulfillment rates as high as 15%.

In the course of exploring ThinkView for Agitator readers I talked with one knowledgeable sales person, Alain Pierre ( alain@thankview.com),and J.D. Bebee,(jd@thankview.com) the co-founder.  Both were knowledgeable, enthusiastic and straightforward in a very refreshing way; meaning lots of listening skills, no snake oil.

They helpfully pointed out a series of tutorials that will give you a good idea the ways in which ThinkView can be put to work. The video tutorials are not only tailored for how to use personalized video in the coronavirus pandemic, but also on a range of issues from “How Gift Officers Can Create Personalized Videos for Every Donor….”How Leadership Can Send Video Messages to Your Entire Audience and Track Engagements”….”How to Embed a Giviing Form Into Your ThankView Campaign”….”How to Request Videos from 100+ Recipients, Collect Them, Edit Them & Send to a Lauger Audience”

One feature that intrigued me is the platform’s capacity to quickly and easily gather video messages, feedback and testimonials from donors and other stakeholders and put them to work.  I can’t wait to try this out; I’m betting it’ll not only thrill those sometime troublesome program people, but it’s a great way to put the spotlight on a wide array of both donors and the beneficiaries they’re helping.  How to do this in a quick and simple way is described in this  video of a ThankView webinar given last week and titled “How to Request 10,000+ Videos From Students and Supporters in Under 5 Minutes.

At a time when everyone who cares about their organization’s future  seems to be searching for effective ways to get in touch with their donors and other stakeholders I sure suggest you give ThinkView a look.

Roger

P.S.  I know this is a pretty effusive review coming from The Agitator but frankly I am very impressed with this platform and its possibilities.  There’s no doubt in my mind why Lynne described what it produces as “…a wow for the donor to open and experience.”