Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
I was planning on writing a post riffing off this great NY Times article — The Found Art of Thank-You Notes — in a hopeful attempt to turn you on to the joy of expressing appreciation. Even if, as a fundraiser mindful of your brand perception, you can’t express yourself on “weighty ecru Connor correspondence cards adorned with a rhinoceros embossed in gold” as one New York fashion publicist does!
It’s a really fun read.
Two passages from opposite ends of the planet struck me …
For Martin Nowak, director of Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, “thanking is a form of cooperative reciprocity with roots in primate behavior.”
Nothing like getting to the roots of ‘thank you’.
Far more inspiring is Carroll Irene Gelderman, a 20 year-old recently selected 2014 Queen of the Carnival in Mardi Gras crazed New Orleans. Regarding sending handwritten ‘thank you’s’ for the hundreds of gifts she received, Ms Gelderman is reported reflecting:
“Like a lot of people in my generation, I might think, ‘Oh, just send them a text,’ … But I actually enjoyed writing the notes because in the process of opening a note, feeling the paper, seeing the imperfection of the writing, reading the message in another person’s voice, you actually feel like you have a piece of that person in your hand.”
There’s hope for the Millennials.
But as I got ready to write, I saw this very, very practical piece of wisdom from master copywriter Willis Turner. His article is prosaically titled: How to Write a (Fundraising) Thank-You Note.
Says Willis:
“By the way, lest we confuse strategy with courtesy, let’s not forget that the real reason we write thank-you notes to donors is that it’s the right thing to do. They gave us a gift and it’s only proper that we thank them for it.
But when they are written in a way that reminds her of her value, thank-you letters build loyalty, increase retention, and strengthen the emotional bond between you and your donor.”
If you have to pick, you’ll no doubt find it far more helpful to read Willis’ advice, which includes ten essential ingredients of an effective ‘thank you’.
I’m not going to spoon feed you. Read the entire article, then save it.
If you do, I know you’ll want to thank me.
Tom
5 responses to “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You”
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Your mother is proved right. Again.
Hmmm… we send a beautifully written, hand-signed letter with a hand-written P.S. and you’re telling me this is going to increase our 64% retention rate?…
2. Print it on a single 8.5 x 11″ sheet with a perforated 3.5 x 8.5″ reply at the bottom. No letter copy on the back (putting credit card info on the back of the reply is fine), so the letter will need to be short and sweet.
Really? A perforated reply device on what is meant to be a warm and personal thank you.
We think about our donor comms as one human talking to another human. What would another lovely human like to receive after giving a gift? My gut tells me it doesn’t involve a lot of perforating.
I LOVE THANK YOU NOTES!!!! It doesn’t cost much, but it lets me show my donors how much I appreciate them. It is the best investment my organization can make in our donors.
FYI for anyone interested in beefing up their thank-you writing skills: For nearly half a decade now, SOFII has hosted an all-free, no sign-up required donation thank you letter clinic with fully annotated before and after samples from around the world. (Full disclosure: I ran the clinic. But it’s free, so no one will be the wiser whether you visit or don’t.) Find it here: http://www.sofii.org/showcase?hall=274&id=68
I doubt it’s coincidence that at my two clients who have consistently beat benchmarks in both response rates and retention, both take the quality of their thank-yous seriously.
The SOFII clinic is based on these principles.
One did not EVER include a BRE, CRE, Freepost envelope or reply slip. Again, consistently topped industry norms for retention/results.
Another includes only a BRE, no reply. They have a 64.2% retention rate.
There was never an ask in any of either’s letters, although in reading Willis Turner’s excellent article we do use soft asks (which, for the record do not sound like, and are not designed to function as, asks).
Just my two cents.
A perforated tear-off reply slip at the bottom of a “thank you” letter certainly doesn’t feel like a “soft ask” to me. I also strongly advise clients against including any type of return envelope. Even this implied suggestion of another gift undercuts the #1 purpose of a TY letter which is to appreciate what a donor has given already, without any assumption of future support. Like Lisa, just my two cents.