Don’t drive your donors to drink with boring thank you letters. Inspire them!
How many thank you letters have you received after making a donation that you remember? Go ahead. Count. It won’t take long. Most are totally and utterly un-memorable.
What a waste of paper and people-power.
Sure, you *have* to send an acknowledgement letter to everyone who donates to your organization. But acknowledging is not thanking. An acknowledgement doesn’t make the recipient feel all warm and fuzzy and good about what they’ve done. It makes them remember that soon they’ll have to file taxes. That’s stressful, not joyful.
Do your organization and everyone else a favor–turn your standard acknowledgement letter into a “thank you, you are awesome and we couldn’t do this without you because you ROCK” letter (or an equivalent that is appropriate for your organization’s brand).
Here are seven examples of awesome thank you letters from Lisa Sargent. They can do it. So can you.
In 2013, let’s say bye bye to boring thank you letters, shall we?
I loved the message in your blog about sending a memorable thank you that communicates sincere appreciation. Your blog posts are fun to read, Erica. i enjoy your writing style and the content of your blogs often provide me with a new perspective. I thought you (and your readers) might like to know about Moving Messages (www.moving-messages.com). I custom-design pop-up greeting cards with messages of appreciation for organizations that want a fun, authentic, and memorable way to stand out with donors, volunteers, and staff. Thank you for your blog.
A custom pop-up would take it up a notch, for sure. If you combined that with a gold star (Shanon Dolittle’s fun suggestion), you’d really be on to something.
Here’s Shanon’s post:
http://dogoodfeelbetter.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/giving-your-donors-a-gold-star/
Superb blog post!