[BOOK REVIEW] Lastly, a go-to reference for superb thank-you messages

Thankology: Easy methods to maintain your donors longer, and giving stronger, by means of gratitude by Lisa Sargent

The factor our fundraising business is worst at: thanking donors.

You’ve acquired the robotic notes thanking you for you contribution with out supplying you with any concept that it was appreciated or that it makes a distinction.

You’ve acquired thank-you letters that comes weeks and even months after you gave.

You’ve learn thank-you letters which might be simply brag-sheets about how superb the group is — probably not bothering to thanks for what you probably did.

And what number of occasions have you ever merely not been thanked in any respect?

Everybody is aware of that thanking is sweet.

However a thank-you message hardly ever generates quick and trackable income. Success is oblique, and it reveals up later within the type of stronger donor retention or extra donor upgrading.

This stuff are arduous to measure.

In order that they don’t get measured.

And meaning thanking is completed poorly or usually simply don’t get finished

Quick-term, you’ll get away with dangerous thanking.

Lengthy-term, dangerous thanking will torpedo your fundraising program.

We actually want assist in the realm of thanking: Easy methods to do it properly. Easy methods to suppose clearly about it. What actually makes a distinction in what we do and the way we do it.

Properly, excellent news: There’s a brand new guide simply out by the acknowledged Wizard of Thanking, Lisa Sargent.

Each fundraiser ought to get Thankology proper now. And skim it. And skim it once more a yr later, and yearly after that.

This guide will encourage you and energize your group to care about thanking. That’s the way you rework your donor relationships.

Right here’s one thing that will provide you with only a style of what you’ll discover in Thankology: 9 qualities of the important thank-you letter…

1. It makes use of donor-friendly language. Identical to appeals, it is advisable be hyper-aware of the donor. What they know, what they need. And converse to these issues.
2. It considers the viewers. Your donors are older individuals, tilt closely feminine, and know rather a lot much less about your trigger than you do.
3. It makes use of acronyms with care. Acronyms could be a actual time-saver. However not in the event that they aren’t understood. Your donors don’t know your acronyms. Not even the “apparent” ones.
4. It applies good tone and pacing. A colloquial, private, pleasant tone.
5. It attends to the letterhead. Hold it easy and simple.
6. It defeats dehumanizing particulars. As a lot as you possibly can, keep away from or downplay donor ID codes and different instruments your pc needs you to make use of. Your letter ought to really feel as near an actual letter from an actual particular person as potential.
7. It respects the foundations of readability. Hold the studying ease stage to grade 7 (Flesch-Kincaid). Don’t use sort any smaller than 12 level, black ink over a white background.
8. It takes care of web page structure. Attempt to not make it look precisely like an enchantment letter!
9. It makes it private. Use the donor’s title within the salutation at the least. And please make sure that it’s spelled accurately!

Thankology is each a how-to and a why-to guide about thanking donors. It’s written with coronary heart and it practices what it preaches, utilizing a breezy, readable type like an excellent thank-you notice. It’s destined to be a kind of must-read books for good fundraisers.