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

Thankology: How one can preserve your donors longer, and giving stronger, by way 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 providing 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 are simply brag-sheets about how wonderful the group is — not likely 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 nice.

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.

These items are exhausting to measure.

So that they don’t get measured.

And meaning thanking is completed poorly or typically simply don’t get accomplished

Brief-term, you’ll get away with unhealthy thanking.

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

We actually want assist in the realm of thanking: How one can do it effectively. How one can assume clearly about it. What actually makes a distinction in what we do and the way we do it.

Nicely, excellent news: There’s a brand new ebook 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 12 months later, and yearly after that.

This ebook 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 provides 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. Similar to appeals, it’s essential to 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 folks, tilt closely feminine, and know quite a bit 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. Maintain 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 laptop desires 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. Maintain 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 identify within the salutation at the very least. And please be certain that it’s spelled appropriately!

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