Are you thoughtful in your acknowledgment process?
Every year at this time I like to remind people that this is the perfect time to review your acknowledgment process. Do you do enough? Is it possible to do too much?
First and foremost every donor should get a letter that acknowledges their gift. At a minimum, it must include the amount of the gift and a statement telling if any "goods or services" were exchanged for the gift. That isn't my rule it's the IRS's rule.
We produce seven different letters; New Gift, $.1 - $99, $100 - $249, $250 - $499, $500 - $999, $1,000 and up, Special Letters.
Every new donor gets a welcome letter that also serves as their thank you letter. Ideally, this would be two different letters, but for the sake of expediency, we combine those letters. This system works out ok because mid-level and major donors get additional contacts via phone, email or a handwritten letter.
A different letter is sent depending on the gift's level. Each letter is different and each one emphasis the donor's role in helping the organization fulfill its mission. Also the higher level donors get live signed letters. The lower levels get digital signatures on their letters. We also try and put personal notes on as many of the letters as time allows.
Donor's giving $1,000 or more get a totally different letter that is signed with the board chair's name. This one is the most personal. Finally, we have special letters these are written when a gift is exceptional, unexpected or different in some way.
We produce over 10,000 letters a year the largest number during the year-end season. We could not do this if our CRM / donor database didn't allow us to automate the process. But even if you don't have full automation you can still do a great deal with a spreadsheet and a word processor.
What else do we do? Well as I mentioned before we send personal notes and make phone calls to donors. Besides their thank you letters, donors who give at $250 to $999 get a personal phone call, and donors at the $1,000 level and above get a handwritten note and possibly a special letter.
Every individual giving program is different, but one thing that should be the same for everyone is thanking your donors.
