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

Thankology: How one can hold your donors longer, and giving stronger, via 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 can be simply brag-sheets about how superb 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 sweet.

However a thank-you message not often generates quick and trackable income. Success is oblique, and it exhibits 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 which means thanking is finished poorly or typically simply don’t get accomplished

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: How one can do it properly. How one can suppose 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 e-book 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 e-book will encourage you and energize your group to care about thanking. That’s the way you remodel 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’s worthwhile 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 so much much less about your trigger than you do.
3. It makes use of acronyms with care. Acronyms generally is 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. Preserve it easy and easy.
6. It defeats dehumanizing particulars. As a lot as you may, keep away from or downplay donor ID codes and different instruments your pc 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 principles of readability. Preserve the studying ease stage to grade 7 (Flesch-Kincaid). Don’t use kind any smaller than 12 level, black ink over a white background.
8. It takes care of web page structure. Strive 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 it’s spelled appropriately!

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