Guide to Donor Gratitude: How to Thank Your Donors So They Keep Giving Year After Year

When and How to Thank Donors, and What to Say

Donor retention is the key to nonprofit stability. Thanking donors is one of your best ways to get there. It’s so simple, but how many nonprofits do it consistently and effectively?

Learn to thank your donors out of sincere gratitude, not from duty or annoyance. This isn’t something to get to only when you have time.

It’s a priority.

These people are giving you money and getting nothing in return in most cases. Never stop being amazed by human generosity, or get out of the fundraising business.

And the people at the very top of your organization need to grasp how important donor gratitude is. Use this guide to help them if they’ve lost some connection to their donors.

You’re going to learn three things about thanking donors:

• When to thank donors
• How to thank donors
• One thing to do with great caution when thanking donors

Plus, you can add your questions about donor gratitude to the ones at the end by posting them in the comments.

Here we go.

When to Thank Donors – Gratitude Timelines 

In general – you thank donors as soon as possible. ASAP. Yesterday. Don’t wait.

In reality, when to thank depends on the context of the gift. There are three primary ways people give. Each requires a slightly different gratitude timeline.

Donation #1: After a fundraising event

When to thank: Within a week, and more than once.

First, send out a thank you email as soon as you have the first set of raw numbers. This should be within a couple days. People want to know the impact they’ve made after a fundraising event. Don’t keep them waiting.

Second, send out personalized thank you cards or letters to each person who gave at the event. This can be done within the first week. If you have time, thank them for specific amounts given or items purchased.

If it was a team fundraising situation like peer-to-peer, thank them for how much their team raised. Show that you know them.

Donation #2: Online (email, website, Facebook, etc)

When to thank: Immediately

Online giving should be followed immediately by an autoresponder email. Two actually. They should get a formal giving receipt, but this should be separate from the thank you email. Do not send these together. Why?

Because taxes are boring and annoying. But giving and being thanked for it is a wonderful bonding moment between your nonprofit and the donor. Don’t confuse the two.

Ideally, you would also follow this up within a couple weeks with a handwritten thank you note.

Donation #3: Direct Mail

When to thank: Within a month

If you’re doing a direct mail fundraising campaign, you should plan the thank you letter strategy before you even send it out. Then, all you have to do is personalize each donor’s thank you letter.

The only question is, do you wait a few weeks and send all the thank you letters at once, or send them out as the gifts come in? The answer depends in part on the quality of your database and CRM systems.

Plus, if you’re striving for a specific goal, you might want to wait long enough to be able to say in the letter if you passed the goal. If you send thank you notes out after a couple days, you don’t have anything to report.

Or, you could send more than one out – an immediate one as gifts come in, and another one a month or two later after the goal is met.

How to Thank Donors – Gratitude Methods

There are four primary ways to thank donors. I’ve listed them in order, with the best being first.

1. In Person

Obviously, you can’t do this every time. But do it as often as you can. It has no equal in terms of relationship-building.

2. By Phone

Yes, it takes more time than writing. But if you have volunteers or paid staff who can do this, they can knock out several dozen per day.

Think about this. We get bombarded with communication all day long. Half of phone calls these days are robots and scammers (and fundraisers). When an actual person calls just to thank you, it feels great. If the donor doesn’t answer, leave a message. What a jewel for a donor who finds this in their voicemail: “Thank you for your gift. It has made a powerful difference!”

3. In Writing

Handwritten is best – even if it’s just the signature and greeting. Personal is better than generic. Real letters are better than little cards – but anything is better than nothing! Don’t let your budget stop you. Do what you can afford.

If it’s a long-term donor, be sure to acknowledge their past gifts. Someone who’s been giving for years shouldn’t get a thank you letter for the first time ever that says “Your gift is appreciated.” Make them feel known. Make it clear you know they’ve been giving a long time.

Have board members or other high ranking people sign the letter.

Even better, get letters from people helped by your organization – that the people really wrote, even if there are spelling errors. Who cares! Authenticity trumps professionalism.

For more thank you letter tips, see this post from Gail Perry.

4. Email

Remember, these are ranked. If all you do is thank by email, your donors will not feel as valued. Why? Because thanking by email is so easy, and easy to miss. Do it though, because it’s so easy. But whenever possible, don’t only thank by email.

But autoresponders are wonderful inventions, so email has the one distinct advantage of immediate gratitude for online gifts. Use it!

Notice what’s not on this list – texting. If you want to thank by text message, knock yourself out. I consider it an absolute waste of time. How long does someone spend looking at a text? This is not the medium for building a long-term emotional connection.

A Risky Move In a Donor Thank You Letter 

Whether it’s in person, by phone, in writing, or by email – one thing you should rarely if ever do in a thank you letter is to ask for more money.  You run the risk of making them think you’re like that guy in the picture.

A gift is a gift is a gift. Be thankful, be sincere, and be brief.

As always, you can test this, and you might find your donors love giving so much they’ll give more even in a thank you letter.

But in general, you already send out enough requests for money. (Or do you? Maybe you need to send more! Talk to a ProActive Content fundraising copywriter for 60 minutes free about your strategy and copy).

More Questions about Thanking Donors

If you have more questions about thanking donors – post them in the comments below and we’ll keep adding to the list. Here are a couple to get started.

1. Does the size of the gift affect how you thank the donor?

In general – no. Small donors become big donors. Plus, you don’t ever want your smaller donors feeling like they don’t matter. But if you keep showcasing and honoring your big wealthy donors, that’s exactly how they’ll feel.

But sometimes, it might. A major donor, someone giving you tens of thousands of dollars, must be met and thanked in person unless they’ve specifically told you not to do so. Major donors require unique attention, and the point of this article is not to get into all that.

2. Should we publicly thank donors?

That’s a fuzzy question. As long as you tie it to impact, it’s okay to do. But you don’t want your donor gratitude to make other donors feel less important. So if you’re going to thank donors publicly, thank small donors too. Even better – don’t mention the amounts. Focus on the story, the motive, and the impact.

Add Your Donor Gratitude Questions in the Comments

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