3 Simple Steps to Donor Retention
3. Update …
… your organization's thank-you letters. We're all only too familiar with the annual "mystery donor" reports where a firm or individual sends anywhere from 10 to 20 gifts to a variety of nonprofit organizations to gauge the (usually meager) return on thank-you letters. Missing in the equation, however, is the quality of the thank-you. Does it inspire? Bring about a flicker of emotion — be it a smile or a tear? Does it make the reader read beyond the first paragraph before tossing the letter in with her tax receipts? Chances are probably none of the above.
Pamela Grow is the publisher of The Grow Report, the author of Simple Development Systems and the founder of Simple Development Systems: The Membership Program and Basics & More fundraising fundamentals e-courses. She has been helping small nonprofits raise dramatically more money for over 15 years, and was named one of the 50 Most Influential Fundraisers by Civil Society magazine, and one of the 40 Most Effective Fundraising Consultants by The Michael Chatman Giving Show.
