A kinder, back-to-basics approach to donor relations amounted to a 30 percent increase in contributions for D.C.’s Heritage Foundation.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

“And it is as simple as thanking a donor,” he continues. “It’s fundamental. It’s incumbent on any organization to thank a donor. But you can look at case after case of organizations that don’t do that.”

At the Heritage Foundation, those “duh moments” added up to a return to basics, but don’t be fooled by the simplicity of that oft-used phrase. Heritage re-embraced the basics and combined that with a fresh “donor as friend” philosophy. The result was a very specific plan of action that, in a head-to-head test, resulted in a nearly 30 percent cumulative increase in contributions over three years.