“Thank You” Done Right Goes a Long Way

In a session she presented at the AFP International Conference on Fundraising in Atlanta earlier this year, Penelope Burk, president of Cygnus Applied Research, a research-based fundraising consulting firm located in Chicago, talked about a study her company had done in 2003. Questioning 267 charities and 145 donors, the study aimed to find out if improvements made to an organization’s back-end service — e.g., thank-you letters, personal phone calls, etc. — could increase donor retention and generate a more rapid increase in gift value among retained donors.