Re: Using Emails to Effectively Thank Donors

(From Cheryl: My colleague, Susan Greco Marchese, the marketing director for Production Solutions/PS Digital, and I got to talking about the recent buzz around the efficiency vs. the efficacy model of thanking donors to impress them enough to get those next — and subsequent — gifts.

If you thank them quickly, will they come back for more of your mission? If you thank them with a flourish, will that make an even more memorable impression?

I’m a paper-lover and Sue is an integrated marketer, but we both respect the value of both paper and digital acknowledgments. Here, Sue deconstructs digital thank-you campaigns into four categories that I thought FundRaising Success readers would find valuable.)

I’m of the mind-set that you can’t thank your donors enough. Many nonprofit organizations have begun employing email thank-yous followed by personalized notes/letters of thanks after securing that first gift. But we all have different definitions about what an email acknowledgment really is. There are actually four types of email thank-yous to consider when you’re developing an integrated direct-marketing campaign. I’ve outlined them here and added my 2 cents about how you can make each of these efforts even more compelling to get your first-time donor to want to learn more about your mission.

The ‘bot’ thank-you
Your donor just finished pressing the PROCESS MY DONATION button and instantly gets an on-screen message that thanks him for his donation. There’s nothing personal about it unless your organization uses a more advanced content-management system (CMS) that can be personalized.

Pros: It’s fast and easy to get out the door! It is automatically scheduled (so no need to stop what you’re doing to send an email). Low-cost.

Cons: It’s robotic (bot) and, therefore, lacks heart. It’s about as compelling as a payment receipt from placing any online retail order. However, it’s a necessity in a financial transaction, and a donation is what it is … a financial transaction.

My 2 cents: This is absolutely necessary — it also serves as the donation receipt. Failing to send this out will have donors contacting you to make sure you got their donations, and it will make for a lot of frustrated people around tax time. Taking the time to personalize it and put some thought into what you want to say here means it can be sincere even if it’s automated.

If you have a CMS that can be personalized, take the time to insert that customized field into your automatic thank-you email. Having your new donor’s name and dollar amount donated noted in the subject line or body of the email is a step above the bot thank-you. Did you know that subject lines with a name in them are 22 percent more likely to be opened? If you want to go that extra yard, consider designing your thank-you to reflect your brand and add a right rail or other call to action that will entice that newcomer to want to learn more about a few things (i.e., your newsletter, website, blogs, journals, event photo gallery, Pinterest or Tumblr resources, etc.). A little goes a long way … don’t overwhelm them at first, but don’t miss the opportunity to capture their attention while you can.

The first ‘inbox’ acknowledgment
After the bot email pops up on screen, many organizations preschedule an email to also appear in the inbox. It may be the welcome email or simply an additional thank-you.

Pros: It’s fast and easy to automatically set this email to trigger after the donation has been processed. Low-cost.

Cons: Beware of slobbering on your donor with too much all at once. I call it the “puppy love” approach. You’re so excited to see your new master that you jump on him and get in his face telling him over and over again how much you love him.

My 2 cents: Make that first email to your new donor count. As mentioned before, personalization goes a long way. Want to wow donors? Have their first correspondence come from the CEO or chairman of the board, or if there’s a celebrity associated with your mission, get permission to use his or her name to express your gratitude for that first gift. Use this as an opportunity to tell your new donor how her gift will be spent and how much of a difference she’s making. Compelling copy and a slightly larger than usual picture will likely make donors want to engage further. This also could be a great opportunity to mention or showcase one or two upcoming events, recent article posts, etc., in the frame of the email.

Again, you might want to consider designing your thank-you to reflect your brand and add an enticing call to action. And again, remember that a little goes a long way.

Consider a “welcome series” where you slowly but surely introduce donors to carefully timed, high-impact emails (i.e., a welcoming video, then a “stay in touch” message focused on social media CTAs, then an advocacy ask, and finally a second ask or an “ask a friend to donate” kind of thing. It can be very powerful if planned correctly).

The ‘going the extra mile’ thank-you email
Have you ever received a simple thank-you email from a person within your team or organization that made your day? It might have been a sentence or two that said, “Thank you for the shout-out at that meeting.” “Or, “Thank you for taking me out to lunch when I needed to escape.” Those emails are priceless.

What if you established a similar email effort for your new online donors from the development team or a board member or volunteer several weeks after that first donation is made?

Pros: Packs a “wow” factor. I got something like that one time from a boutique jeweler when I bought a small gift on Etsy. I never stopped talking about it. You bet I’ll order from that person in the future!

Cons: A little bit more labor-intensive on your fundraising and/or e-marketing department.

My 2 cents: If you have a savvy e-marketing team, it will figure out a way to automate it to come from one person’s organization email address and still give it that simple, special touch. This first inbox thank-you would not necessarily be the best time to cross-market. The idea is to keep it simple and classy. Be sure to include your hyperlinked website URL in your fundraising colleague’s or volunteer’s signature block.

The ‘thanks again’ email
Similar to the “going the extra mile” email, you might consider an email acknowledgment campaign to those first-time donors a few months later where your CMS can trigger sending an email to re-engage with the different donor segments (one message for those who got hooked and have since made additional contributions, and another message for those whom you haven’t heard from since).

Pros: It’s a friendly tap on the shoulder that reignites that warm and fuzzy feeling the donor had after giving to you months ago for the first time. Low-cost.

Cons: Hmmm, I can’t think of any.

My 2 cents: This kind of email needs to be personalized, including the date of the first contribution, and what the money has gone on to fund or how it’s made an impact on the program or organization as a whole. This has to come with a signature from a bigwig or volunteer (not from the generic “we”), and it really needs to have compelling images and a strong call to action: CLICK HERE TO SEE PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT or CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT MORE KIDS LIKE MARY/JOEY.

There is never enough gratitude in the world. Thank-yous in any shape or form will never be a waste of time.

Cheryl Keedy is senior strategist of direct response and marketing formats at Production Solutions. Reach her at ckeedy@psmail.com. Susan Greco Marchese is marketing director at Production Solutions/PS Digital. Reach her at smarchese@psmail.com