It’s so discouraging when you think about it. We work so hard to get people to give. We read books and blogs. We go to conferences. We study, ask for advice, hire experts.
All to get just a few more donors on board, supporting our good causes.
Then we flush it all by not thanking them when they give.
That’s what Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog tells us, at 10 Donations. 3 Thank-Yous. 7 Failures to Communicate. (Don’t miss it. She names names!)
Last December Kivi gave $20 donations to 10 national nonprofits by converting credit card miles into cash donations through the Capital One Giving Site. She gave them both her email address and mailing address.
Two months later, here’s the score:
- 3 of the nonprofits have said thank you.
- 7 have said nothing.
If cuss-words were allowed on this blog, I’d be cussing right now. As Kivi put it:
How can nonprofits expect to thrive off the kindness of others, when the kindness of a simple thank-you note to an unsolicited donation is too much to ask? Of course, it’s great news to those of you who are doing thank-you notes, because it means you are head-and-shoulders above your peers!
Sure, gifts given through that channel are unusual. Maybe some folks didn’t know what category of giving to put it under. Maybe it falls between two different departments’ scope of responsibility.
Whatever. There’s no excuse.
Let me make a prediction: The organizations that fail to thank their donors are the ones that will end up eventually with no donors. If I’m right about that, I say good riddance!
Jeff Brooks has been serving the nonprofit community for more than 35 years and blogging about it since 2005. He considers fundraising the most noble of pursuits and hopes you’ll join him in that opinion. You can reach him at jeff [at] jeff-brooks [dot] com.
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