A colleague showed me something very disturbing the other day: A receipt from a well-reputed national nonprofit organization. It was a good receipt. Clean, readable design, nice graphics. It made clear the impact of the gift.
There was just one problem: It was sent 54 weeks after the gift was received.
That’s right: It took this organization more than a year to acknowledge a gift.
A donor who gave more than a year ago (and not since) is now officially lapsed. It is very difficult to get a lapsed donor back on board — nearly as tough as getting a new donor. Letting that year pass without thanking the donor is an irresponsible squandering of the relationship.
It’s worth noting that the gift in question was an online gift. Many otherwise well-run nonprofits struggle with the logistics of their online fundraising. Often, there are two separate databases that have to be brought together, and that causes hiccups and problems galore.
That’s an explanation, but it’s not an excuse. Online donors matter just as much as your traditional offline donors. In fact, online donors — being mostly younger and giving larger gifts — are your future. They are used to shopping, banking, and getting their entertainment online — and it almost always works at high speed.
If you let weeks pass without that receipt, you are failing them. And probably losing them.
Fix it. Now.
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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