Thanking donors for their donations is one of the “secret weapons” of effective fundraising.
Why does it matter. The Bloomerang Blog shows us two significant reasons at Do All Donors Need A Thank You Within 48 Hours?:
- Saying thank you establishes trust. Nothing says “Your gift doesn’t matter” like an acknowledgement that takes weeks or months to arrive. Have it in their hands while they still remember giving!
- Recency is the most important predictor of likelihood to give. By far, donors are most likely to give soon after they’ve just given. That’s when they feel best about it. Slow acknowledgements miss the opportunity to ask when they want to give. They also may cause them to get another ask before they’ve been thanked. Not good!
If you’re taking more than 48 hours to acknowledge donors, make speeding that up a priority. It will immediately improve your bottom line.
If you’re achieving 48 hours, good for you! Now see if you can get it down to 24 hours (or less). Online shopping has created an expectation for quick response. That’s the world we live in 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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