There was an amazing donor experiment done by US based foodforthepoor.org.
It’s a billion dollars a year, food and humanitarian aid organization. Their executive director, Angel Aloma, sent an additional thank-you letter out to their donors in the month of February of that year.
- He split his database into two halves and sent the additional thank-you to one-half of their database and nothing to the other.
- At the end of the year, they went through their data. Did the additional thank letter make a difference to the amount and value of donations they received?
What they discovered was – both halves of the list gave as many gifts, but the half that got the extra thank you gave more money.
Significantly more. Half a million dollars more!
Half a million dollars more in additional revenue because they’d invested in this one extra thank you letter. It was just a simple extra thank-you, out of the blue.
Thanking clearly works! And thanking more often makes that much more of a difference.
How can you, with a smaller than a billion dollar a year budget, use this simple idea to raise more money for our own organization?
Here are a few simple suggestions that you could you do in a short amount of time, that will give your donors the outcome you’re looking for when you thank them – to make them feel deeply appreciated for the good they’ve done.
- As with the ‘Food for the Poor’ experiment – Write an additional thank you, to each of your big supporters, once a year. Do this at a time when they didn’t just give.
- After you do a fundraising campaign, thank all your donors immediately. And follow up with an additional thank you, a week or so later.
- When you get a new donor into your organization, aside from thanking him personally, get a board member or student to call him to thank him personally.
- With your monthly donors, thank them once a month, i.e., each time they give, in different creative ways.
Thanking works. Do it often. Be creative. Make your donors feel appreciated. B’hatzlacha raba raba with all your efforts,
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Avraham Lewis is the fundraising coach for busy Jewish leaders who need a clear system for raising much more.
