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 and sent the additional thank-you note 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 who received the extra thank you note donated more money. 

Significantly more. Half a million dollars more!

Half 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 we, 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 we’re looking for when we 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 note, to each of your big supporters, once a year. Do this at a time when they hadn’t recently donated. See this past post

– After you do a fundraising campaign, thank all your donors immediately. And follow up with an additional thank you, a week or so later. See this past post

– 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.

To sum up – Thanking works. Do it often. Be creative. Make your donors feel appreciated.

I value your feedback and hearing from you. Please email me your ideas and chizuk.

B’Hatzlacha raba raba with all your efforts,

_____________

Avraham Lewis guides Jewish leaders, running their own projects or organizations, to change their current reality and ‘up’ their fundraising game and personal productivity, through effective mindsets, strategies and techniques, that have a track record of raising more funds. 

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