Saying ‘thank you’ is a fundraiser’s greatest superpower

Posted on 14 Mar 2024

By Cathy Truong, executive director, GiveNow

Thumbs Up shutterstock 2010041042 — Donors love being thanked, writes GiveNow's Cathy Truong.

I’m regularly shocked at how few organisations thank their greatest supporters. Call me old fashioned, but not saying “thank you” is a missed opportunity to show your appreciation to your donors.

Less than 20% of organisations effectively thank donors for their gifts. It’s appalling. But I don’t want to dwell on that. Decades in this business have taught me that a generous spirit generates more generosity.

GiveNow executive director Cathy Truong.

I’ve done some basic research into my own giving over the past two years. Thankfully my partner supports my philanthropic tendencies, since all those small donations do add up, but they have provided some data I can use. When I looked at my 133 donations to 34 Australian organisations, I found that just four organisations (12%) maintained what I would describe as excellent engagement. Of the rest:

68% sent me no emails at all
15% sent me a single great “thank you”, but nothing since
6% issued some weak communication, either asking me for more money or telling me about their AGM.

It simply reinforces what we’ve been saying at GiveNow for the past 20 years. When someone donates to a cause, they’ve reached into their pockets and thought carefully about your organisation for at least five minutes. They’ve handed you a warm lead and shown they are willing to believe in your mission.

I realise there are some charities that bombard potential leads with an unwanted truckload of emails, socials and mail stuffed in the letterbox. But the 85 to 90% of organisations that say nothing are the real sinners.

One of my favourite causes is Defence Community Dogs, which has a great fundraising program and touching campaigns and goes to great efforts to thank its supporter base. Not surprisingly, it has one of the highest donor retention rates in the land.

"When someone donates to a cause, they’ve reached into their pockets and thought carefully about your organisation for at least five minutes. They’ve handed you a warm lead and shown they are willing to believe in your mission."

If I don’t hear from your organisation I won’t think about you again, and I’ll move on. I might have thought you had a good organisation, one that really resonated with me, but that feeling will evaporate if I don’t hear back from you – and note that I particularly want to learn what you did with my money.

Your organisation may have connected with me at a good moment in my life, when I was ready to give. If I hear back from you, even if it is in a year’s time, I’m likely to be interested in giving again.

Every organisation should be giving itself a hard deadline each quarter to go back to every donor and say “thank you”.

A bit of gratitude makes people feel good and is worth its weight in gold. It’s why people give in the first place.

Don’t forget, it has to be genuine. Australians can smell insincerity from across the river. Consider a simple email with a demonstration of how a contribution has made a difference. It connects you to your donor and reinforces that they’ve made the right decision.

Even if you don’t win an immediate bump in donations, you will still be cultivating goodwill and loyalty between you, that donor and their friends.

Show some appreciation, some gratitude, some acknowledgment and some recognition to your greatest fans.

You can thank me later. No, do it now!

First published in the fundraising special edition of Community Directors Intelligence.

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