Thank You Letters- Secret weapon to boost repeat donations.

'Thank You Letter' is an often ignored aspect of fund-raising for many if not-all non-profits or NGO. This critical piece of communication is what can convert your one-time donor into life-long friends and patrons. So, if your fund-raising pipe-line is plagued with few or no repeat donors then it could be a good time to read more.

'Thank you letter' is universal in a way that it applies to your Individual, Corporates and Institutional donors. So if you have tried and tested templates for these different donor segments or only thank the major donors. It would interesting to look into these points that great Thank You letters generally have:

1. Emotionally charged opening lines that puts your donor the hero, which they rightly are.
2. It tells them what exactly you plan to use their donation.
3. It also tells the donor how you are going to report them the progress, when and what would be the reported.
4. It has a friendly communicative style and completely avoids technical jargons.
5. The donors patronage towards the cause is appreciated and acknowledged.
6. If the donation has been utilised then a few lines as a story of the change in the beneficiaries life that the donor has brought.
7. Signed by someone from the highest ranks of the organisation.
8. Enclosed letter or message from the beneficiary if the donation has been utilised.

Now that we have discussed the construct, it would be interesting to understand what frequency works best for 'Thank You' Letter for different segments of fund raising to drive in more funds for you. More of it the next post...