Thank personally and quickly. As project 6 on emotion recommends, fundraiser’s should aspire to be ‘famous for frequent, fast, fabulous feedback’. 

However, great thanking is not enough by itself. It needs to be accompanied by a charity wide culture of listening, respecting supports and providing outstanding donor care. As a minimum, you should have a clearly articulated fundraising ‘promise’ to supporters. 

Example 1: The Art Fund

The Art Fund directly passed on a thank you letter sent to them to donor with a personal note saying this was possible thank to the (donors) generosity.

Example 2: UNICEF

UNICEF use personalisation in their thank you letter to directly connect the donor and beneficiary.

Example 3: Friends of the Earth 

The media storm that blew up after the death of Olive Cooke, wrongly alleged to have been hounded to committing suicide by charity communications, prompted Friends of the Earth to hold internal discussions as to how they should respond, even though they weren’t named as one of the offending organisations. They decided to get in touch with their supporters by email and letter to acknowledge the negative coverage, ask for feedback on the supporters’ experience of Friends of the Earth communications and offer them a chance to comment freely on the charity’s practices.

Find out more here.

Example 4: Fundraising promises

Below are examples of fundraising promises from the children’s air ambulance and Princess Alice Hospice. There is also a mailing pack from Alzheimer’s Research, which includes a clear statement of ‘Our promise to you’.