The 7th #donorlove celebration, in partnership with John Lepp of Agents of Good, comes from Stacey Schewaga at the College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan.  From Stacey’s submission it’s clear she has delighting supporters at the heart of all she does and it was wonderful the read the small, thoughtful, and constant ways she adds a bit of magic to supporter interactions throughout their journey with the college.  Here are a few examples from Stacey’s submission:

“At the College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan donors are number one!  A handwritten card is sent to every donor that gives a gift and the cards have inspiring messages on the front like ‘you’re what making a difference looks like’, ‘You’re simply amazing’, or ‘Act as if what you do makes a difference, IT DOES.’  All new donors get a phone call from me and a welcome package.

I organize student-thank-a-thons annually, have students sign thank you cards for all new donors at the time of gift including writing thank you cards to our PT faculty annaully.  At admission time, many alumni and local dentists volunteer their time for one day. Anyone who uses my office gets a personalized note and if I know the person, I have been known to leave their favourite candy.  I send sympathy cards on behalf of myself and the college to any alumni that have a loved one pass away. I honour alum retring with a special email wish. I’m always looking for a special way to connect with my alumni and donors to make them feel special.

Over the last couple months, I asked donors and alumni to write an inspiring or motivational message on a note card.  These cards and a Kit Kat were delivered to 1st year students on their last day of classes.  The students are told, ‘the cards come from alumni – who have been in your shoes, and donors, care about you and wish you success in your upcoming exams.'”

What we love about this example:

• donor love is there from the get-go; immediately humanising the charity and showing appreciation from that first donation with a phone call
• students and supporters are connected throughout the whole journey; students personally thank donors, and donors write messages of support for the students at exam times
• students are involved with thanking; guess who will become donors in future?..
• donor love goes beyond the donations as donors are thought of also at difficult, personal times

A huge well done to Stacey and the team at College of Dentistry, University of Saskatchewan, and thank you for sharing your examples of showing donor love.

The donor love celebration is now closed for submissions but we will be showcasing the remaining celebrations into December.  Be sure to hit that ‘subscribe’ button so you can be the first to read them!

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It’s getting to the end of the donor love celebration in partnership with John Lepp at Agents of Good (and the part where I have to start Googling Roman Numerals).  In the final days I’m thrilled to include my wonderful ex-boss’ new place of work, Sue Ryder.

During Hospice Care Week 2018, the fundraising team at Thorpe Hall’s Sue Ryder Hospice decided to use this week not to promote and ask, but to thank and show appreciation.  One full day of dedicated donor love with the WHOLE team involved – YES!

What did they do?  What didn’t they do, more like!  With everything from personal visits to posted certificates, these fundraising folks had it covered with:

• over 100 certificates posted to supporters celebrating fundraising milestones
• 23 personal phone calls made to nominated supporters from Head of Hospice

  

  Fundraising, Donna Young

• Personalised videos for corporate and DIY supporters
• Unannounced visits to corporate partners and collection tin businesses to deliver cakes and certificates
• Social media coverage across all Sue Ryder platforms
• Radio interview explaining the ‘thank you Thursday’ aim and to publically thank the local community

Why we love this:

• Top reason: they didn’t have to do this, but they wanted to
• Personal touches were used throughout, no mass thank you taking away the shine of a well-thought thank you
• Through thanking they achieved some of their highest online engagement rates. From the posts included in their submission there was almost 16.5k people reached in one day!
• Supporters got it and even got involved themselves, with one corporate partner sending back their own thank you video

In addition to the relationship benefits, Sue Ryder told us the impact on teamwork and morale was positive too,

” …this also helped a new team bond. Engaging with supporters who have lost loved ones can be challenging, to ensure a sensitive tone is struck. This helped our fundraisers become more confident in that thanking and asking more of our supporters who have lost loved ones at our Hospice…By working together on Thank You Thursday, it helped instil a sense of pride in being able to offer that opportunity to support the Hospice in memory, and bring something good out of difficult and sad situation.”

A big well done to the team at Thorpe Hall’s Sue Ryder Hospice for their dedication to ‘thank you Thursday’, to all the staff for getting involved and to Dan McNally for the submission.  We look forward to hearing how you carry that on throughout 2019 and the long-term response from supporters.

We’d love to hear your examples of showing donor love.  Whether it’s hand-written cards, improvements to stewardship and processes or personal interactions like these, let’s celebrate the ongoing work of amazing fundraisers and charities delighting donors on a daily basis.  Read how to enter here (there’s a cash prize for the best!) – you have until tomorrow!

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We’re halfway through the final week of the #donorlove celebration in partnership with John Lepp; and in true fundraising fashion we’ve got plenty of submissions squeaking in their entries with days to spare as they juggle supporters, #GivingTuesday and the day job.

Today we celebrate Sam Butler and his team at the Tibet Relief Fund.  I’m a huge fan of the submissions that allow us to copy and paste, so in his own words here’s Sam to share how they’re showing a little donor love at TBR:

“All donors receive a thank you. No matter how big or small their donation. Those below £20 get a bespoke email/letter for their first donation. Those giving for a second time receive a unique handwritten TRF thank you card – we change this design quarterly, so that with each appeal, supporters receive a separate card, with a small set of prayer flags.

Supporters giving £50 or more receive a handwritten letter on recycled paper made by a project we support (Cleaning Upper Dharamshala). Depending on their historic interaction, this is written from me or the CEO. This connects the supporters directly with one element of our charitable work, bringing them closer to our beneficiaries by having a tangible letter of thanks on a product that they have helped to support come to fruition. We also sell these products through our Enlightened Gifts shop, which means many supporters come to us at Christmas to purchase stocking fillers made by this project, so it allows us to softly cross sell the products made by our beneficiaries, and improve the funds we have to help supply more micro finance loans for Tibetans to set-up more businesses’ in India and Nepal.”

Not only did the team use the power of the handwritten thank you, they’re keen to use the phone to its full potential too…

“On Black Friday each year (we have just completed our second one), all staff spend the day calling anyone that has donated in the previous 18 months, and have a conversation with those that answer, gaining insight as to why they support TRF. If we don’t get through, we leave a message on their answering machine if they are out, and send a short email of thanks where we can. These insights gathered and recorded in our database. We push out updates on the previous 18 months achievements across social media one week before we make the calls. This year, due to the #YouMadeThisHappen we used that day to do this, and it lead to some really lovely chats with everyone!”

Why we love this:

• All supporters are thanked proving it is possible, and necessary
• Thank yous are changed regularly so they never lose their sparkle; the team don’t have to do this, but they want to
• The thank yous link supporters with the charity in a tangible way that is relevant to their impact
• Updates! We know how important it is to do this; we should be thanking and reporting back more than we ask and it seems TBR are nailing this quota

A massive thank you to Sam and the team for not only sending through today’s submission but for consistently showing supporter appreciation in a way that’s connected to your organisation’s goals.

We’d love to hear your examples of showing #donorlove.  Whether it’s hand-written cards, improvements to stewardship and processes or personal interactions like these, let’s celebrate the ongoing work of amazing fundraisers and charities delighting donors on a daily basis.  Read how to enter here (there’s a cash prize for the best!); you have until Friday November 30th!

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John doesn’t know I’m doing this because if he did, he’d probably tell me not to because he’s wonderfully modest like that.  But how can we co-host a donor love celebration and not include the heartwarming ways that Agents of Good help charities engage with their supporters?

Today’s celebration is a simple one as the document below speaks for itself.  In John’s words,

“This GR (gratitude report) was the result of some great work by our client – the amazing Sarah Lyon of ALZ Ns.

She wanted us to do it but was open to the direction we suggested.

Our objective was simple:

• Create a gratitude report that is filled with donor love, thanking donors for their incredible support!
• Share a story that demonstrates donor impact—how donors make the ALZ NS programs possible
• Help donors feel inspired by the crucial role ALZ plays in the community, and how donors are at the heart of that.

From the start, I knew I wanted this to feel like a part of a person’s life. A sticky, tactile, vibrant, curated photo album. Something created JUST for the donor who was holding it in their hands. The ultimate expression of UN-DESIGN… the best examples of #donorlove ALWAYS look like it was created with someone’s hands and heart…and this is an expression of that.”

Click the image below to read it yourself.

Why I love this:

• Just because you “have to do it”, doesn’t mean it has to be bland
• Notice it’s called a ‘gratitude report’?…
• Every communication is an opportunity to surprise & delight
• You want to read it again and again; how often have you had that with charity letters?

We’d love to hear your examples of showing donor love.  Whether it’s hand-written cards, improvements to stewardship and processes or personal interactions like these, let’s celebrate the ongoing work of amazing fundraisers and charities delighting donors on a daily basis.  Read how to enter here (there’s a cash prize for the best!).  Closing date November 30th 2018.

Thank you to Pamela Grow for the original content on this blog.

And this isn’t an elaborate way to fix the prize money; John isn’t eligible to win, but I wanted to make sure he knew how awesome he is!

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