To thank or not to thank. That’s the question of the day.
I’ve been a fundraiser or a fundraising consultant for 20 years now, and this last week I found myself shocked and angered by a conversation on social media.
At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, I chose to give donations to 10 different organizations. I took to LinkedIn this past week to share my experience in giving and the follow-up from the charities I supported. The post has now been viewed more than 13,000 times and accumulated 85 comments. Clearly it hit a nerve.
In case you don’t want to go over to LinkedIn to read that post, what I shared was that after 30 days, only two of the 10 organizations had even acknowledged my gift. I went further to offer a half dozen or so tips for how organizations should approach stewardship, or risk their philanthropic supporters walking away.
Here’s what surprised me about this. Several people responded, both publicly and privately, chastising me for “imposing my expectations” onto hard-working charities as it relates to stewardship. One respondent went so far as to suggest that the heart of my statement was akin to:
Please grovel at my feet for my gift. Spend time customizing the [thank you] letter to make me feel good rather than focusing on your clients and your mission.
This attitude is baffling to me. It betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of how philanthropy works, why people give to charity, that donor experience (i.e., how you treat supporters) is directly tied to trust and loyalty. In fact, Lisa Greer over at Philanthropy 451 shared recently that the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020 found that only 50 percent of Americans even trust NGO’s to “do what is right” at this point. The reason that fewer and fewer people trust charities is because as a sector (there are exceptions, for sure), we are delivering pretty terrible experiences to donors, volunteers, and sometimes even those we serve. This attitude also shows me that there’s a lack of understanding of what it takes to build relationships with philanthropic supporters…not to mention that it reflects a basic lack of respect for others.
If you’re offended at the idea that you should appropriately show gratitude and appreciation for those who freely give of their hard-earned resources to support your cause, mission, or organization, then I’ve got an important message for you…
You don’t deserve even a dollar of their support.
If your mentality is that you deserve donor support because you’re doing important work and it offends you when a donor expresses that they have an opinion about what “appropriate” gratitude and recognition should look like, I’ve got another message for you…
As well meaning and mission focused as you might be, you’ll doom yourself and your organization to obscurity, smallness, and inability to ever achieve anything significant — because that attitude of entitlement will keep you from ever building deep and meaningful relationships with individuals and organizations that can help you scale and who can help fund the impact you’re looking to make.
I’m not suggesting that your organization has to bow to any donor request, engage in any type of inappropriate quid pro quo activity, or the like. I am, however, suggesting that if it offends you to think that you need to consider the donor in your business model and activities, it’s likely that the donor and her expectations aren’t your actual problem…
Let’s dialogue…if you think I’m being overly sensitive, or you are one of those people who thinks it’s an overreach for a donor to expect a thoughtful and sincere note of appreciation for their gift, I’d love for you to drop a note here and explain your position. Name calling and mud slinging will get deleted immediately. But I welcome an honest conversation…
Great article- I wouldn’t be surprised if they ones who did not thank your gift have already done the analysis that could show that thanking low $$ donors results in a negative ROI. So these nonprofits could be asking themselves, “Why thank them at all?”
Hi Jon – Thanks for your response. I do think you’re right about some orgs. I have seen a number of them (some small, some quite large) that have done this analysis and decided they won’t receipt below a certain level. The gifts I gave were each $25, which typically is large enough to warrant a thank you letter. In my experience (though not exhaustive, for sure), most orgs that make this decision about initial gift amounts usually say that they won’t receipt for gifts below $5 or below $10. There is a big move right now to just go digital because of the assumed preference of donors (without really understanding the connection between what channel drives the behavior and what channel captures the gift), and because of the assumed cost savings (without factoring in the potential revenue lost over time). Thanks again for your input!
During this time of dislocation, fear, and trauma, nonprofits are struggling mightily. The pandemic and economic collapse constitute an existential threat. There’s no guarantee that the public will receive our services, now or in the future, or that staff members—the face and heart of every organization will retain their jobs. Everything is uncertain. Everyone is on edge.