That’s what I asked my daughter after her birthday party before she could spend the gift cards generous friends, aunts and uncles had given her. And that’s what I’m going to ask you before you spend the money generous donors have given you.

No, a generic form letter doesn’t count. Your donors didn’t write a check to “worthy organization” and send it in the mail, hoping it arrived at the right place. They took the time to make a donation, be it online, by check, or with a credit card, to support your cause and your organization. You need to thank them, by name, personally.

All correspondence with your supporters should be printed on professional quality letterhead. The thank you letter should feature the donor’s name, the gift amount, and the area where the gift will be used. First time donors should also be reminded of your organization’s mission statement and be welcomed into the “family” of supporters.

Not all thank you notes should be the same, though they can share certain elements and pieces of news. Create a series of notes appropriate for your different types of gifts that will be used for a given period of time (about a month). For example, acknowledgment of a gift to a Capital Campaign should be different than your letter responding to a gift for child sponsorship, and so on.

At the bottom of your thank you letter, preferably in a perforated section, be sure to include the official receipt for the gift. If you print on legal paper, you can also include a simple reply card, based on the donor’s gift amount, to make it easy for them to send another gift. But don’t do this for your high level donors — if you don’t know why, ask me and I’ll be happy to explain it in more detail.

Your highest level donors should receive a handwritten thank you card from the Executive Director or President of your organization at least twice a year or after each gift. The actual gift amount for this category varies widely and depends on your organization’s budget and giving levels. Typically, I suggest my clients pick the top 50 to 100 donors for this category. It’s difficult to handwrite many more thank you notes than that. Again, this should be sent on an official note card and could even be followed up with a phone call for the most exceptional gift amounts

Finally, Emily Post says,

“Get those notes written as soon as possible. But don’t be embarrassed by a note sent a bit late, even a month after the gift was received. It’s far better to send a late note than no note at all.”

She’s right, on all accounts. For nonprofits, “as soon as possible” should be within 72 hours. Studies have shown that organizations who acknowledge gifts within 72 hours are considerably more likely to receive subsequent gifts from their donors. Everyone likes to feel appreciated, and sending prompt thank yous also sends the message that you are organized, efficient, and worthy of support.

For help with creating a strong thank you program, contact us at Turnbull Marketing Group. We’re feeling especially grateful these days.

Some people are Type A, some are Type B. I’ve even heard of Type Z people (don’t ask — I don’t remember). The point is that people are different. Some thrive on organization, others on chaos. Ok, so maybe “chaos” is a little harsh. At least it helps you see where I stand on the spectrum.

I am the type who needs organization. I don’t ever quite achieve it, mind you, but I need it. I am constantly in search of tricks and tips to keep my office, my business, and my life in order.

Nonprofits are like people, perhaps because they’re run by, well, people. Some nonprofits build their organizational infrastructure first. They are obsessed with record keeping and details. Others plow ahead into their area of service, only later stopping to think about how they’re going to keep it all straight. Logic and heart drive both camps. There very well may be a time and place for the entire spectrum.

But growth, my friends, is a definite time for organization. If you want to increase your revenue and build a stronger donor base you absolutely positively must be organized. You cannot, or at the very least, should not, write to your donors if you don’t know who they are, what interests them, and how much they can give. That is a disaster waiting to happen. If you want to make friends with your donors, you have to know them.

You’re allowed to thrive on chaos. Go ahead, keep the sticky notes around your computer monitor. File your papers vertically on a corner of your desk. Clutter your world. But please, please, please get your donor records in good order. No fundraising effort will work right until you do.

There are a number of options available to all sizes of nonprofits. Some are more affordable than others. Some are more effective than others. (And there isn’t always a direct cost to effectiveness ratio.) You can start with a simple spreadsheet, but as soon as you grow to about 1,000 donors, this will become very cumbersome and quite ineffective. Microsoft Access is powerful and affordable, but it will require a strong combination of fundraising and programming knowledge to have it work for you. And then, there are 3rd party software providers. These will cost you some money, but they will also make you money. Again, there’s a broad range of price and effectiveness.

The right fundraising and donor management software will provide at minimum:

1. Ways to record your donors’ contact and giving history, including average gift amount, largest gift amount, and date of last gift
2. A summary of YTD giving for individual donors and overall donors
3. A tagging system to help identify donors and their relationship to your organization
4. A way to track those who wish to give monthly (or even quarterly or annually)
5. Pledge tracking
6. A way to tie gifts to their source (your June appeal, your annual banquet, a personal phone call)
7. Integration with thank you letters.

Here’s a brief summary of some of the more popular options out there. At the end, I’ll give you my recommendation.

• Blackbaud Fundraising Software — These are the heavy hitters in the industry. They offer big solutions to a wide range of nonprofits. They’re on the high end of the price spectrum, but their software is powerful. The Raiser’s Edge is their most popular database solution for fundraising. Features include contact management, reporting, and automating processes. Pricing is based on the modules you choose.
• eTapestry — This is one of the hottest, most talked about new database solutions for nonprofits. Completely web based, eTapestry is based on a series of optional modules so you can customize your product. One of the options includes allowing donors to create online accounts so they can login and see their giving history. eTapestry was recently purchased by Blackbaud and follows the modular pricing model.
• Telosa Software — They offer two versions of their donor management software, Exceed!. A full-featured version gives you all the bells and whistles. A pared-down, basic version gives you the essentials at a very affordable $499, and offers integration with Quick-Books.
• DonorPerfect — These guys are the second largest donor management software provider in the industry. Blackbaud is their biggest competitor, and they’re not shy with how they feel about that. Politics aside, DonorPerfect offers a mid-cost, full-featured solution for nonprofits. Their product has rich reporting capabilities, and upon purchase programmers work with you to customize your screens. It will cost upwards of $5,000, but DonorPerfect claims that its clients see an average increase of 21% in gifts from their donors the first year alone.

My recommendation should be clear from the brief descriptions above. DonorPerfect finds a solid balance between product and price, and its customer service is excellent. They make the transition process fairly painless (no transition is pain-free), and the customization of your screens and fields is a definite plus. You pay for it, but if you learn to use it correctly, DonorPerfect will be a very wise investment.

To learn more about selecting fundraising software, visit this great article by Duff Batchelder at TechSoup.

If you don’t make it easy for your donors to give online, you’re making a big mistake. A huge mistake. A ginormous mistake. You get the point.

A recent article from csmonitor.com tells how online giving is increasing, both among young donors and wealthy donors who are often plugged into the Internet to do modern-day business. To make it even better, first-time donations given online tend to be 1.5 times larger than first-time donations given through direct mail.

You probably don’t want to throw away your direct mail program any time soon. But you do need to start building up your online fundraising program - today. Learn more by reading the whole article: Donors warm up to online giving | csmonitor.com

Need help establishing a strong online giving program? Turnbull Marketing Group can help. Contact us today.

Everybody in fundraising knows that you need to stay in touch with your donors to make sure they stay in touch with you through giving and other vital support. And if someone in fundraising doesn’t know that, they should learn it quickly or get out fast.

But good communication requires more than a monologue. Good communication needs to involve both sides. It also needs to arrive in a desired format. Let your donors choose how they want to hear from you. Some prefer mail. Others prefer e-mail. And still others may want to chat on the phone. A few may even want to talk to you through blogs and social networking spaces such as Facebook and MySpace.

Diversifying your communications is best. People should hear from you in a variety of ways — this helps keep your message fresh and ensures that you don’t get looked over in the pile of information that arrives every day. But it’s also important to focus your communication in a way that is pleasing to your donors.

Let each donor choose how s/he wants to hear from you. And then communicate regularly with that donor in that way. If some of your donors prefer email, use it. They’re helping you reduce your printing and mailing costs while telling you that they want to hear from you! What’s not to love about that? But if another donor prefers paper, don’t force him to read about you online.

Of course, to keep it all straight, you need a good database to organize your donor information. We’ll write more about that another week.

For now, think how you can better share your message with your donors in the format that most appeals to them. Have you ever asked them what they want?

We are living in times of hyper-customization. Nobody wants to feel like a number. And, of course, your donors are far more than numbers to you. So let them know that by talking to them in their own language.

That’s a mandate, not an exclamation. To grow your donor base you can’t just attract new donors; you have to keep them. In industry speak this means you have to have to convert your donors. No altar call necessary. What is necessary is to make your newly acquired donors feel so welcome that they couldn’t possibly think of leaving early, or even at all.

Several factors go in to welcoming new donors, and they aren’t unlike welcoming new guests into your home (with the important exception, of course, that you do want your guests to leave — eventually).

1. Invite them into a neat, organized, and attractive space. People feel more comfortable when they aren’t surrounded by your dirty laundry, stacks of last year’s newspapers, and smelly shoes. The same goes for your new donors. Before you invite them to be a part of your organization, make sure your public space is neat, organized, and attractive. This includes any published materials such as brochures, handouts, or business cards as well as your web site. A neat and well-designed site will allow new donors to feel comfortable enough to linger and really get to know you.
2. Thank them for coming. It takes effort, time, and resources to go to a new place. People often must leave their comfort zone to enter yours. Acknowledge this and thank them for it. And when you’re done, thank them again. It’s virtually impossible to thank your new donors too much — that is, if you’re sincere and heartfelt in your thanks. Don’t shout to a room full of guests “Thank you everyone for coming.” The silent ending to that declaration is “now please go home.” You do go to each one of your guests, acknowledging them as individuals, and say “Thank you very much for coming.” Do the same thing for your donors. Acknowledge their gift, what they gave to, and what this means to your organization’s mission.
3. Let them get to know you. You don’t have to introduce your kids to your oldest friends every time they come over for coffee. But you should introduce your children, and make several references to their names throughout the evening, to your new guests. You also probably don’t have to keep telling your brother what it is you do for a living, but you can’t expect your new neighbors to know your life’s story. The same goes for your organization and your many areas of service. Make reference to them. Explain what you do and why you do it. Give some history. You don’t have to do it all at once, but use every communication with your new donors as an opportunity to share a little more about your organization and its mission.
4. Finally, stay in touch. If you invite new guests into your home and you’d like to get to know them better, you need to stay in touch. Contact your new donors frequently. You don’t need to wake them up at 2 a.m. and pester them, but you do need to stay present in their day to day routine. Send them an email. Write them a letter. Send a postcard. Thank them. And if they don’t write you back, let them know (nicely) that you’ve noticed. New donors need to hear from you frequently.

When do your new guests become old friends? That’s up to you to decide. But industry surveys show that once you’ve received 3 gifts from a person, they are more than three times as likely to give again to your organization. That sounds like a good friend to me.

That’s the first step to any successful direct mail appeal. You can have a compelling letter, well-designed reply device, and a make-it-easy reply envelope, but if people don’t open the package, it’s all for naught.

People may not judge a book by its cover, but they do judge whether or not to open your appeal based on its envelope. To make your first impression, you have a broad range of envelopes sizes to choose from: standard #10, 6×9, 9×12, or a variety greeting card sizes, to name a few.

One of the simplest strategies to stand out from the crowd of bills and (gasp) junk mail is to always include a teaser on the outside of your packaging. The teaser is a simple, short phrase designed to, well, tease your potential donors and encourage them to look inside.

But to further intrigue your potential donors and boost your open rates, think outside the box, or envelope, rather. The carrier, or the packaging you use to send your appeal, can be virtually anything mailable. Here are some ideas to pique your creativity and your donors’ curiosity:

• Lunch-size paper bag - This is especially appropriate for an appeal about a school feeding program or other school-related ask. The bag is tabbed on one end and usually addressed with a label. Who doesn’t want to look inside of that? The downside is that you pay a small premium on mailing it. Contact your local postmaster to get an estimate on the postage.
• Tube - This works well for sending large-format pieces. For example, if you want to send your best donors a large, frame-worthy photograph relating to your work, this is sure to be opened. Again, postage can be a bit of a drag on tubes, so check with your postmaster first.
• Box with holes - If you’re an organization that works with animals, this will make a real impact. The teaser on the top could read: Inside: One puppy who needs a forever home. Of course, you don’t really send the puppy — but you do send a beautiful photograph of the puppy with a heartwarming story. For your highest level donors, you could even include an adorable stuffed toy puppy. (If you work for a wildlife preserve, replace puppy with ferocious lion cub, or other appropriate, cute animal.)
• Simple, flat box — This would work well for almost any mailing, but can readily be tied into an organization’s mission. For example, if you work with homeless people, the teaser can read: You are holding Natalie’s home in your hands. Inside, you would include photos and a story to communicate your need.

The options are really fairly endless. But this should get you started. If you want to think outside the envelope and produce a high-impact mailing, contact us today. We’re happiest when we’re helping you help others.

In my last post, I talked about the basic pieces you need to include for a successful appeal. Next to the letter itself, the reply device is one of the most important parts of an appeal. It’s what encourages an appropriate response from donors and facilitates their donation.

To make things simpler on you, we created a sample reply device for you and then picked it apart, explaining what each piece means and why you should include it. You can download the Anatomy of a Reply from our web site.

If you want help designing your own reply device or putting together an effective appeal, contact us today. Nothing makes us happier than to help you help others.

Facebook, My Space, Second Life and other social media are fast becoming the “hip” way for nonprofits to communicate their message to a broad range of donors. Most of the options for fundraising are inexpensive, if not free, and they are cutting edge. They are exciting. And they are completely unproven.

This is not to say that they are not worth pursuing. They are very worthy, indeed. In fact, I’ll be writing about how to use social media for fundraising, and I hope you’ll visit to learn all about it. But these methods simply should not form the core of your organization’s fundraising efforts.

Direct Mail has been taken through the wringer. It has proven itself time and again to be a faithful vehicle for communication between donors and nonprofit organizations. But to be effective, it must be done right. And in today’s world of electronic media, fewer and fewer people know how to use paper the right way.

There are a few basic things you need to know before using the Post Office to deliver your appeal to donors, not the least of which is what to include. The pieces are very simple, really:

• Carrier: (aka OE) This is what everything fits into. The most standard carrier is a #10 business envelope, but you can get really creative. We’ll offer more ideas in future posts.
• Appeal letter: 2-4 pages (longer letters typically bring in a higher response and larger average gift)
• Reply device: This is almost as important as the letter itself. The reply device is usually 1/3 the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, or 8.5 x 3.67 inches. The format varies widely, but the 3-up design is the most economical and works well.
• Reply envelope: (aka RE) The front should feature your logo and the address where you want the donation sent. A bar code at the bottom is a kindness to the Post Office and helps ensure that your replies are delivered quickly. If you use the 3-up design mentioned above, a #9 envelope will work perfectly for this job. And it fits snugly inside the #10. Visit next week to see the anatomy of a reply envelope and download your own free sample.

Of course, if you include all the right pieces but write a crappy letter, you won’t get very far with your donors. To learn more about how to write a good appeal, check out our series on this:

Selling Your Cause

Believe (in) Me!

We NEED Your Help

We Need YOUR Help

You can also download some sample fundraising letters from our website.

Want to talk more about appeals? Call us at 919.741.5072 or send us a note.

I haven’t posted lately on the No Bull Fundraising Blog, because I’ve been thinking about the direction the blog should go. Our ultimate goal at Turnbull Marketing Group is to serve you and help you help others (for real). So we want the information to be truly helpful. Since we can’t cover everything in one place and have it be of any use to anyone, we’ve decided to break things up.

In June, we are starting a monthly No Bull Fundraising eNewsletter, to compliment the No Bull Fundraising Blog. The eNewsletter will cover more advanced topics of fundraising, such as testing, analysis, designing an effective package, choosing the right list, keeping track of your donors… You get the idea.

The blog will now dedicate itself primarily to fundraising basics such as how and when to write an appeal, what to include in your newsletter, or how to set up a fundraising program. And, of course, we’ll still include sample fundraising letters from time to time.

It’s free and easy to sign up for the eNewsletter. Just click here, or visit any of the pages at www.tbullgroup.com and click on the yellow sticky note. We won’t give away, sell, share, or even whisper your email address to others. Promise.

To keep up to date on our blog, sign up for the RSS feed, or bookmark us.

Everyone loves a party. Well, almost everyone. At least everyone I like to hang out with.

So if you want to improve your donor relations, increase your local profile, and get some positive press, throw a party.

It’s no secret that I am a fan of direct mail fundraising, both email and postal mail — I love it. Can’t get enough of it. I think letters are the only tried and true, sustainable way to grow your nonprofit. But let’s face it people, nothing gets someone as excited as a party.

Fundraising events have been around since the dawn of the nonprofit for two simple reasons: they work and they’re, well, fun. But why do they work? That’s the important question.

Events work because they require interaction from your potential donors. The guests show up, meet real live people, see the results of your work, and get excited. Then, they get involved. And they typically stay involved.

Some nonprofits try to run far, far away from events. They’re too expensive, too much work, and they don’t bring in enough cash — those are all reasons (or excuses) I’ve heard time and again. But none of them are true.

• An event is as expensive (or not) as you want to make it.
• It doesn’t have to be a lot of work — that’s why you have volunteers.
• If an event pays for itself (or almost does), then it brings in enough cash.

Huh? you say. Did I lose you on the last point? Let me say it again: If an event pays for itself (or almost does), then it brings in enough cash. The guests at your event are a captive audience. They actually paid to go and be encouraged to give more money. That means they’re very interested in you. Now all you have to do is make friends with them and keep them engaged. In the long run, the event will lead to stronger donor relations and result in increased giving.

Events are also a terrific way to promote referral acquisition. Referral acquisition could also be called viral acquisition. This is where your donors, the invitees, bring a guest to learn more about your exciting cause.

Engaging the guests in your mission is the key to your event’s success. Your mission — not their checkbooks — is the focus of the event. The checks will follow in due time.

So throw a party and have some fun. Next week, we’ll offer some ideas of creative events that will get your donors talking — and giving.

Need help planning your event or designing your invitations? Turnbull Marketing Group is happy to help. Contact us today and see how we help you help others