Acknowledgement Letters: Three Do's and a Don't

Suzanne Bellanger
Manager, Direct Marketing & Strategic Stewardship
Brown University

One of the most critical components of a fundraising program for any non-profit is the proper stewardship of its donors. Thoughtful stewardship fosters deeper relationships and builds a case for continued support by demonstrating appreciation for and impact of your donors’ financial investment in your organization. Your supporters should feel valued from their very first gift, no matter the size. A stewardship plan that provides a cycle of acknowledgement, recognition and cultivation will keep a donor engaged and make them feel like they are an essential member of your community.

A strong stewardship program nurtures lifelong relationships that connect donors to your organization in meaningful ways, communicates the impact of giving to your donors, and allows you to be intentional and proactive. And, most importantly, it helps secure ongoing support.

Research conducted by Cygnus Applied Research, Inc. confirms that donors need three things from non-profits in order to continue their support:

1. A prompt, thoughtful acknowledgment of their gifts;
2. Reassurance that their gifts will be used for meaningful intent;
3. A report detailing how their last gift was used before being asked to give again.

Donor-focused stewardship is accomplished through timely and appropriate execution of these three key deliverables. All of these are important in equal measure, but acknowledgements in particular are essential building blocks that help set the stage for other stewardship efforts.

Your gift acknowledgement needs to pack a powerful punch. How can you ensure that it does?

Make it Timely

An acknowledgement letter is most likely one of the first correspondences a donor will receive after they make a gift. How—and when—it’s presented will define how the donor perceives your level of appreciation. Therefore, you should send it as soon as you can and make it as personal as you can. Best practices call for an acknowledgement letter to be ready for mailing within 72 hours of receiving a gift. Depending on the size and scope of your team, this may not be feasible. In my shop, in the months where have a large volume of donations, we may not be able to get a card in the mail for a week or more after we’ve processed a gift, so we have an automatic thank you email that’s deployed within two days to cover the gap. The email never replaces the acknowledgement letter—it just helps provide reassurance that the gift has been received and processed correctly.

Make it Personal

It’s not just timing that’s important. The look, feel and message of the acknowledgement are all critical as well. If your shop is small enough, you might consider handwriting a brief note on a postcard. Something that personal resonates much better than a longer, highly detailed form letter would. If you’re a larger shop with a higher volume of donations to acknowledge, you can still make the correspondences feel extremely personal. We have recently moved to using an auto-pen technology which allows us to send “handwritten” notes to our donors that look authentic. The notes are very short and simply stated but they really look and sound as though they were written for the donor personally by a staff member. The auto pen technology is really great- it’s not the fake laser-printed “handwriting” of days past. It uses a real pen to simulate real handwriting (either yours or one you choose from a selection of templates) which makes a huge difference in producing an authentic looking letter. It’s not an inexpensive method, and it does have some limitations (it can only be used for very short notes with 60 words or less) but for small batch thank you notes, it’s perfect.

If your organization doesn’t have access to or a budget for auto-pen technology, there are other ways to design acknowledgements that are highly personal. Always, always, always address your donors by name. I can’t stress that enough. There’s nothing that seems less sincere or thoughtful than a note that starts with “Dear Friend” or “Loyal Supporter.” Follow the salutation with a thank you and try including a personal anecdote about why the signer is so passionate about supporting your organization. Hearing why someone else continues to give can be a really compelling motivator for others to continue to give. A signer can be anyone within the organization, like a stewardship officer or director, or it can be a volunteer, who is personally connected to the organization. If you have staff members or volunteers who are really visible or well known in your community of supporters, ask them to sign the letter.

Make it Impactful          

Though the acknowledgement letter should be short, you should still find a way to acknowledge at least one way the donor’s gift will impact your organization. Try to include something specific if possible. What will the gift help fund? How will it be used? Try to feature someone or something that the gift directly affected or mention some way that it helped further your mission. You can be brief, but provide some detail that helps the donor visualize how the gift will be used.

But whatever you do…

Don’t include tax compliance information or anything that makes the acknowledgement feel like a receipt. That’s what the gift receipt is for, and that should be a separate correspondence. The acknowledgement letter’s sole purpose should be to show appreciation for the gift in a way that sets the stage for a continued and mutually rewarding relationship between your donors and the organization. If you feel strongly about only sending one initial correspondence, consider including an insert with the acknowledgement letter that serves as the gift receipt and includes all the legally required information. That way the letter stays personal, but the correspondence fulfills both requirements.

Start Strong, Finish Strong

Incorporating a solid acknowledgement letter process into your overall stewardship plan helps build lasting relationships with your donors that encourage ongoing support. In fact, it is one of the most critical elements of your stewardship communications plan because it’s one of the first correspondences your donor will receive. Thoughtful, well executed acknowledgement of a gift helps ensure it will be the first of many. If you are looking to improve how you communicate with your donors, start with the acknowledgement letter. Any investment you make in that part of your plan will pay off in spades.