How to Write Donation Thank You Letters

The first donation you get from someone is often the most difficult.

Donors are taking a leap of faith when agreeing to contribute to your cause, especially if they’re new to your organization.

Getting someone to donate again is far easier, so you should always send thoughtful thank you letters to your donors to keep them informed and engaged in what you’re doing.

In this article, we’ll look at why and how to write donation thank you letters as well as what you should include for increasing their impact.

Book a call with Campaign Deputy and see how you can automate your Thank You emails.

Why Write Donation Thank You Letters?

Writing thank you letters to donors is as important as the donation request letter itself.

By acknowledging someone’s donation, you’re showing your gratitude and increasing their likelihood of giving again.

In addition to showing gratitude, here’s why writing thank you letters is a good idea:

  1. Your donors feel more engaged in your cause and are more likely to want to see it succeed, resulting in more donations.
  2. There are thousands of good causes to give to, so a thank you letter keeps your campaign at the top of your donor’s mind.
  3. Your donor might forward your thank you letter to someone they know who might also want to contribute.
  4. Thank you letters make your donors feel valued, so they’re more likely to want to continue giving to your cause to see it succeed.
  5. Regular communication, like thank you letters, are a great way of nurturing the relationship with your donors so you can bring them along your journey with you.

Writing thank you letters is also good practice for a fundraising organization. 

It’s something donors have come to expect when giving to a cause because it’s their way of keeping track of contributions and how they’re impacting the world.

Now, let’s look at exactly how to write your donation thank you letters.

(3 Steps) How To Write Donation Thank You Letters

It’s always best to keep any communications with donors short and to the point.

They’re already giving their hard-earned money, you don’t want to take up more of their time than necessary.

The first section of your letter is your introduction.

Step 1: Introduction

Your introduction is where you connect with your donor once again.

You should make your thank you letters feel as personal as possible, and you do this with a good introduction.

What to include in your introduction:

  • Always address your letter to your donor using their name (never use generic terms like “Dear Sir/Madam” or “Dear Donor”).
  • If possible, include the amount your donor contributed to your cause to remind them of their donation and the fact that you’re grateful for every penny.
  • Mention your wider purpose to remind donors why they gave in the first place.
  • Acknowledge whether it’s their first donation or if they’re a regular contributor.

Keep your introduction short but impactful.

Here are 2 examples of good introductions:

Example 1 (first donation):

Dear Jessie,

Thank you for your generous contribution of [amount] towards [your cause]. We truly appreciate every bit of help we receive from amazing donors like yourself. Since this is your first donation to [your organization], we wanted to reach out and tell you exactly how you’ve impacted [your goal].

Example 2 (multiple donations):

Dear Sam,

Thank you once again for your generous contribution of [amount] towards [your cause]. With your continued support, [your organization] can keep working towards [your goal] knowing we’re backed by the most amazing donors who want to see us succeed. Your donations are changing lives.

Once you’ve got a short and succinct introduction, it’s time to create the body of your thank you letter.

Step 2: Body

Here you’ll go into more depth, explaining how your most recent donations have been used.

The goal is to give your donor a more complete understanding of how their contribution has impacted your cause, and what it’s allowed your organization to achieve.

Be specific, referencing an individual case to make the benefits as tangible as possible.

Here are 2 examples of how to do this:

Example 1:

Thanks to you, we’ve been able to [help/provide] [benefactor/s] with [benefit]. This means [benefactor/s] can now [achieve goal], this would’ve been impossible without your continued support. 

Example 2:

With your help, more [benefactor/s] are able to [achieve goal] without fear of [disadvantage]. Your donation has [helped/provided] [benefactor/s] with [main benefit], which is only possible with continued support from donors like you who believe in [your cause].

The more specific you can be about the goals achieved because of their donations, the more invested and valued your donor will feel.

Remember, your thank you letter should be short, but nothing is stopping you from linking out to a blog post about your organization’s most recent accomplishments.

This gives your donor an option to read more without the intimidation of a long email.

Step 3: Conclusion

Now that you’ve thanked your donor and explained how their contribution has helped your cause, it’s time to move to your conclusion.

Your conclusion should focus on dealing with any remaining uncertainty your donor might have, and it’s a great way of getting some feedback or input from them (should they have any).

You do this by giving donors a direct contact person in your organization who can answer any questions or concerns they might have, as well as including any relevant links to your website.

Here are 2 examples of how to do this:

Example 1: 

Should you have any questions or would like to know more, feel free to contact [person’s name and title] at [email address]. Or call [him/her] at [phone number] and [he/she] will be happy to speak with you.

Example 2: 

Want to know more about [your cause], our friendly [title], [person’s name] is always available to speak with you. You can contact [him/her] at [email address] or call [phone number].

You’ve now successfully thanked your donor, explained how valuable their contribution is to your cause, and how they can get in touch if they’d like to know more.

Remember, all your thank you letter should be doing is thanking your donor.

Here’s what NOT to do in your donation thank you letters:

  1. Never ask for another donation in your thank you letter. This letter is all about gratitude and maintaining the relationship with your donor. You can always reach out again with a donation request letter.
  2. Don’t wait too long to send thank you letters. Your donor should receive your thank you letter within 2-3 days, or they’ll forget they donated and you’ll lose momentum.
  3. Avoid sending donation receipts in your thank you letters. Once again, your thank you letter is not about their donation, it’s about thanking them for their impact on your cause.
  4. Avoid generic sign-offs like “Regards, [your organization]”. Rather, sign your thank you letter using your name (and title) to make it feel more personal.
  5. Avoid using technical jargon that might confuse your donor. Keep your language as straightforward as possible, so there’s no misunderstanding their impact.

Thanking people for their donations is one of the most overlooked aspects of fundraising.

If you can do it effectively, you’ll increase the chances of building a good relationship with your donors and getting them to give regularly.

Book a call with Campaign Deputy and see how you can automate your Thank You emails.

How To Write Donation Request Letters

Using email to appeal for donations has always been a great way of connecting with potential donors.

It’s a non-intrusive and very scalable outreach technique allowing you to get your message across clearly and easily.

In this article, we’ll give you the perfect framework for writing donation request letters with a few examples to inspire you.

Interested in a demo? Sign up for a short demo.

4 Step Framework for Writing Donation Request Letters

The AIDA writing framework has been used successfully in the commercial space for many years. Allowing consumers to understand the value of an offer and getting them to take action.

We can use the same process when gathering donations for your campaign.

Remember, keep your letters long enough to get your message across but short enough to avoid losing their interest.

You’re not trying to explain every aspect of your campaign, you’re trying to get them to take a specific action – to donate.

Avoid using high-level language that would disconnect your reader from your message. Use a conversational tone so your letter doesn’t sound like a mass-produced corporate newsletter.

Now, let’s get into the only writing framework you’ll ever need for writing amazing donation request letters.

The AIDA framework consists of 4 main parts:

A – Attention

The first step of any donation request letter is capturing your donor’s attention.

You do this in the subject line of your email.

Remember, if you can’t get your donor to open your email then it doesn’t matter how good the rest of it might be. They simply won’t donate to your cause, because they have no idea it exists.

The perfect subject line should be short and intriguing to justify opening your email.

Here are 5 examples to get you started:

  1. What can you afford?
  2. Time is running out
  3. We’re so close
  4. Today is the last day to help
  5. It’s not too late to help
  6. Be a hero today

What to avoid when writing a subject line:

  • Avoid lengthy subject lines
  • Try not to be clickbaity (spam filters can block your emails)
  • Avoid using too many special characters like $ symbols or emojis
  • Don’t use terms that trigger spam filters 

Once you’ve got your donor’s attention and they’ve opened your letter, you move into the interest-building phase.

I – Interest

Here you start building the narrative of your letter.

Interest is built in the first 1 or 2 paragraphs of your letter.

When building interest in your cause or campaign, it’s important to think about how this appeals to your donor and what might stop them from donating their own hard-earned money.

The 4 main reasons people DO NOT donate to a cause are:

  1. They don’t have the money
  2. They prefer volunteering instead
  3. They prefer donating goods or services
  4. They don’t trust the organization

Overcoming these objections is the key to a successful donation request letter.

Here are 2 examples to get you started:

Example 1:

We’ve spent the last [number] years recruiting the most amazing volunteers, and kindly received [products / services / donations] from local businesses like [company name]. However, we need to do more and with your help, we can [your cause / campaign].

We understand it’s not easy giving, especially in a climate where fewer a fewer organizations are backed by good intentions. We aim to change this view by [being transparent / regularly reporting], so you’ll know exactly where your contributions are going.

Example 2:

We want to acknowledge all our volunteers who’ve kindly given their most valuable asset of time towards [your cause / campaign], and companies like [company name] who’ve so generously given of their [products/services/donations] to move our campaign forward.

But now, we need your help. Giving can be difficult, especially when you don’t trust the organization you’re trying to help. We get it, and we’re making efforts to increase [transparency / reporting] of all donated funds, so you’ll never need to question where your contributions are going. 

The only purpose of your introduction is to get donors to read the rest of your request letter.

By overcoming objections you know they already have, you’re earning their attention and eventually their contribution to your cause.

Avoid moving directly into your request or telling them a motivating story.

Nobody opens an email to read a novel, you must get to the point as quickly as possible to maintain their interest.

Once you’ve piqued your donor’s interest, it’s now time to build their desire for giving.

D – Desire

Now that we’ve overcome the objections donors might have, it’s time to start building their desire for your cause.

You do this by outlining what you’ve already managed to do, or what your vision for their contribution might be. Desire is created when the person reading your donation request letter wants to feel part of what you’re doing because they can see the benefit of it in their own mind.

They want to feel like they’re an active participant in the change you’re bringing about, and the best way to do that is by outlining exactly what you’ve got in store for their contribution to your campaign.

When listing these benefits, avoid using large paragraphs of text. It might seem logical to explain each benefit in detail, but you’re more likely to lose your reader’s attention and they’ll close the email.

People don’t like reading large blocks of text, instead, use a skimmable format like bulleted points or numbered steps.

The clearer and to the point you can be, the more likely your donor is to finish reading your message. 

Here are 2 examples to get you started:

Example 1:

We appreciate how busy you might be, so we’re not going to ask you to read about every aspect of our campaign right now. However, we’ll be happy to provide more details should you want to know more.

In summary, here’s what your contribution will be supporting:

  • [Benefit 1]
  • [Benefit 2]
  • [Benefit 3]
  • [Benefit 4]
  • [Benefit 5]

With your help, we can [your cause] and make our combined dream a reality.

Example 2: 

Our campaign has a lot of moving parts, and we know you’re not interested in reading an essay right now. However, should you have the time and want to know exactly what you’ll be helping us achieve you can read more here.

In summary, here are the steps we’re taking to [your cause]:

  1. [Step 1]
  2. [Step 2]
  3. [Step 3]
  4. [Step 4]
  5. [Step 5]

We can only achieve these steps with contributions from kind and giving people like yourself.

Donors will value your succinct message and appreciate the option of requesting more information should they need it.

Remember, to goal is to take up as little of their time as possible because in their eyes this is their most valuable asset. If you value their time, they can be sure that you’ll also value their money.

Now that we’ve successfully captured the interest of our donors and built their desire for getting involved, we need to ask them to take action.

A – Action

When asking your reader to donate, you need to be very specific in your request.

People get confused when they’re presented with too many options, or when the request is to vague.

But how exactly do you ask for a donation in an email?

Make the next step as obvious as possible by instructing them, rather than simply including a link.

Here are 3 examples to get you started:

  1. Click here to give what you can towards [your cause] and help us [main benefit].
  2. We hope you share our vision for [your cause] and want to be involved by donating here.
  3. Take a stand with us by clicking here to [your cause] and creating [main benefit].

Make sure the only links you include from your donation request letter are to your website to provide more context if they need it, or to the contribution page where they can donate.

Don’t include links to your social accounts or pages that might distract your donor from your message.

Your goal is to get their attention, generate interest in your cause or campaign, build their desire for getting involved, and finally get them to take a specific action.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Use the AIDA framework for writing letters to your donors and you’ll see a much higher contribution rate because you’re respecting their time and have a clear path for them to follow.

Interested in a demo on how to create a donation request in Campaign Deputy? Sign up for a short demo.

Facebook iOS 14 changes with ActBlue

With the recent privacy changes with iOS 14 and Facebook we have a solution to track your conversion events with Facebook using our Forms.

Now edit the Thank You Page with your custom message and add a HTML Block with the Javascript code below. Make sure you have already added your Facebook Pixel ID in your setting.

Copy paste the code below in. The /100 is from ActBlue as they pass the value over as total Cents not as a dollar amount, so $21.21 would be 2121 as the amount.

function() {
const actblueParams = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search);
fbq("track", "Purchase", { currency: "USD", value: actblueParams.get("amount")/100 });
})();

For the Javascript developers, we poly-fill the URLSearchParams for Internet Explorer users which makes the code a lot easier to read than parsing out the location.search parameter by hand.

Now redirect your http://act.campaigndeputy.com/thankyou/{formname}?amount={{amount}}&refcode={{refcode}}&name={{name}}

What about custom domains?

Glad you asked, talk to your account manager to get the DNS entries needed. Depending on your account there may be a small up-charge. Someone from your team will need to apply the DNS entries. If you are using SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly or Campaign Partner the DNS change likely will need to be made in those systems. If not, ask who registered the domain at a place like Name.com (preffered), Google Domains, Godaddy, 1&1 or Gandi.

Email Marketing for Campaigns

Political Campaigns ask us “How can we get an open rate higher than 40%?” Segmenting your list, sending to the right audience and sending engaging emails should be part of your long-term strategy. “Batch and blast” emails are no longer effective because email providers will delay, flag and trap senders’ messages and because batched emails are often filtered by users’ smart inboxes.

Personalized Emails to High Engagement Users

Start by segmenting your email lists into two groups: high engagement and low engagement. Send an email to your high engagement lists thanking them for their support before sending it to supporters with lower engagement. Every 90 days, you should further segment your lower engagement list. Remove the email addresses of people who never open your emails. Curating your list will help you achieve a higher open rate.

Email Health

When spam started to become a problem, email providers looked at IP addresses to block spammers and then examined common words/phrases. Now, email providers look at your overall email health based on IP, Domain, and Open Rate. What does a spam email to 5,000 people advertising generic pharmaceuticals and a campaign email to 5,000 disengaged people have in common? They both go to spam. With Machine Learning and A.I. being introduced into Spam Filters, more nuanced details will start to affect email.

How an email provider determines if your email lands in the inbox.

The Good, the Bad, the Bounces

Bounces happen.  People get married. They change jobs. The change internet service providers.. What is important, is starting off with the lowest possible bounce rate. AOL and Yahoo shut off email accounts after 12 months of inactivity. It’s important to check your email list if you haven’t sent to it in a while. An active list from 2 years ago may be a mediocre list today. There are several services that will check your list before you even begin your messaging campaign. Target a bounce rate below 2% for the first email.

First Time Candidates

How do you start an email campaign if you’re a first time candidate? It’s easy, start with your friends and family. They are already on your call sheets, send them an email to help them quickly give online. Do not buy an email list. People will want to contribute to your campaign if they know you and your message. An email from a candidate they’ve never heard of is very similar to an email from a Nigerian Prince. Get a voter file, buy digital ads, and create a “Call To Action” to get capture email and contact info organically from voters who want to hear from you. Use Pixels to re-target website visitors with a “Call to Action”. Build surveys and ask for email address.

Nonprofit Email Marketing

Email Marketing for Political Campaign is similar to Nonprofit Email marketing. For more information, check out Wild Apricot’s The Essential Guide to Nonprofit Email Marketing.

Text and Facebook Messenger for a Campaign Team

Campaigns have similar needs to some companies, scaling out their one-to-one communication across a team, and from one common contact point. Here at Campaign Deputy, we have internally been testing a new tool that allows us to provide Live Chat, Facebook Messenger and Text message support from one tool, and we did not have to build this one, just integrate with it. We have been using Rocket.Chat with Twilio for text messaging, and Facebook Messenger for our Facebook page. We looked at a lot of tools, and with prices approaching $20/user/month, we couldn’t find one we liked until we stumbled upon Rocket.Chat. We Self-Host, because we have the server space, you could to while their plans start at $4/user/month, it makes sense for a campaign to let someone else deal with the hosting.

We of course love the built in live chat, we can trigger custom messages per a page, if they spend more than a minute on a page, you can start to send them custom messages. Maybe a voter lands on your healthcare policy page, you could trigger a message to ask if they had any other questions about health care 2 minutes after they open the page.

Text Messaging is built in with Twilio. You can register a local phone number and integrate it into Rocket.Chat. Volunteers come and go, with one central platform you can keep the conversation going from one phone number and assign your team to built in queues, departments and more. If you are on the go, their mobile web app works great. We did have some issues with their Mobile App for Android, they are aware of the bug, so we encourage anyone to use the app in their web browser until that bug is fixed. A small price to pay for a tool that is 75% cheaper than most competitors, or free if you have an IT team. You do have to pay per a text message, and rates are $0.0075 per a text per Twilio’s pricing guide on January 2019.

This was just another tool we were impressed with and could see the potential for a campaign to use in the age where a strong digital strategy is needed for most campaigns.

Facebook support is easy to setup too. You can follow their documentation to setup the system, we had it setup in about 3 business days.

4Q Email Guidance for your Digital Campaigns

With the Midterms right around the corner, now is a perfect time to fine tune your digital strategy. Below are some quick tips to get your digital campaigns going.

Send to those high open rate subscribers

Sending the same email to all subscribers mixes your message in with those who want to hear it, and those who may put off opening the email. If your open rate is not high enough, this could drag down your engagement metrics in the future. Send separate emails to those highly engaged subscribers, and send it before you send to your larger list.

Watch your subject lines

#govoteonthursdayat8am may not be the best subject line. Keep it short, 3 words are best and personalize it as well to get higher engagement. Mobile phones have small screens, so you won’t get a lot of text out of your subject line before it gets cut off.

Keep track of your audience

If I had a dollar every time a candidate emailed me to vote in their state primary, I would have tacos. Make sure to target your audience to those who can participate. Asking someone to go out and vote in a primary in a state they do not live, is a message that just looks bad and could increase your spam rate.

3 images or less

Keep the number of images low, this helps with Google’s inbox filtering as they use this as part of their algorithms to determine which label to apply and helps the email to load for those on the go mobile users.

Time to Send

Everyone sends at the top of every hour, or 15 minutes before or after. Those times could cause delays in getting your email to the users inbox and cause a “traffic jam” at your subscribers email servers. We see the highest open rates from 9PM-11PM EST on Tuesday with 9PM-11PM on Wednesday of each week. Everyone looks at their phone before they go to bed and clearing out an inbox to start the day fresh. We looked at this data from over 3 million data points, and we were shocked at the numbers too.

 

The Dos and Don’ts of Digital Campaigns

With both Political and Non-profit campaigns, running an effective digital campaign requires knowledge of a lot of areas to have a good digital presence. Here is a list of the Dos and Don’ts of Digital Campaigns.

Don’t

  • Run your email marketing through an @gmail address. Google limits you to 500 messages a day, once reached, you are done for 24 hours. If you need to send out an announcement or call to action, you’re limited to the first 500 supporters in your list.
  • Use BCC to send out email campaigns. This limits personalization and with one mistake, suddenly your entire email list may be in the hands of hundreds of other people.
  • Use the cheapest Web Host for your site. Running a website requires expertise, and having a slow website or one that has downtime could cost you critical donations. We have had to help so many people when these cheap options fail and the support tickets go on for days while a website is down.
  • Use or share username and passwords with your campaign staff.
  • Don’t use an insecure website and accept payments or contributions on the site. This is against against Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulation and increases your liability.
  • Forget to register a domain name.
  • Don’t import an old email list. Every email provider can detect this and will block your emails. This hurts your email repuation. Once it’s gone, it’s hard to recover.

Do

  • Find an email marketing provider to use for your campaign, this requires a domain name.
  • Use an email hosting provider, so that your campaign can respond using your campaign’s brand/domain.
  • Use an SSL certificate to secure your website, this protects anyone’s information when they give a contribution or signup for your email list.
  • Find a good hosting provider with good support options.
  • Personalize your email messages.

 

At Campaign Deputy, we provider email marketing, email hosting, web hosting and a SSL certificate all as part of every package we offer. We monitor everything 24×7 which includes email and phone support. Contact us today to learn more!

 

Fundraising CRM Uses

A Fundraising CRM helps to keep your data organized so that you don’t lose leads, or pledges, while trying to raise the most for your cause.

Pledges

Pledges are the “sales leads” of fundraising with two types, pledge to give, and pledge to raise. Both are critical to fundraising and with our built in pledge tracking, you can keep track of these pledges for both types. Using the build in pledge tracking, you can keep track of the due date, the liklehood of of the pledge, and send email reminders to the person who pledges to your organization. This is a great feature for both political campaigns and non-profits.

Call Time

Everyone gets the same email “Please give X to my Y to help my cause”. Our email inboxes are flooded with these requests. To stand out, call time is the difference. Using our call time manager, there is no more shuffling stacks of paper, you have all the information you need to make a call, connect, take notes, and add pledges all from the same screen. We have some users who spend 4+ hours on just this one page in Campaign Deputy!