6 Keys to Rock Thank You Calls and Retain More Donors

I just want to let you know… Your gift meant so much. Thank you!

You’ve got to make donor retention more of a priority. It’s one of the top five things your nonprofit must do to survive and thrive in today’s competitive nonprofit marketplace.

Research shows the average nonprofit in the U.S. loses 77% of donors after the first gift!!!!!

To make matters worse, the probability that a donor will make five consecutive gifts is only 10-15%. These numbers are just not sustainable for most organizations. By the time you’ve added a new donor most of your previous new donors are out the door.

Allow that to sink in a moment.

Do you know what your donor retention rate is? If you do, there’s hope for you to improve it. Read on. If you don’t, you don’t even know there’s something that needs fixing!

You’ve got to fix the leaky bucket.

Whichever situation you’re in, I’ll bet you can do much better.

You can fix things with the power of just two words:

THANK. YOU.

At least if you want repeat gifts. So… if you say you can’t afford to spend a lot of resources on a vigorous donor acknowledgment and stewardship program, I say WHAT? You can’t afford not to.

Developing a robust gratitude program is the most important thing you can do to retain and upgrade donors.

Today I’d like to talk about one of the most under-utilized ways of thanking donors. Yet it’s probably the method that has the most lasting impact.

Are your ears perked up? This is something that, if you do it, you’ll really stand out. In a good way.

And the ends will more than justify the means. You’ll raise more money. Guaranteed.

Want to know what it is?

THE FOLLOW-UP THANK YOU PHONE CALL.

It’s your secret weapon!

Sending a thank you letter for a gift may sound easier than making a call, but for many donors it may be well worth it to pick up the phone to say thank you — in addition to sending a letter before or after.

If you’re a doubter, allow me to clue you in to a famous experiment by Penelope Burk, author of Donor-Centered Fundraising. In a test with board members calling to thank donors within 48 hours, those called gave an average of 39% more than those not called – and they gave 42% more even after 14 months! Calls, it seems, have a real lasting value.

This research has been recently confirmed, and it’s definitely something I’d recommend you test for yourself.

Let’s break it down into a 6-step planning/execution process:

1. Who to call
2. Who should make the call
3. When to call
4. How to call
5. What to say
6. Next steps

1. Who to call

People often ask me who should be targeted to receive these calls. After all, you can’t call everyone. Can you?

The answer to this question is: It depends. Bloomerang conducted an experiment to see how 50 randomly selected nonprofits in the Indianapolis-metro area responded to their first-time $5 gifts. Not a single nonprofit of 50 called to thank the new Bloomerang donors. In fact, only 38% asked for a phone number! Folks, you want to be able to communicate easily with your donors.

Ask for phone numbers on your response devices and donation pages!

As you can see from this experiment, you’ll definitely stand out if you call to say thank you.

If you’re a small nonprofit, calling every single donor may be your best way to begin to build your donor base. What better way to get to the point where you’ve too many donors to call all of them?!

You need to wow folks and impress upon them not just how grateful you are but how efficient and on top of things you are. The more you build trust, the more you’ll build a relationship. Then these donors will be more likely to stay with you, and you won’t simply be churning donors in and out — keeping a static mailing list.

I know, you’re thinking smaller gifts don’t merit a call; this experiment was just for a $5 gift.

Suppose it was a $100 gift. Would you call to thank then?

I always made sure first-time donors of $100+ got calls. I tested calls to a percentage of first-time donors below that amount, and would encourage you to do so as well. [Confession: I never ended up with anything definitive showing this was worth/not worth the effort. Why? Staff got busy and didn’t follow through, thinking it wasn’t that important for these small donors. Right? Wrong!]

Here’s a mantra borrowed from Penelope Burk of Donor-Centered Fundraising, with my italics added:

“Treat every donor like a major donor when you can.”

Of course, it isn’t always practical to call every donor. In that case, you can prioritize your calls in an order that makes sense for your organization.

I like to call donors at your major gift level (e.g., $1,000+), first-time donors (especially at $100+), donors who make a significant increase and donors who reach a cumulative giving milestone.

I also like to call monthly donors at least annually, just to connect and thank them for their special loyalty.

I also recommend testing a random sampling of your mid-level donors – those you wish to upgrade – to see if this results in renewals at a higher level.

ACTION TIP: Subscribe to Clairification and grab your free “Donor Thank You Calls E-Book + Script” for a suggested order of priority for “must call” donors and some ideas of donor segments you might test.

2. Who should make the call

Use anyone you can – provided they’ll be genuine and passionately grateful – to makes these calls. Board members love to do this, and this has the added benefit of getting them used to talking with donors – a great way to ease them into making fundraising calls.

If you can’t find board members, consider having beneficiaries make these calls. This creates a lovely tangible link between the donor’s gift and its outcome.

ACTION TIP: Be pragmatic. I’ve found folks are quite happy to receive a timely call from a staff member, as long as the caller doesn’t sound like they’re robotically checking a task off their ‘to do’ list. If this is the only way to assure your call is made within 48 hours, by all means assign the calls to donor-friendly staff.

3. When to call

It’s best to do so within a month of the gift. After that it is more likely to be perceived as an additional solicitation. For new donors and significantly upgraded gifts, I like to stick to the 48-hour rule.

ACTION TIP: Plan ahead for immediate calls from board members after an event. Remember: Penelope Burk’s research shows that a board member calling to thank a supporter within 48 hours of a donation can result in a 39% increase in giving next year. That’s all well and good, but in practice it’s hard to make that happen. The calls get assigned, but they don’t get made. Or they get made too late. So how about picking a date when you know you’ll have a lot of gifts and can plan ahead to bring your board together to make calls? For auctions, thank donors who give more than the fair market value of auction items and those who buy fund-a-need items that are really just a donation.

4. How to call

You can make thank you calls as an organized group endeavor — a “thankathon” (with refreshments, of course!) or you can simply make individual assignments. The benefit of the former is that you assure the calls get made, and you can conduct a training beforehand to help folks feel confident with what they should say. It’s also a fun, feel-good experience for everyone involved. The benefit of the latter is that it’s convenient – but you’ve got to follow up with your callers to find out the outcomes!

ACTION TIP: Pull together a small committee to make thank you calls on a regular basis. This can be a “Thankathon Committee” or simply a subcommittee of your development committee or volunteer guild who agree to take on regular assignments.

5. What to say

Every call will be different. The core of what you say, however, will be the same.

“Hi Joe, this is Claire working for Beloved Charity, and I just called to say how much we appreciate your recent gift to support our Important Program!”

Brief. To the point. With a smile on your face (this will put a smile in your voice). The greatest impact of this call comes from its purity. Donors are pleasantly surprised that you’ve called simply to express gratitude and that you don’t want anything else from them.

ACTION TIP: If you don’t reach your donor, leave a message. It’s silly to waste the time/energy you took to make the call. Try again one more time because research shows retention is better when you speak with a live person. Be pragmatic though. If you know you won’t have the time to try again within a two-day timeframe, leave a message now. Keep it short. No one wants to come home to a long, rambling voice mail. But they’ll be pleased with a brief, warm thank you message.

[Get a complete outline, including the 6 most important elements of a great thank you call, in my free “Donor Thank You Calls E-Book + Script”]

6. Next steps

Make a record.

Whether you just leave a voicemail or have a live conversation with a donor, you want to make a note of the results and record them in your database. Remember, the goal of building ongoing relationships is to show donors you know them. Once they’ve told you something, they expect you to remember! If you assign the calls to volunteers or other staff, make sure they report back to you with the results of their calls. It’s your responsibility to make sure this information is captured so that you can become more and more donor-centered as you build your relationships.

Do what you said you’d do, and do it NOW.

This seems obvious, but sometimes there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Maybe you got to chatting and promised to send your donor some information. Or perhaps the donor told you about someone who is recently deceased. If your job is to call, but it’s someone else’s job to follow up, make sure this doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

ACTION TIP: Don’t forget to record the simple fact that this donor received a call, especially if you’re doing a test to determine if it’s worth devoting more time/resources to making thank you calls. Only by measuring results will you know if those who were called performed better (renewed at higher percentage rates and/or higher dollar levels) than those who were not called.

THE SPONTANEOUS THANK YOU CALL

To really boost donor retention requires an organization-wide culture in which you channel an attitude of gratitude all year long.

This is where spontaneous phone calls come in. Think of it as planned “random acts of kindness.” In other words, you may not know in advance specifically what you’re going to do or who you’re going to call, but you do have the intention to do something to keep the love flowing and solidify your donor relationships.

As you develop your annual strategic development plan, incorporate a number of gratitude strategies. Here’s one idea:

ACTION TIP: Set aside 15 minutes on your calendar every day just to make thank you calls. Rack your brain (if you must) to come up with someone who did something for you. It may be another person on your staff. It may be a vendor. It may be a donor’s administrative assistant. And, of course, don’t forget your donors! Use these calls to get to know folks and to let them get to know you.

Want to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude?

Grab my Attitude of Gratitude Donor Guide. You’ll learn what donors really want from you, with specifics on precisely how to give it to them.

SPECIAL BONUS: The more you rock your donor acknowledgement, the better you’ll feel. Yup. There’s psychological research on gratitude that shows the benefits are reciprocal. Gratitude is contagious in a very good way! Nothing else will keep your donors in as continually a receptive frame of mind.

Remember that your prompt, personal thank you builds a bridge to future support and deeper engagement. Do it well, and you are on your way to future fundraising success.

BTW: When you enroll in Clairification School you receive generous discounts on all Clairification products — plus much more free content delivered to you all year. Check it out!

This post originally appeared December, 2015 on the Network for Good blog.

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