Rewarding Good BehaviorNow that your donor has given, how do you reinforce that they made the right choice? As brilliant as your development cause surely is, the fact is this: it is nerve racking to donors to hand big, estate-sized gifts over to a project they aren’t controlling or witnessing. Minimize that experience for your donor, and watch your relationship grow. Being timely is the most tested success-maker. Prompt response times build trust and the relationship. It’s amazing so many of us fall short here. What is your turn-around time for acknowledgements? Organizations that have response times greater than one week leave donors to decide for themselves how much you appreciate their support. That is not a good place to be. If the gift was made online, or (in the case of securities gifts) through a brokerage portal, engage in auto-reply messages, at least. Then, follow up with a personal email from you or your team. The more we can humanize the online experience, the more we can use it for relationship building. Make your letters as personal as possible. Personalizing the letter either in the body copy or with a handwritten PS from the individual signing is important. Of course, the best way to settle your donor into his/her role as a partner in your institutional mission is with a personal relationship. Phone calls to thank donors sometimes yield valuable opinions, hidden concerns, or appointments for future visits. If you can make phone calls within one week, with no additional “ask,” you’re on your way to a donor confident in you and your institution. At JBL, we can help you build solid donor relationships. Contact us for more information.
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June 2008:Archived Newsletters |
