Three Tips to Make Your Fundraising Thank You Letters Work – With Thanks to Wikipedia

by Andrea Kihlstedt

This morning I made a small contribution to Wikipedia on line. I was looking something up and a little red banner at the top of the page reminded me that Wikipedia is run by a nonprofit and raises money so it doesn’t have to include ads or other sorts of commercial distractions to its pages. Yes, I thought. I use Wikipedia all the time, I’ll make a gift.

Transacting the gift took me all of 30 seconds through PayPal and as soon as I finished making the gift, the thank you letter below was in my email in-box.

Nonprofits have lots to learn from Wikipedia’s about saying thank you. It’s not fancy–no pictures, no glam or glitz. But it works. Here’s why.

1. Your Thank You Letters should be IMMEDIATE!

The thank you letter could not have been more immediate! It arrived one second after I made the gift! So the thank you arrived when the gift was still very fresh in my mind.

2.  Your Thank You Letters Should Feel Personal

I know full well that the thank you is an auto-response, but nonetheless it feels personal. It  looks just like a letter I might get through regular mail and it’s addressed to me, Andrea.  Funny how that makes difference even when I know it’s automatic. But it does!

3.  Your Thank You Letters Should Pass the YOU Test.

The Wikipedia letter below contains the words you or your TWENTY FIVE times.  Count ’em.  And every time my brain reads that word it reacts positively.  So does yours!

The Wikipedia thank-you letter below gets it right. Do you?