|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dear “Thanking” Colleague, In this season of thankful celebration, it seems appropriate to focus on those who have been generous to our programs during the year. This issue of OTG eTA provides ideas and tips to keep donors and volunteers, giving and serving. Click on the headings to the right to spur your creativity and help you say “thank you” in creative ways. In Italy it’s “grazie” and in Japan it’s “arigato.” However it is said, saying “thank you” to your donors is critical if you want to receive future gifts. Click here to download a quiz to learn how to say “thank you” in different languages. Donors are very aware of when they’ve been thanked appropriately. They place value on the manner in which they are thanked and even more importantly, the timeliness of the acknowledgement. The end of the year is the time most people receive donor appeals and make most charitable gifts. Some of gifts will be larger than others and you will want to offer special thanks to your largest donors. Think creatively about how you acknowledge gifts and donors will remember your program and how they were made to feel appreciated. Here are 12 ways you can say “thank you” and prompt donors’ feelings of value to your program:
Adapted from “12 Ways to Say Thank You.” Andy Robinson, National Housing Institute.
Your program and leadership volunteers keep your initiatives and organization running throughout the year. How can you possibly thank them enough? Try these ideas …
While most volunteers would deny doing the work they do for the recognition, most volunteers do appreciate being thanked in the manner in which they are most comfortable. Most program directors find some way to personally express their thanks throughout the year in clever, inexpensive ways to let their volunteers know that they are very special. If you have tips on finding out how volunteers like to be thanked or any other creative acknowledgement ideas, please share with LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com. Click here to read about some creative volunteer thank you and recognition ideas others have used.
A good thank you letter can be an effective fundraising letter, too. Aim for a 24-hour turn-around. Remember: you don’t have to process the check before you write the thank you! Use these tips to make your thank you most effective:
Click here to download a sample thank you letter. Let us know Do you have questions about working with the media in your community? Contact us at LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com (LEADline is a service of Campaign Consultation, Inc., a national provider of training and technical assistance for the Corporation for National and Community Service.) We would be happy to answer questions or to give you more support. Thank you for your interest in On-The-Go eTA. We encourage you to send this and other issues of OTG eTA to friends and colleagues who would benefit from the information. Also, if you’re on information-overload, you may request email removal. Otherwise OTG e-TA will be back soon with another edition.
| IN
THIS ISSUE:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
     |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Details from above: Special Thank You Gifts for Volunteers: Gobs of Goblets One volunteer director collected 136 crystal goblets--enough for each volunteer in her program. She went to yard sales, thrift stores, and asked her friends. None of the goblets matched. She also bought charms at the dollar store. At her annual volunteer banquet, each goblet was filled with champagne colored punch and a charm was attached to the stem. Some were elegant, some were durable, each was unique—just like her volunteers. She told the volunteers, "when you sit and relax with your goblet filled with wine, tea, or special beverage, think of just how important you are to us. You too bring a special uniqueness and beauty to us. And when you look at the charm on your goblet, remember how we feel about the "charm" you have brought to our organization". Student Artful Thanks A volunteer coordinator with a long-term, tutoring/mentoring program that works with inner-city youth has many volunteers who are undergraduate students and even a few medical/graduate students. As part of their volunteer recognition work plan, each volunteer receives a work of student art at least once a year - sometimes twice. This ranges from really cool thank you cards (not just marker and paper). She also discovered that kids love to make buttons. She had the students make buttons for tutors and actually had the button maker at an event. One can either rent a maker or just cut out the appropriate size circles on white paper and have a button maker do the rest of the work. The volunteers loved these. It is meaningful, creative, customer-generated and inexpensive. Saying Thank You with Care Volunteers with one program are youth 15-29 years old. Many of the volunteers resign their positions to go onto school or full time work. In order to recognize these volunteers and to say "thank you" for their work during their time with the organization, they were sent off with a care package. The items are "wrapped" in a reusable plastic container. The items within are tailored to the journey the volunteer will be pursuing. For example, one volunteer was leaving to go to the West Coast. Her container included a small clay pot and forget-me-not seeds to plant in her new home, a wooden spoon to help her make nutritious meals, a scented candle to light her way in her new path, and the container itself to carry valuables from one home to another. Writing small notes on each gift explained the meaning behind each one. All this for under $10.
National ASK (Awareness, Skills, Knowledge) to Sustain Institute, sponsored by Corporation for National and Community Service, provided by Campaign Consultation, Inc. 1998, 2002 Resources Now! National Institute, sponsored by Corporation for National and Community Service, provided by Campaign Consultation, Inc. 2006.
Learning Products and Services
LEADline:
Contact
us GIZMOs:
For more information: Download The
Chronicle of Philanthropy: Workshops/Clinics:
Online
Courses/Webinars:
Available through the Resource Center, Click Here
Let us know by contacting us through LEADline@CampaignConsultation.com
|