Sample Messages for Thank You Cards and Calls

Personalized handwritten thank you notes and thank you cards are an excellent way to sustain the important donor relationships your organization acquires throughout the year. Going the extra mile by sending your donors a personal note in the mail or taking the time to call them to say thank you is a great way to show how much you value their support. Stewarding your donors can help your organization sustain the momentum throughout the year that is needed to reach your goals, and make an impact.

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Sample Thank You Cards

If you have just run a campaign...

Suggestions and Tips for Making Thank You Calls

Quick Checklist for Brilliant Donor Thank You Calls

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A personal phone call is one of the most effective ways for your organization to show timely and genuine appreciation for your donors after a campaign or fundraising initiative.

Below are some steps to help you develop and implement a successful thank you call strategy:

Know Who to Call

• If you are a smaller organization, every call to each individual donor can help - even for the smallest donations that you have received!
• If you are a larger organization that receives too many donations to feasibly be able to call each individual donor to say thank you, you might have to be more discerning about who receives a personalized thank you call. A good rule of thumb might be making sure that all first-time donors giving $100 or more receive calls.
• For repeat donors, you might reserve calls for those giving at your major gift level ($500-$1000 or more).
• If you have any recurring donations we suggest, as a best practice, calling at least once annually to connect and thank them for their ongoing support.

Who Should Make the Call?

• Recruit anyone you can! Your board members, Staff Members, and Volunteers would all be excellent resources because they are much more likely to be genuine and passionately grateful when speaking on the phone with your donors.
• You might also consider having the beneficiaries of your organization make some of the calls. Doing something like this would create a very concrete and tangible link between your donor’s gift and the population your organization supports.
• Whoever you choose to make the calls, make sure they are engaged and genuine, rather than robotically making calls. Thank you calls should not feel like phone banking! They should be sincere and genuine attempts to show your donors how much you appreciate them.

When to Call

• The best time to make a thank you call is within a month of receiving the gift. After a month has passed, a call is more likely to be perceived as an additional solicitation. For new donors and significant gifts, experts from Network For Good suggest calling within 48 hours of receiving the donation.

What to Say

• Obviously each thank you call will be different depending on caller, donor, gift amount, and perceptiveness/enthusiasm. The best thank you calls are brief and to the point and should be made with a smile on your face (this will put a smile in your voice!)
• Consider making a “Thank You” script beforehand and share it with anyone who will be responsible for calling donors. This script should be used primarily as a guideline and is not something that should be repeated word-for-word.

Here is an excellent template to work with:

“Hi [Donor Name]! This is [Caller Name] with [Organization Name], and I just called to say how much we appreciate your recent gift!

• The greatest impact of a thank you call should come from the purity of its intent. Donors will likely be pleasantly surprised that you’ve called simply to express gratitude and that you do not want anything else from them. The above message is short enough to start an authentic dialogue with your donor and to take a pulse check on their interest in future opportunities.
• If the donor is enthusiastic about chatting with you more about your organization, you might expand your conversation by asking these key questions:
  1. Why does our organization matter to you?
  2. What interests you the most about our organization?
  3. What expectations do you have of the organizations you support?
  4. Would you like to be involved with us in other ways beyond being a donor?
• These questions can help to move your thank you call beyond a simple statement of gratitude towards making a concrete connection with your donor - and that is what donor stewardship is all about!

• The most important thing to keep in mind when making calls and engaging in conversations with your supporters is to do what feels appropriate and natural to you. The best thank you calls will flow organically.

  If you reach someone’s voicemail, you will want to leave a message and, for that, you should consider a slightly more detailed approach:

  “Hi [Donor Name]! This is [Caller Name] with [Organization Name]. I’m just calling to thank you for the donation you made. Your generous donation will truly make a difference towards [goal or upcoming project] and I wanted to tell you personally how much we appreciate it.”

  This message is detailed and informative while being short and to the point so as to hold your donor’s attention while they listen to their message. After leaving a voice message, you can decide whether you want to follow up with your donor a second time to see if you can catch them on the phone in person.

Make a Record and Take Notes

• Whether you simply leave a message or have an in-depth conversation with a donor you’ll want to record the results of your conversation so that you can keep track of all of your stewardship efforts. If multiple people are making calls (which will likely be the case) make sure that they are all kept in the same place so that everyone can refer to them and that your organization can use this data to build more donor-centric relationships.
• Make specific notes and create a record about whether you left a voicemail or were able to reach someone in person, how the donor responded to being called, and if you were able to speak about why they gave. You can also make note of any changes to their contact information.