The Power of a Thank You - A Petrus Development Show Episode on Gift Acknowledgment

We're continuing our Q+A podcast series with Petrus president, Andrew Robison.  In this episode, Andrew and Rhen discuss gift acknowledgment and donor stewardship.  While this may not be the most exciting part of a fundraiser's job, it's essential.  And, you might be surprised.  The act of thanking donors is likely to be more powerful than you expect.  

Listen to "135 - The Power of a Thank You (Gift Acknowledgment, Donor Stewardship, Relationships): Andrew Robison" on Spreaker.

Show Notes: 

Do you have questions about how and when to successfully thank donors?  If so, Andrew and Rhen answer these questions and more. 

Listen to this episode and learn the answers to these questions and more!  As mentioned at the end of the episode, Petrus has a worksheet outlining the anatomy of a thank you call for fundraisers, and you can sign up to receive it by clicking here.  

Finally, we welcome your fundraising questions for potential use in future shows.  Are there questions you'd like to hear Andrew answer?  If so, email us at [email protected] with your question, and it just might appear in a future Petrus Development Show episode. 

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT 

00:12.79
aggierobison
Hello and welcome to the Petrus Development Show. My name is Rhen Hoehn from Petrus Development, and I'm joined today by Mr. Andrew Robison, President and Owner of Petrus Development. Hello, Andrew.

00:23.70
AROB
Hey, Howdy, Rhen. Thank you very much. I am calling in from my office. It's a beautiful day here in College Station. The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, and it's a balmy, oh, I don't know, 40 °F. Wow, it is warm today.

00:42.53
aggierobison
Excellent. I am in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is not warm, but we finally have snow after my first green Christmas in 15 years here. Yeah, finally, it's picking up.

00:50.89
AROB
Wow. Okay, because you guys normally get a lot of snow, right? Man. Okay, yes, that's a lot of snow. I don't.

00:58.16
aggierobison
The average is like two hundred and fifty inches a year. We're off to, yeah, we're off to a slow start. But we're picking up.

01:07.43
AROB
I don't know that College Station probably has two hundred and fifty inches of snow in its cumulative history.

01:14.20
aggierobison
That's probably true.

01:15.45
AROB
Ah, it snowed really bad like two years ago, 2021 to twenty-three years ago, and, um, but that was maybe like, I don't know, maybe three inches, and that was like a really bad snowstorm for us.

01:31.16
aggierobison
I was supposed to be in College Station that week, and once it started to snow, and you're like, don't even try. There's too much snow to get here. Oh yeah, that's great. Anyway, our topic today.

01:37.63
AROB
Ah, no, no, we don't know what to do with three inches of snow. Ah, anyway.

01:48.63
aggierobison
We want to talk a little bit about donor acknowledgement, gift acknowledgement, donor stewardship. I want to start with a little story of why this is important because I feel like this is not an exciting topic necessarily all the time within fundraising. Um, when I had a time that I was on a trip visiting donors.

01:51.27
AROB
Come on.

01:59.26
AROB
Okay.

02:07.72
aggierobison
And had some downtime one middle of the day, one day, and we had a donor in the area who had just made a 5-figure gift. We were super excited about it. It was one of the biggest gifts that we received at that time, and I called this guy up, said, "Hey, I'm in town, just have some free time. I'd love to grab lunch with you and just say thank you for your gift. It was great." And he was free, so we went and met him, had a really nice lunch. While we're sitting there at lunch, he's like, "Oh, so what else, you know, what are the next things you were working on?" And we told him about a project that we had going on. We had about $10,000 left to finish off the project. He said, "Oh, you haven't asked me for money for that project. You just made a really big gift, one of the biggest gifts I'd closed at that time." And he's like, "Well, maybe you should ask me for help with that project." I said, "Oh, would you like to make a gift toward this project?" And he wrote us a $10,000 check at that lunch, right? So just the power of saying thank you and stewarding those donors and maintaining those relationships after they make a gift is more powerful than you would think, you know, or expect.

02:50.51
AROB
Wow, there you go.

03:01.29
AROB
Yeah, so I had a similar but not as positive experience or outcome because I had a similar situation. This is when I was in Ohio; a donor family had just recently made a—

03:03.90
aggierobison
And so it's the topic we want to touch on a little bit here today.

03:20.38
AROB
Ah, a really generous gift. I went and said thank you, but I did not ask them for a gift for an upcoming project. When that came out that I was raising, we were raising money for that, they called me and got mad at me for not asking for it. So again, very different because I was doing the stewardship properly, but I wasn't planting the seeds and talking about what we were doing in a way that gave them an opportunity to give. As they always say, your best donor prospects are your existing donors. Doing stewardship properly and, in the course of stewardship, informing and updating your donors and giving them additional opportunities to give without necessarily asking oftentimes leads to fruit. And when you don't do it? Well, it leads to chastisement, in my case, which is good. I like I said, having a long time ago, I still remember it, so it was a lesson learned for me, which is valuable, but it did sting at the time.

04:21.52
aggierobison
Those lessons learned do have a way of just sticking in your memory. Very bright and clear, excellent. So as you start out today, let's just real quick hit on what is required of us when it comes to thanking a donor for our donation, right?

04:26.87
AROB
Hundred percent, yep, no.

04:39.44
aggierobison
And the US, there are specific requirements for tax-receiving gifts. Do you have those off the top of your head?

04:45.67
AROB
In fact, I do. So when it comes to acknowledging gifts in the United States, all donors who make a gift of two hundred and fifty dollars or more must receive a tax receipt. So tax receipts can be emailed; they can be a letter. But it has to include the name of your organization, the amount of the cash contribution made, and then for non-cash gifts, people donate items or property or anything like that. It's good practice, but it's not a requirement if it's not two hundred and fifty dollars in cash or more. Did I get that right? Hey, all right.

05:24.47
aggierobison
Yep, that's right, and there we go. In Canada, I've been working with a few different organizations in Canada, and from the best of my understanding, charities can choose whether or not to issue tax receipts in Canada. If they do send one, there's a whole bunch of requirements of what that receipt must include. There's lots of specific fields that have to be on there. If you don't send a tax receipt, that donor can't claim it on their taxes. That's the decision you have to make, and it's a good practice to let donors know ahead of time if they're not gonna be receiving a receipt because they can't use it on their taxes. I would recommend checking with the Canada Revenue Agency.

05:47.24
AROB
Okay.

06:00.51
aggierobison
Ah, to really make sure you got it right though? Great, yep.

06:02.32
AROB
Cool, that sounds good. Hold on, once I say you ran, I take it I have to figure out what the—I'm sorry, had a broken line. I don't know if Vas he might just be sleeping or like dormant spiders do that.

06:19.90
AROB
No, why? Because I'm making a video with Mr. Ri. I told you that. Please. Ah, we'll open it in a little bit. Okay, you can go back on.

06:32.90
aggierobison
Um.

06:47.55
aggierobison
My kids all just got home, so they have a short day today. We'll see what happens all, so it's gonna go and like how many times you should acknowledge or thank a donor, right? and then different ways that we can thank donors beyond just a thank you letter? Yeah.

06:49.38
AROB
Okay, yeah.

07:06.11
aggierobison
Excellent. So that's how it's required of us as fundraisers, and when it comes to thanking an owner or is at least acknowledging the tax receipt there. What? Um, what? How many times is this something that comes up that you see that was a little bit shocking how many times.

07:06.68
AROB
Yes.

07:22.51
aggierobison
Should a donor be thanked for a gift that they make.

07:37.50
AROB
Do you want this, or do you want to lose this.

07:52.97
AROB
Breaking kids, man.

07:56.75
aggierobison
Do I mean to ask that again? Um, great. So that's what's required of us when it comes to acknowledging donations there.

07:57.13
AROB
Yes, I do.

08:03.87
AROB
Right.

08:08.30
aggierobison
Donors should be thanked in other ways, though. How many times should a donor be thanked for a donation that they make.

08:13.80
AROB
Ah, well, it's not like in the Bible where if you're ah if somebody wrongs you, you have to forgive them 70 times 70. Is that right? Is that what Jesus says? 70 times 7. Okay, so it's not. It's not that much, but I would advise.

08:20.90
aggierobison
70 times 7, I think is is yeah.

08:30.53
AROB
Overthinking versus Underthinking. So um, how often do you need to give ah to thank somebody? Um, you know you have your standard kind of this is like what's required, right? The receipt, the acknowledgement. But for gifts that are either first-time gifts, it's oftentimes really valuable and very. Um, helpful kind of long-term strategically if you do thank them a couple of extra times, so that can be a phone call, that can be ah, an extra email or an extra letter, but thanking first-time donors is a really good way to kind of ah show them that you are worthy of additional gifts. Um, people that make gifts that are that are asked for specifically so with our major gift prospects. Um, oftentimes. It's really helpful and smart to thank them a number of times as well. There's a couple of. Um, people are you know are kind of mantras in the world that you want to thank your donor 7 times. Um, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? It's not required, but there's nothing wrong with having in your mind. Okay, so this is somebody who made a gift either first-time gift or a major gift or an unexpected gift or a renewal gift or something like that. How can I thank them? Well, if I'm going to thank them 7 times and I can't just call them up 7 times and say thank you so it does require you to get a little bit more creative. Um, about thanking your donors, which I think is.

09:53.56
AROB
Always a ah good way to really build trust and to make your organization stand out from others.

10:02.27
aggierobison
Sometimes you hear the term acknowledgment matrix or donor matrix thrown out there. Ah can you explain what that is.

10:07.60
AROB
Yeah, sure. So um, it kind of goes to prioritization of time and then um, how can you utilize your time and resources most effectively. So um, a lot of clients that I've worked with, we set up a stewardship matrix or an acknowledgment matrix. And basically what it is is. It's sort of you identify rules on the front end that if gifts come in either at this level or this type. So um, it could be you know over a certain dollar amount or it could be the type somebody signs up for a monthly gift or a type could be a first-time gift or type could be a stock gift. But if gifts come in that sort of meet these criteria for either size or type of gift, then this is the stewardship that we're going um, that we're going to perform in gratitude for that gift. So what that really gets to is the prioritization of your leadership's time. So um, early on. An executive director or chaplain or the principal, you know, if you're just starting a fundraising program for them to make personal calls to every donor is a little bit more reasonable or letters to every donor because you might be dealing with just a handful every month, but as your volume grows then they have to be more discerning about who they are going to call and who they're going to send. Thank-you letters to and that's where that donor matrix comes in so it could be that every gift of $1000 or more is going to get a um, a phone call from our principal.

11:31.87
AROB
And Gifts of $500 or more are going to get a handwritten note from the principal and a call from the development director and first-time donors are going to get a handwritten note from the development director and a thank-you call from a volunteer. So whatever. The rules are it's really about kind of how do you meet that criteria and. Be strategic and prioritize your time and thanking your donors appropriately.

11:54.49
aggierobison
Excellent, yeah, one of the best pieces of advice that I got when I started fundraising was to go out and buy, order a box of 500? Thank-you cards with a ministry's logo on the front and send out and try to send out all 500 of them in the first year right, so every time you get a significant gift or any gift send out a hundred and thank you every time you meet somebody face to face send them a thank you just look for lots of ways to thank people and that was very, very fruitful for me.

12:16.38
AROB
Ah, yeah.

12:22.92
AROB
Yeah, I mean my dad used to send. Thank-you cards to everybody for everything and his boss did the same thing and it was very meaningful whenever you received one. I mean I Even if it was my dad and he would send me. Thank-you notes or personal handwritten notes in the mail when I was away at college or living away and. Just very Meaningful. So.

12:44.66
aggierobison
Right? So we've got handwritten thank-you cards phone calls and that might be from the development director at one level. It might be from the executive director it maybe a higher level of donor or maybe just ah, maybe so maybe both of those people are doing some of those acknowledgments for some number of donors every month. No matter what level they give at right. Um, what are some other kind of creative ways we can thank donors.

13:05.61
AROB
Yeah, so um, donor events can be worthwhile whether that's getting all of your donors together once a year, you know, kind of at a certain level and thanking them. Collectively whether that's you know, inviting your individual donors for special events or tours or um, to meet certain people when I was at the medical school fundraising. We would do a dinner twice a year and um, it was really. The donors loved to come to that because we would have medical students there and they loved to meet the medical students and ask them questions about how they're doing and what they're moving into and these are most most of our donors were doctors and so they um would it made sense that they would love to see medical students and talk to them and know how to ah, offer to find ways to help them. Um, so events can be effective ah overused. They can be too much work but ah used effectively. They can work well another thing that we did when I was at St. Mary's at Texas A&M was um we had ah a chapel and so there were ah the chapel funding was I want to say around a million 1.5 million dollars and so there were probably about 12 people who all gave specifically to fund the chapel and there was an acrylic plaque on the inside that has all their names listed. Um, but we had an artist who went to church and she had painted something and I had said well, you're a really good artist. Could you paint the chapel and she did it was a beautiful painting.

14:31.23
AROB
And what we ended up doing with that painting was we had prints made and framed and then everybody all those dozen people that gave to the chapel. They got their own ah framed picture of this chapel print that the donor had painted ah and with a little plaque on the bottom that just said their name and ingratitude for your gifts. So um, you know you can go really overboard with um with gifts like that. But this was a very meaningful gift and it was a very special gift because like I said we had you know the dozen printed for them and maybe you know a handful of staff but it was really kind of an item of ah a rarity and. Made them feel very special and honored. So I think that you know those are um, events special gifts. Um, you know, just sort of making special outreach or special access like I said our doctors love to meet the students. The medical students. So anytime that you can you know, get your donors in front of. You know your students if you're a school or your um, your ah participants If you're a nonprofit anything like that always kind of builds that relationship while thinking them at the same time.

15:41.54
aggierobison
One thing I'd add to that is maybe hosting a thankathon, right? So one thing that we did when I was working in the campus ministry world is ever after a certain appeal every year we would have students call all the donors to that appeal and say thank you. I would get those donors then. Call me afterward saying thank you so much for having a student call me to say. Thank you like why? you're thanking me for this right? Um, but it was clearly touching to have somebody who's being served by the ministry say thank you for providing this for us so that was just a super simple way we could do that maybe a controversial question should.

15:57.34
AROB
Yeah, okay, yeah.

16:07.00
AROB
Yeah, yeah.

16:15.80
aggierobison
We print a list of our donors in an yearend annual report or in your newsletters.

16:21.30
AROB
Yeah, I get this question quite a bit not as much anymore as I used to. But um, certainly something that people want to know so an annual report is kind of a a newsletter on steroids right? It shows all the activity from the past year it can be a great cultivation tool. It could be a great solicitation tool. In fact um, but in there, it's kind of become common or it was common practice for many many years to print all of your donors' names and even kind of giving levels in there in the annual report. Um, and in my in my view and sort of my experience. There's. A lot more harm that can come from that than there is good. So what I mean by that is it's really difficult to get the spelling of every one of your benefactors correct. We want to do that. But it's it's hard. It's difficult to get all the titles correct. It's difficult. You know when a couple splits up or somebody gets married or somebody passes away. We do our best to keep up with that but in ah, um, our database is never going to be 100 % accurate and so printing a list of you know, five hundred or a thousand names in a annual report like that. Is inevitably going to create some errors that people are going to look for their name and they're going to say oh they spell my name right? They don't even know me anymore. Um, and so it can do harm in that way the other ah kind of flip side or the other argument for not doing it is that donors really don't care that much.

17:43.96
AROB
If they are supporting you know 20-30 organizations $100 a year you know $200 a year. That's not important for them to see their name listed in the annual report and in fact in a lot of ways it kind of makes them even a little bit cringy to see their name. There. So there's just not a lot of kind of demand on the donor side for that now. What I can say is in annual reports or if you wanted to list some donors. It is okay to list donors that give a certain type of gift. Maybe all your monthly donors. Um, you know as part of your living face society or maybe all of your foundations that give grants so gifts like that can be recognized as in an annual report. But to list all five hundred or a thousand of your donors. It's just not necessary and it doesn't help you move anything forward in me. Good.

18:28.43
aggierobison
Great, I know our times little bit limited today but I want to get 1 more question in up if somebody's never made a thank-you phone call. They are often wonder what? what do I even say on that call. Do you have a script or a way that you approach those calls.

19:20.00
AROB
Okay, so what does a thank-you call sound like? Well, it starts with a "hey," um, "howdy, my name is Andrew Robinson. I'm calling from St. Mary's Catholic Center, Texas A&M. Is Mr. or Mrs. Johnson there?" "Oh yes, is Mr. Johnson." "Well, howdy, Mr. Johnson. Like I said, my name's Andrew Robinson. I'm calling from the Catholic Center of Texas A&M. Just wanted to call and say thank you. Today, you have been very generous. You've been a generous supporter of the organization, of the mission for a long time, and I just wanted to call and say thank you and let you know that we really do appreciate it. On behalf of my boss and on behalf of all of our staff, we are just grateful for your generosity and supporting this mission." "Oh, well, thank you very much, Andrew. We do it because of X reason." That's really fascinating. Well, what was it that kind of got you started on this road of supporting the mission? And so it's an easy start. So then... "Caught, right?" I'm out of character now. So it's an easy start to the call with just saying, "Yes, we're very grateful, and we want to thank you on behalf of everybody on the staff." But then inevitably, it can turn into a good conversation about what got them started giving, what their experience was like when they were here, and then what some of the most valuable pieces of the mission are that really motivate them to give. So I would say start with something kind of basic like, "We just really want to thank you on behalf of my boss and everybody else."

20:41.62
AROB
Um, and then be open to asking questions that sort of lead to a longer conversation.

20:47.96
aggierobison
Great, and now say some percentage of the time, the response that I would get was, "Ah, you're welcome," and they wouldn't know what to say, or they're busy. They're distracted, and that the phrase that I think you taught me, actually, that I found to be just gold is, "I don't want to take up too much ear time. Just thank you again. Have a great day," and just kind of.

20:53.83
AROB
So yeah.

21:05.10
aggierobison
End the call that way if that's the approach. So super simple, great. Well, thank you, Andrew. This is some enlightening talk about donor stewardship and acknowledgment. I just want to let people know we have a promotion for Raise 24, the Catholic fundraising conference going on this week.

21:06.29
AROB
Yep, Perfect. Yep! Love it.

21:14.10
AROB
Yeah, good.

21:23.33
aggierobison
It's gonna be at the end of June in San Antonio, Texas. If you've ever been to the River Walk, Andrew, and our hotel will be right on the River Walk. If you want to learn more about that, check out petrusdevelopment.com/raise24. There's a 10% off promotion going on this week.

21:25.68
AROB
I have, yes, sir. It's a lovely place, and it's a great place to have a conference. Yes, sir.

21:42.76
aggierobison
If you have a great... yeah, if you have a question that you'd like Andrew to answer on the show, please send it in to podcast at petrisdevelopment.com, and it may be featured on a future episode. And with that, we'll see you again in a couple of weeks. Have a great day.

21:42.81
AROB
Um, awesome.

21:51.43
AROB
Very cool. Thanks, Rhen. It's been a pleasure.