Do you have a question that I haven't addressed below? Feel free to email me.

DONOR ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

What technology/software did you use to create your acknowledgment process?

Things that many shops already have: our database of record, a custom-built report that I could run at any time, a subscription-based constituent relationship management tool that has a powerful email function, an incident management tool/ticketing system, and a word processor with a mail merge function. That's it. 🙂

Is over-acknowledging donors a thing?

Well, not really. I mean, yes -- if someone is sending many acknowledgments to a donor for a small, one-time annual fund gift (not pledge pmt or payroll deduct), they are probably going wonder how this gift money is being spent. But Penelope Burk has long reported that just 40% of donors get a thank you letter. That means many get nothing at all. So we live in a world of under-acknowledgment, not over-acknowledgment.

The key is to ensure that a timely and appropriate acknowledgment experience is standard for all donors, But make sure it's not one that overwhelms with expensive-seeming whizbangery. If you're worried, survey your colleagues to see how they're doing acknowledgments by donor level. Or better yet, ask your donors. *gasp* 

I read that you used email as an acknowledgment medium. Weren't donors turned off by getting a "form email" instead of a handwritten note?

There is no question that some donors will eschew all email contact or prefer a hand-written thank you note. By all means, keep writing those notes for those high touch donors with special handling codes or inexistent/invalid email addresses.

I can only relate my experience:

I sent 15000+ personalized acknowledgment emails. Less than a handful of donors requested that we stop emailing them and start sending handwritten notes instead.  And we could easily accommodate those special requests because we saved so much time by sending most electronically.

Not one donor complained about the medium of the message.

YMMV depending on your constituency. But I think that this population also sorts itself; we can't send email acknowledgments to people who don't have email addresses on file. An obvious observation, if there ever was one. An obviousation?

Coming soon...WRITING AWARD SUBMISSIONS