The Buzz: The Lost Art of Handwriting 5968

The Buzz: The Lost Art of Handwriting

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Greetings Community,

I am filling in for Ray this week for the Buzz, as he is busy with a new baby! I checked and he said it was okay to share.. so, here she is with her big sister. <3

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We wish Ray and his family the best as they introduce their daughter to the world!

Now --- on to THE BUZZ!

I recently was lucky enough to make the journey to London to see an object that I've dreamed about seeing my whole life. The Rosetta Stone!

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The Rosetta Stone made it possible to understand Egyptian hieroglyphs (or ancient emojis as I like to call them.)

It was pretty glorious to see in person, along with the entirety of the British Museum!

I woke up this morning thinking about the lost art of handwriting. It was sparked by a comment in THIS conversation about bbcon (US) swag from member Kylea Johnson who picked up a notebook at a Blackbaud Marketing Summit. I thought to myself, how awesome! People still physically write things out instead of relying on a keyboard.

My mother, who spent her life as a school teacher, informed me on a recent visit that learning cursive writing isn't mandatory anymore. I still write in cursive, but if you think about it, communications are mostly in text//emoji form now. I imagine in 3000 years, scientists will be studying our emoji texts:

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Scientist: "You see, this heart represents 'love' and it is followed by a face with two streams of tears coming out. Now, you would think that is crying, but it is actually laughter. You can tell by the smile that accompanies the tears."

How about you? Do you still write letters to your donors? Are handwritten thank you letters still something you or your organization strives to do? When is the last time you almost filled out an entire notebook with your notes like Kylea? Does anyone still journal?

That's the BUZZ I want to talk about and you can leave a comment here or you can chime in on THIS conversation in RENXT about acknowledgement letters. You can also write me a handwritten letter in response... j/k! 🤣

WAIT BEFORE I GO!!!....

I also wanted to give a push to the bbcon/bbu day contest. We are giving away TWO free passes to bbcon/bbu day in Community.

Step one: Become a Community Ninja.

Step two: write a tips/tricks/timesavers blog.

Step three: get friends, family, and co-workers to vote on your blog during voting week, coming up September 2 - 6th.

You can find all the details HERE.

Have a great day Community! 😊

~Community Manager Crystal
News Community News 08/20/2019 10:24am EDT

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13 Comments
We love to do personalized notes whenever possible. Whatever we can do to show to a person that we recognize they gave a gift of money, time, etc. that was significant to them and that we are grateful.

In my personal life, I'm trying send people cards more often. Just something to say that I was thinking of them. I know that I love getting a handwritten note. And I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, so I'm trying to do better.
Our Campaign and Foundation directors still do handwritten notes. In my office, we send out various types cards where each person writes a note and signs their name.  
We have a mix of communications--lots of printed letters (all hand signed, many with extra notes) and some handwritten notes. It is remarkable the number of times we hear from donors who are surprised/touched by either a handwritten card or a personal note written on a letter. 

And for me?! I'm often made fun of because I bring a notepad to meetings. I remember things better when I write them (not type them)--it's like another pathway to my memory. I guess I'm a little old school.
We are running a specific donation campaign to help fund two orgs who are supporting legal and advocacy work for children detained at the border. The staffer in charge has organized some "write donors a handwritten thanks" staff get-togethers for this (460+ letters!), which is really fun, as it turns out. In spite of my *really bad* handwriting! Because it's not my area, other than that, I'm not sure what we do as an org around handwritten donor notes. I think it's probably up to the individual development officers, in general.

Also, I notice the graphic designers on our team all really like to keep handwritten logs/lists/notes (I see them in our twice-weekly team checkins). Me, not so much, usually - but I am starting to move in that direction. Because I love pretty notebooks!
We do send handwritten notes to some donors.  Personally, I do a lot of handwriting--lists, ideas, journaling, note-taking during conferences, etc. 
 
We had high school students (with good penmanship) write thank you note to donors who gave $1,000 and up and they personalized the note to speak about their high school experience and how the donor's gift enriched their life.  We received many positive comments. I also send thank you notes to parents, alumni, faculty and staff that volunteer at Phonathon. There is nothing more powerful that a written, heartfelt thank you note!
Crystal Bruce‍ I'm very forgetful. If it ain't written down, it ain't happenin'!  I also use Passion Planner to keep myself on track. ;) I highlight all the stuff I need to remember and flip through it every once in a while... studies show the act of writing helps memory! I need all the help I can get.
We do handwritten thank you letters for special campaigns, such as Giving Tuesday, plus we do handwritten birthday, anniversary, and sympathy notecards. People really respond to these, whereas I feel like they wouldn't be special if we did handwritten for everything. At some point that would seem unprofessional, wouldn't it?
Lisa Miles‍  I PROMISE you - if you saw our intinerary (spoiler: we went a little mad trying to get everything in).. you'd understand! Next time!
Lisa Miles Lisa Miles Aug '19
I can't believe you came all the way to London Crystal Bruce‍ and didn't look up your friends at the IET! 
We mostly do computer generated thank-yous, although our major donors do get handwritten notes.

As to handwritten notes on things for me?  Oh yes.  I'm rarely without a notebook.  Something about putting pencil to paper makes it easier for me to remember things, so it all goes in notebooks (I've got a lovely purple one I purchased in Boston that all my BBK12UC notes live in!) to help me remember, and to give me just a brief outline to spark my memory if I can't remember all the details.  :)
We do a lot of handwritten communication. Our CEO writes a note on the letters he signs. The Director of Development sends a handwritten note to employees who are also donors. Fundraisers will send handwritten notes to donors they can't reach by phone.

A couple of times a year when we have phone campaigns to lapsed donors. Callers ask the person if there is anything we can pray for. Everyone who gave a prayer request gets a "We prayed for you" postcard with a handwritten note. There can be hundreds of these requests, so the whole department gets to help out.

At one time we had a volunteer who wrote notes to new donors. One of the donors who received a personal thank you called back to tell us how impressed they were by that, and gave a second gift ten times larger than their initial gift. That was a fun example of the power of the handwritten note!
I send a handwritten thank you note to every donor who gives $1,000 and above. It's worth the time taken to do so. I often run into donors in the grocery store, church or in town and they go out of their way to thank me for my thank you note. It's helped us to retain our annual giving leadership donors. I'm old school with thank you notes and fortunately I have Sr. Marie Louise, IHM to thank for teaching me the Palmer Method of penmanship. Some may say that an email will suffice, but I disagree. Many times, I send an email immediately after receiving their gift to say thank you and let them know that my formal note of thanks is forthcoming. It takes time, but it is well worth the effort.

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