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Thank you letters

Arly Douglass

We would like to use the post-acceptance options for collecting thank-you letters in year 2 of our implementation, and I am looking for feedback and advice.

Assuming that we will need to edit the letters to some degree……

I've read in a previous thread that a couple of people recommend collecting the thank-you letter as an essay question rather than having students upload a document (more clicks for admins). Any other thoughts/tips regarding this?
Do you tell students for whom they should address the thank-you letter? If so, do you indicate the name of the donor in the post-acceptance question?
Has anyone changed their ‘ Submitted’ category to ‘disburses funds’ award effect to reduce the amount of monitoring on the administrator?
Any other tips/advice regarding the collection of thank-you letters?

Thank you!

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Comments

Joel Spiess

@Arly Douglass Yes, I strongly agree with the essay question versus uploading a document. We export all responses to our stewardship team who uses mail merge functionality to create a one-page student profile that includes their bio, why they chose/like our institution, and the thank you message. The uploads can be fraught with errors and ultimately create more work for the student when they have upload issues. Getting them to type into text boxes seems like much less of a task for students.

Our question indicates that they should thank their donor, but we do not include the donor's name in the question stem. Instead, we ensure the donor profile associated with the opportunity is updated/accurate. We try and have every post-acceptance use the same questions… this also makes the export en masse much easier so you can export for all opportunities at once.

We do not want students to receive funds unless they provide a written thank you message.

Next year we will also include an optional picture upload so they can share a headshot/photo of themselves.

Christina Kelley

@Arly Douglass

Hi Arly - this was our first year using BAM and the post-acceptance worked well! We used the essay question and I added help text with instructions on how to complete the letter. This included individual questions the student answered within their thank you letter. Instead of addressing individual donors, I asked the student to refer to the award name. The photo upload is a nice touch and I have received positive feedback from donors. Good luck!

Russel Heskin

@Arly Douglass At WesternU, we use an essay question and provide a detailed prompt (below). Be sure you're clear that students should be thanking their scholarship's donor for funding the award and not the selection committee for choosing them. We used to include a link to a sample thank you letter, but too many students were just copying and pasting the text from that sample, so we removed that. We also require students to upload a photo and put the photo and essay together on a nice one-page document to send to the donors. We added a custom step in the process where I (Advancement) review and approve all post-acceptance questionnaires before Financial Aid is notified the award is ready to be disbursed. Finally, we ask the students if we can use their image and portions of their thank you note for promotional purposes. Short quotes then end up in future solicitation pieces or impact reports. This year, we're adding several short answer (<1 sentence… e.g., hometown? major?) and short essay (1-3 sentences… e.g., why did you choose to attend WesternU?) questions to our post-acceptance questionnaire with a plan to create a more robust thank you package to send to the donors in the spring, so they get to know their recipient a little better.

Thank You Prompt:

THANK YOU NOTE: It is important that you acknowledge your scholarship's donor’s generosity by submitting a thank you note. Scholarship donors are thoughtful and caring people who unselfishly give financially to support educational endeavors of students like you. Your letter reminds them why they gave in the first place and often helps to secure continuing support for future scholarships. Be sure to include the following in your message:

Thank the donor for the scholarship and mention the scholarship’s name
A little about yourself, such as
1. Hometown
2. Undergraduate institution and major
3. Why you chose WesternU and your area of study
4. Extra-curricular activities/Community service
5. Career goals
How this scholarship will affect/impact you
Close your message with your name, program and year (e.g. Jane Doe, DO Class of 2023)

Please proofread your message and pay attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation. Your message may be edited and formatted into a formal letter and sent to the donor(s) or their family.

Michele GuyorBorthwick

@Arly Douglass
Like Russell from Western U, at Detroit Mercy we use an essay question in the Post Acceptance requirements and provide some “instructions” for the thank you note (copied below). We discourage a salutation for two reasons:

1. The letter may go out to more than one donor.

2. I have also found that even though students have access to the profile information which would indicate the donors name, many do not read it and will address the letter to the person the scholarship is named for - and as we all know many times scholarships are in memory of someone and that individual is deceased.

Like Russel, we also found that if we included an example letter, many students just mimicked the sample.

My Financial Aid coworker created a new “category” when awarding called PA Reviewed. When a recipient submitted their post acceptance she would double check that they actually wrote a letter - not, “Thanks for the scholarship!” and then tag them with this category and process the award. I then know that I can print and mail the letter. I copy and paste the letter and required photo to a document and mail to the donor(s). If I have to do any major editing of the letter I click the students name, “become user” and edit the students letter, which I find easier than doing it through disbursements later. Once I have printed the letter I categorize the recipient as “awarded” and it shifts over to disbursements in Stewardship Management.

We also include a required sign off at the bottom of the post acceptance page to allow us to use the statements or photos in future communications or publications. Here is a sample and following it is the thank you note instructions :

1. By submitting this form I hereby acknowledge the information I have provided is true and complete to the best of my knowledge and I have completed this form voluntarily. I give my permission to disclose this information and photo to the scholarship donor/s or their families or representatives. Furthermore, I give permission to use part or all of this information for future media release.I Agree

2. NameMadelyn Lee

3. Date07/28/2022

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THANK YOU MESSAGE

Thank You Note

Congratulations on your academic scholarship! University of Detroit Mercy scholarships are made possible by generous contributions from donors who believe that students like you can make a difference in the world.

All students who receive a scholarship are required to write a thank you letter to the donor(s) of the scholarship. Your words acknowledge the scholarship’s impact, confirm the value of the donor’s contributions, and remind them why they gave in the first place - often encouraging the donor to continue supporting future scholarships!

There may be multiple donors connected to a scholarship who may have access to your thank you message. For this reason, a salutation is not necessary. Be sure to speak from the heart and include the following in your message:

Thank the donor:

Thank the donor for his or her generosity in providing the scholarship.
Include the scholarship name, as some donors give to more than one scholarship.
Since donors are not part of the scholarship recipient selection process, thank the donor for making the gift possible, rather than for selecting you as the recipient.
Please refer to the university as University of Detroit Mercy or Detroit Mercy, not UDM

Tell the donor about yourself:

Include your hometown, family background and especially anything that may be relevant to the scholarship.
Share relevant high school and other experiences
If you are the first person in your family to attend college, include this information as well as any obstacles you’ve overcome to achieve this goal.
Include your major, anticipated year of graduation, etc.
List extracurricular or community service work, as well as any internships that you are or will be pursuing.
Write about your classes and, in particular, what aspects you are enjoying.

Talk about University of Detroit Mercy:

Your donor has invested in both you and University of Detroit Mercy. Discuss your positive experiences and explain why you choose to attend Detroit Mercy, and what you hope to accomplish here.

Share your future plans:

Tell the donor what you hope to do upon graduating from University of Detroit Mercy.

Signing your letter:

Close your message with your name, program and year (e.g., Jane Doe, Medicine Class of 2023)
Please DO NOT include personal contact information.

Please proofread your message and pay attention to spelling, grammar and punctuation. Your message may be edited and formatted into a formal letter and sent to the donor(s) or their family.

If you have any questions regarding how to write your thank you message please contact Michele Guyor-Borthwick at guyorbmm@udmercy.edu or 313-578-0329.

Arly Douglass

@Michele GuyorBorthwick Thank you (and everyone) for the feedback. How do you include all the instructional details about writing the thank you letter? Do you include all of that directly in the post-acceptance question or do you provide a link within the post-acceptance question that will direct them to those details?

Michele GuyorBorthwick

@Arly Douglass It is one of the Post Acceptance questions that you create. You set it as an “essay” answer, and then I also click it as “required” to ensure that each recipient actually does the letter

Russel Heskin

@Arly Douglass Instructions are included in the essay question… It's just a really long, multi-line question.

Lindsay Graham

@Joel Spiess Hi Joel - Could you share an example of the question prompt you use for the thank you essay? I like the idea of having several essay questions and just merging them into a template. Thank you!

Joel Spiess

@Lindsay Graham, here are the questions we use within a single set:

Many scholarships at UWM are made possible by gifts from donors. Hearing from scholarship recipients gives donors a glimpse of how they have made a difference in the lives of students. Your message encourages them to continue supporting students like you.

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences.

Please describe your background, interests, and activities.
1. Maximum Word Count: 100
Why did you choose UWM, and what are your career goals?
1. Maximum Word Count: 100
What does receiving this scholarship mean to you? Please share your gratitude.
1. Maximum Word Count: 100
OPTIONAL: Upload a current photo of yourself that can be shared with the scholarship donor. Candid selfies are great!

Lindsay Graham

@Joel Spiess Thank you! This is very helpful.

Rhonda Seyfried

@Joel Spiess we have a similar Donor Thank You as a part of our Post Acceptance. Post Acceptance is completed before we will load the scholarship for students, so we have a 100% completion rate of Post Acceptance.

Tracy Forkin

@Christina Kelley
Do you have a “how to” document you'd be willing to share? Do you send emails using Awards Management or Stewardship Management to students who have received a donated scholarship? Are there any concerns with emails from this system going into junk or spam email boxes?

Tracy Forkin

@Arly Douglass we offer prompt questions, collect the replies, and write the report to the donor. We need to use Stewardship Management to email students requesting they respond to the prompt questions and submit a picture. The system will be used to collect the replies.

Have you successfully implemented Awards/Stewardship Management? We've struggled because our awarding is done in Banner. I would appreciate any tips and tricks!

Arly Douglass

@Tracy Forkin We have implemented AM, but we did not collect thank you letters during our first year. I don't think we will for year 2 either other than maybe test it for a few scholarships. We did some testing with SM in the fall, mostly to see how well it would work if we used it to create and distribute our endowment reports for donors. The formatting of the report template is very limited….I think that challenge will be what prevents us from moving forward with using SM.

Arly Douglass

@Tracy Forkin We use AM to award our scholarships and we use the offer email notification via AM. We have not had any problems with it going it spam folders. But I have had a couple of students who were afraid to open it because they thought it was spam. You can adjust the subject line and even the email address it comes from so it looks legit.