Thank yous, receipts, and acknowledgements

Question

Hello! I am new here and would like to know how experienced pros deliver the chain of thank you email > receipt > acknowledgement.

From what I can tell, the thank you email goes first and is an auto response to a gift. Then once I've batched the gifts, I can send a receipt and an acknowledgement.

What is the best practice for making all these emails effective (do you even use them all)?

I think I would like to use them, partly just because I hate seeing things left sitting in the unacknowledged list and it seems like a good opportunity to check back in with a donor, but it clearly does not need to be the same message going out several times.

Would anyone be willing to share an example of how you use each of these, what content you include, and what your timing looks like in sending them out?

Aldera Chisholm · Accepted Answer

When people give online, they are used to getting a confirmation email, so use that space to make it a good interaction. For this automatic email reply when they do an NXT form I:

* Redirect them back to our website instead of the default content. Land them on a page that has some impact stories, newsletter, whatever works for you. 
* The thank you email that goes out automatically: I keep it short, but ensure that it includes basic transaction info, a short thank you statement that is relevant to the specific form they used, who they can reach out to if they have questions, and letting them know what to expect next, whether that is follow up information on event tickets or your tax receipt will follow, etc. 
* Ensure you cc yourself on the notification (even if you filter notifications to a sub-category in your inbox)

Once you approve the batch in NXT, the Email and Receipt goes out. I like a short heartfelt thanks, affirm their giving decision by letting them know the impact it has, give them an opportunity to engage with a real person by name and direct phone number.  Same basics as the initial email, but a little bit more detail. I aim to do this as soon as you can within your team's process rules.

After that? Do you want to subscribe them to an email welcome series - there are some great articles on here about how to do that. Do you follow up on some or all gifts with a phone call? Use a workflow to automate adding an action to assign that call to happen.

There are a million different opinions on content, timing, etc, but we all know retaining donors is the hard part so it's worth taking the time to get this right.

Karen Diener · Accepted Answer

My advice is that each piece of communication should have it's own purpose.  Clients I work with are also looking to streamline and have followed that guideline.

What that means is that for online donations, they receive the email confirmation only and it includes the necessary tax information.  That is all.  These are US clients so separate receipting is not necessary.  They also do not receive a mailed letter.  I have worked with some organizations that did the email confirmation, a receipt AND a mailed acknowledgement letter, all with basically the same information.  So much extra work and probably a little eye-rolling for the donor.

If you choose to send acknowledgement letters or emails for donors of a certain amount, or those who are assigned to a fundraiser, etc. than that is an additional step that does not apply to everyone.  You can investigate the AI acknowledgements for this step but it seems they are a little clunky and may not work easily for all organizations.

Elizabeth Johnson · Accepted Answer

We utilize the initial confirmation as the receipt and acknowledgment, including the relevant tax language.

This approach is taken because we do not maintain separate records for couples, and we want to minimize the risk of the gift being made by one spouse but the receipt being issued to the other, which could lead to insult.

We typically follow up with additional communication—such as a phone call or incorporating the acknowledgment into our other records—only if the donation exceeds a certain threshold or if the gift is directed to a fund different from the one indicated on the provided form. These details are usually noted in the comments.