Are you thinking of ways to show gratitude to your donors? We have the ready sample templates for you - heartfelt, engaging, and well-written thank you letter. Sending thank you notes for donations is crucial in order to make them feel good and build a good relationship with your donors.

Put yourself in your donors’ shoes for a chance. Imagine you’ve just come across a very moving crowdfunding campaign and taken your valuable time to donate any amount (no matter how small) to the cause you care so much about. What would you expect to happen next - never hear anything from the cause or organization that’s raising the money, or just receive a receipt of the donation?

Let us tell you, in a situation like that, you (or your donor) would expect acknowledgment of your donation and assurance that your money is being put to sound use. You would expect appreciation. This is precisely where a well-written thank you letter comes swooping in - the perfect way to show gratitude, connect donors to the ongoing campaign and ensure that the donors keep coming back.

Moreover, every successful business spends valuable time building and nurturing strong relationships with customers. And just like that, a fundraiser should also dedicate time to connect to their generous donors, keep them updated on the campaign’s progress and thank them for their gifts. In this blog, we are going to help you create the best thank you letter for donation by informing you of:

💌 The significance of a well-written gratitude letter

💌 The best practice to write an excellent gratitude letter

💌 What to write in each paragraph of the heartfelt letter

💌 Sample letter examples that you can follow

💌 A great tool to use to create and send letters to donors

So what are we waiting for? Let’s dive in and write the best thank you letter for donation today.

What Is The Significance Of A Thank You Letter?

While the first and foremost aim should be to move donors and ensure the first donation with your fundraising campaign promotions, it is also important to retain that same donor. But this can be quite tricky. You need to make your donors feel acknowledged and not as if their contribution was just one in a sea of many that your organization receives regularly. And the best way to do any of these is a thank you letter.

Retaining existing donors is also crucial to your fundraising campaign’s finances. It results in lower marketing expenses and higher net assets over time and can bring a huge difference in your strategies moving forward. Therefore, writing a gratitude letter showing how grateful you are to your donors is vital to show that your organization is responsible and acknowledges every effort of your supporters.

Not only that, a well-written letter can significantly boost your organization’s credibility and help ensure that you get the 2nd and 3rd donations too. They can be the perfect opportunity to connect the donors to crowdfunding causes further and missions like never before and inform them how their donation will be used. They’ll be able to see their contribution in action and feel fulfilled.

Now that you have a better understanding of why a well-written thank-you note is significant for your crowdfunding platform or organization let’s take a closer look at how to write these letters.  

7 Best Practices Of A Great Thank You Letter For Donation

When it comes to writing a good thank you note that will make your donors feel moved enough to make another donation, there are a few best practices that you should follow.

From signing the letter from someone noteworthy in your organization to using a donor-centered tone in writing, many factors can easily make or break your gratitude letter.

1. Include A Reminder Of The Donation’s Great Impacts

Your thank you letters are not just about a simple ‘thank you’ or a direct ask for further action. Your gratitude letters should be a reminder of the tremendous and impactful things that your donor’s donation and support are enabling you to do.

Tell them a compelling story of their gifts’ positive impacts, of their power to make significant changes. Run them through your organization’s actions to ensure their money is helping the cause and what to expect next.

Make them feel like they are heroes of the story instead of showing them a mere donation receipt and asking for more.

2. Send ‘From’ A Noteworthy Member In Top Position

One best practice to use is to sign the thank you letter from a top, preferably a well-known person at your organization. This will validate the letter as well as the donor’s gift.

People respond better to receiving personal messages in their inboxes. It demonstrates that your organization values its supporters and that you place high importance on being grateful for the support. Better still, try to include a real signature to add to the personal touches, showing that a real person took the time to sign the letter.

3. Ensure Promptness In Sending Your Thank You Letter

Do not forget to send the thank you letters soon after receiving the donation, preferably within the first 72 hours. This shows that your organization is responsible - monitoring every gift coming in and that you are aware of the donation.

More importantly, as mentioned earlier, it shows that the donor’s money isn’t lost and that it is definitely not insignificant in the sea of all the other donations. If you were the contributing donor in this scene, we can bet you would not be quite impressed or happy to receive an acknowledgment letter after a couple of months of the actual donation. And we can ensure, neither will your donors be.

4. Focus On Showing Gratitude, Not Asking For Action

Now, as mentioned earlier in this blog, you should focus on being thankful. Try not to go straight into information, solicit new donations, or advertise upcoming events in your thank you note. That should not be the intention of your thank you letter for donations, and your donors will not be moved at all. It will be like receiving any other bills.

5. Try To Keep The Letter Short But Personalized

Your thank you note for donations should be personalized - ensure that it has a customized salutation at the very least. Do not just write ‘dear donor’ and make your donors feel like they just received an automated email. Talk to them like you would to a friend who is helping you reach a significant goal. Address your supporters like they are a part of your team and talk to them like real heroes.

But while you are at it, try to keep the gratitude letter short and simple, as not to bore the donor. Again, focus on being thankful and send other details through a separate note; you can also add contact information to find further news.  

6. Give Special Recognition To Long-Time Donors

While all your thank you notes should be personalized for your supporters, it is extra important to give special recognition to recurring donors. These may include people who have been a part of your campaigns for a long time or simply anyone who has donated to your organization more than once.

It is highly crucial that your recurring donors do not receive the same sample gratitude note, again and again, every time they contribute to your cause. Customizing each letter will be a great personal touch, but if not possible, you can easily just add a line or two for the donors who have been around for a long time. Look at the example below for an idea:

⭐Your continued assistance has been instrumental in achieving [specific accomplishment] and [specific accomplishment] over the years. Your support is what keeps our mission alive and makes all the difference.

7. Use Donor-Centered Language And Be Friendly

Finally, we would recommend you use warm, friendly language when writing these letters to help your contributors feel like they have been helping their team. Try to use a donor-centered tone such as ‘you’ or ‘your’ more rather than ‘we/us’.

Some useful phrases to keep in mind while writing the friendly thank you letters can be:

🎯 “Because of you”

🎯 “With your help”

🎯 “Thanks to your support”

🎯 “We couldn’t do it without you”

With that, we conclude our list of the best practices you can use to write a well-written thank you note to your donors for their generous donations. However, we have more help to give and next in our guide, we would like to provide some tips for writing each paragraph of the letter.

How To Write An Exemplary Thank You Letter For Donation

So when it comes to the specifics of the letter, let’s see how you can beautifully arrange all the context mentioned above.

📝 Introduction:

This is generally where you will salute your donor, so make sure to keep your wording friendly, heartfelt, and personal as mentioned above. You can also include the amount of the generous gift as a quick reminder to the contributor but also to acknowledge you have received the full amount.

📝 Body:

This is obviously the most important part of the gratitude letter and is where you are supposed to tell your story.

🎯 Show how grateful you are to the donors

🎯 Tell them how their donation has helped your cause

🎯 Help donors visualize how they’re making a change

🎯 Include photos or examples to boost credibility

📝 Conclusion:

Always aim to end the letter on a good note. We would recommend this is where you call them for action - such as to get in touch with your team or share a word about the campaign; do not ask for another donation here. You can also include a meaningful postscript and reiterate your gratitude.

Top 3 Thank You Letter Samples For Donation

Now, let’s look at some short but impactful sample thank you letter templates or examples that you can take inspiration from for your own letters.

💌 Thank You Letter Example # 1

💌 Thank You Letter Example # 2

💌 Thank You Letter Example # 2

Bonus: Instantly Send Thank You Messages For Donation With Crowdfundly

If you are raising donations online for your fundraising campaigns, take a look at Crowdfundly, your all-in-one SAAS solution to building your own crowdfunding platform.

Whether you are a part of a nonprofit, a small business, or an individual activist, this powerful digital solution gives you the ultimate flexibility to create and manage a fundraising platform. You can create different types of crowdfunding campaigns, allow third-party fundraisers to raise money through your campaigns, and much more.   Take a quick look at this blog to get a clearer understanding.

But, you must be wondering how this platform can help you with sending out thank you letters for donations. Well, we want to let you know that Crowdfundly has a special feature that enables you to write quick, short thank you messages to all your donors. They are instant and can be customized at any time.

This feature is the perfect way to send out a short note of gratitude to your supporters at the exact time of donation every time, without any hassle. While we encourage sending longer, more personalized letters to your donors, we also recommend you give this great feature a try. Do not miss the opportunity to show your heartfelt gratitude towards donors, immediately and effortlessly.

And with that, we would like to conclude our ultimate guide on how to write a thank you letter for donation. Let us know by commenting below if this blog was helpful in making your donors feel appreciated and bringing you more engagement; we would hear from you.

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