With a highly personalised 'thank you', you can touch supporters and inspire your staff at the same time. Read how Friends of the Earth, charity: water, Terrence Higgins Trust and National Autistic Society did it. By Jenny Ramage.

Last week I attended the hen do of a very dear friend of mine. When thinking about a present to bring, I wanted to do something that showed her how much I appreciated her support and loyalty over the years.

I decided to design both a special card and the wrapping paper for her gift. I went to the arts and crafts shop in town, bought some supplies, found some vintage newspapers from the early part of the 20th Century in a charity shop, and hunted around for a paper bag I could customise with my own design. I spent an entire afternoon cutting, sticking, sewing and colouring. I ended up with something I felt truly represented both her and our friendship.

Satisfied with my efforts and feeling rather proud, on the night I presented her with the hand-made card and the gifts complete with personalised wrapping paper. She was delighted, of course. Wiping away a tear, she asked me: “Did you enjoy making these?” And I said: “Yes! I absolutely loved it!”

Being genuine
It made me think about the importance not just of saying thank you, but of saying it in the most genuine and personal way possible. Indeed some charities are going a step beyond sending out generic thank-you emails, or including the obligatory ‘thanks-so-much-for-your-ongoing-support’ statement on the start (or even worse, right at the end) of their monthly newsletter. They recognise that, with the ever-rising costs of recruiting donors, keeping hold of the ones you already have is really darn important - and what better way to make a supporter feel truly appreciated than to devote a little time and/or make a special effort, just for them?

Take charity:water. On their fifth birthday they made this video, which shows staff members thanking individual donors by writing personalised letters, emails, calling them on the phone, and making over 250 personalised thank-you videos.

The video was so effective, it has inspired several other charities to have a go at something similar. The National Autistic Society (NAS) established a dedicated thank-you day; once a year, staff in its head office each select a bunch of donors to call up and personally thank. Last year they had about 80 staff members involved, and were able to thank 1,500 supporters personally. A further 32,000 received a thank-you email with a link to the video that was made of the day.

“Some supporters were a bit taken aback”, said Carolyne Coupel, the charity’s head of individual giving, “that a charity should call them just to say thank you - and that it was the actual staff calling them, including our senior managers and trustees. I think that for supporters it adds a level of authenticity you just don’t get when using an agency to make thank-you calls”.

A step beyond
Having a real, two-way conversation with supporters to say thank you is certainly one of the best ways to connect with them. But is there a way we can make our thank-you communications even more personal, both for supporters and staff? I think back to how much I loved making that card and designing that wrapping paper. There was something about using my hands in the process of saying thank you to my friend that made the experience extra special - both for me, and for my friend.

Last week, the staff at Terrence Higgins Trust spent their lunch breaks making thank-you boards for the charity’s marathon runners. “We had about 50 runners, and we came up with the idea of making every one of them a unique board, with their name individually decorated by someone in our team,” said the charity’s community fundraising manager, Kiera Ridge. “We set up a couple of lunchtime arts and crafts sessions, and invited everyone from our head office to come in and make the boards. We then made a video using those boards to say thank you to everyone.”

The video went live at 6pm on Monday, and by first thing Tuesday morning it had received over 90 likes on the charity’s Facebook page. “And the momentum is still going, we are getting lots of lovely comments from our runners”, says Kiera.

Friends of the Earth has also been on a creative tip; on a recent away-day, the staff made personalised thank-you cards for donors. They also made a video. Joe Jenkins, the charity’s director of fundraising, communications & activism, believes there is real value behind giving a simple thanks, without it being merely a wrapper for a financial ask: “One colleague wrote a really lovely card to a supporter, and he got a letter back from them saying how how nice it was to receive something from a charity that wasn’t about how great the charity was or asking for money, but just saying thank you.”

The joy of making
Giving your staff the opportunity to be creative, to make something that means something, can be really beneficial to them, as well as to supporters. Evidence in social psychology shows that creating things by hand makes us feel vital and effective. It fosters pride and satisfaction. It elevates mood. Hand-making personalised cards, boards or banners will help get your staff even more engaged with your charity’s cause - which, in turn, will make them better at their jobs.

Whatever size your charity is, you can probably quite easily organise a ‘creative lunch’ (or evening) for your staff. You could buy in a few bits and pieces to make cards or banners from - or, to keep costs down, you could ask your staff to bring along any spare arts and crafts materials they may have lying around - buttons, stickers, ribbon, etc. Lay on some sandwiches and drinks if you can - it will give people that little added incentive to participate. Get your staff to personally address and sign their cards. Given an hour, each participant could produce at least two cards (and that’s a conservative estimate). If you have ten staff, that’s 20 cards you could send out to your top supporters in a lunch break - for little more (or even less) than the cost of paying for a bundle of generic thank-you cards.

The benefits are two-fold: first, your donors will be surprised and delighted. Being thanked in such an unexpected way will make them feel really appreciated. They will be touched by the personal care and attention that’s gone into acknowledging their support. And secondly, you’ll be giving your staff the opportunity to relax and have fun together while letting their creative juices flow. It will help them to bond - with each other, and with the cause.

Crossing the divide
Don’t just make it a fundraising team thing - get people from across all the charity’s functions involved. “We had a mixture of people in that room who don’t necessarily see each other on a daily basis, all chatting and building relationships”, said Kiera.

Joe says the Friends of the Earth creative away-day was its most successful team-building event yet: “We got really positive feedback. People were really inspired, and they brought that inspiration back to the office. It really changed how people went about their day-to-day jobs.”

Carolyne said NAS’s thank-you day has really helped make a difference to the charity’s overall culture. “Getting people involved across the charity has enabled them to connect better with our supporters, and to recognise the importance of fundraising. It’s helping us to create a cultural shift towards becoming more of a fundraising led charity.”

Next week, The Fundraiser will be exploring in more depth how NAS’ thank-you day fits in with the charity’s ambitious plans to grow its fundraising income stream - so stay tuned.