Ways Your Non-Profit Organization Can Show Its Appreciation to Its Donors

Managing your corporate sponsorships

Too many not-for-profit organisations complain that few businesses will donate or sponsor their events. What these organisations have failed to understand is the lack of love shown to donors for their money or inkind support.

Donors want the public to know about the donation

The reality of most donations is that the donor wants the public to know what good community citizens they are. This means you need to work with the donor to help promote their sponsorship within the local community news media.

Here are some ways you can help pass the good news.

Arrange for a press release by contacting the local media Have suitable news release material ready to hand over Take photographs of the donation handover Use social media to tell everyone of the good news

Tell your members and they will tell the world

Make full use of all your internal communication methods to let people know what the donor has done and that you appreciate their support. This is simple to do and only takes a few minutes of your time to organise.

Include the donation and organisation in your organisations newsletter to member Send all committee members and board of management an email outlining their great support from the donor Put up the news on your message boards for all staff to see Give public thanks at the Annual general meeting

Good old fashioned ways of appreciating donors

Every individual donation of more than $10 should get a personal letter from the chairman or CEO thanking them for their donation.

Corporate or larger donations should receive a letter but also get a personal phone call from a senior member to thank them. I also consider including a certificate of appreciation designed professionally so they can hang in their office to show their own staff. In some cases, you can consider including a list of donors in the local paper on a full page spread outling all the help given by these donors.

Welcome them to a celebration

Once you have completed the project or made some really good progress, invite your donors to come and meet your staff to see the good work you have done with their donation. This is a great way to build community engagement but also to show them what a difference the donor has made in people's lives. Having people personally thank them for their sponsorship or donation goes a long way. Plus this gives even more chances of getting the donation and not-for-profit message into the media to build even more help.