Open the Window!

The instant a donor makes a gift, it opens. The window, that is. It’s a window many organizations don’t even know about it.

For a short time, that donor will be more attuned to your cause than at any other time in your collective relationship.

Think about it psychologically. The donor has just made a decision to choose your nonprofit over every other one trying to get a gift from you. They’re looking for some sign that their decision was a good one. More so than at any other time, they’re paying attention.

Do they hear from you during this critical time? Not in a month or when the next campaign rolls around. They want/expect to hear from you right away.

Is your organization letting this moment go to waste? If an automatic receipt followed by a run-of-the-mill “thank you for your generous support” in the inbox of the donor is all you can muster, what you’ve really done is confirm that you received the gift. And nothing else.

That window of opportunity I mentioned is now wasted. You spent it on a generic thank you receipt.

But what if you treated that window as the single highest-engagement opportunity in your entire communication  process?

You can do this by:

• a thank you that tells a specific story

• a thank you that shows the donor exactly what their decision made possible

• a thank you that treats the donor like someone who just did something meaningful-not someone who just completed a transaction.

The nonprofit organizations that do this right are not sending better receipts. They’re recognizing that the after-the-gift moment determines whether a donor drifts away quietly or leans in closer.

The next time a donor makes a gift, take advantage of that ever so brief window of opportunity.