Do thank you phone calls to charitable donors increase future giving? Yes, and here’s the evidence.
The TL;DR.
Thank you calls increase future giving by over 30%.
One call per year is enough, even for monthly donors.
Effectiveness of the call doesn’t drop off for the first 90 days after the donation.
But even if calls are made much later, they will still have an effect on an appeal upcoming in 4-6 weeks.
Board members calling appear to have the most effect on future giving compared to staff or volunteers.
The Research
Cygnus Applied Research is one of the most widely respected research organizations in charitable fundraising. Their principal researcher is Penelope Burk, and her book, Donor Centered Fundraising: How to hold on to your donors and raise much more money, has the status of an industry handbook. (You should buy a copy).
In proposing that non-profits engage in thank you calls it is worth asking: does it matter? According to the fundraisers I’ve worked with, yes it does—a lot.
Ms. Burke has the research to back that assertion, and it is useful to share some quotes from her book as encouragement.
Quotes from the book:
““I included the following hypothetical question in our…research…on donor recognition and communication:
What if you made a modest, first-time gift to a not-for-profit, then, within a matter of days, a member of the Board of Directors of the organization you supported called just to say thank you. What would you think if that happened and then, what would you do the next time you were asked to give?
This question achieved the highest positive rate of response when compared with all others in the survey. 95% of donors said they would very much appreciate receiving such a call….93% said they would definitely or probably give again…84% of those who would give in the next request would definitely or probably make a larger gift than before; and 74% would continue to give indefinitely, with many respondents adding that they would not need to receive a thank you call from a Board member every time they gave.” pg. 98.
“In a study of 17,000 donors, one in three respondents reported having received at least one thank you call sometime during the previous year. 34% of those donors said their decision to give again was entirely or largely due to the call they had received. Among that group, 21% made a more generous gift, again because of the thank you call. Voicemails were just as effective…33% of respondents who listened to a thank you message on voicemail said that it convinced them to give again…Some were so impressed with the call that they made additional unsolicited gifts almost immediately.” pg. 101. ”
Is a Board Member a good person to make the call? YES.
Penelope Burk, Donor Centered Fundraising, pg 102
You may ask how many calls you can expect a board member to make. In My Thank You Call Journey I document the (on-going) results of my commitment to make thank you calls as a board member of a local charity. I work full-time, and have many other commitments, so I average 40 calls per month, about an hour per week. That’s not enough to keep up with all the calls that could be made. Thus, a thank you call program may need to be selective about who to call and may need to involve multiple board members and staff as well.
Do Donors Need to be Called Every Time they Give? Do they need to be called Frequently? NO!
“Donors in our original test were called only once over a two-year period in which they were asked to give again six times. Twenty-four months after…the test group’s retention rate was 42% higher than that of the control group”. Pg 107.
Ms. Burk answers some additional questions on the AFP-Connect Open Forum, members-only discussion board. 6-21-2023
“I have research data that addresses a number of observations/concerns that have been expressed in respect to making thank you calls to donors. By way of background, I first brought the evidence on how thank you calls influence loyalty and future gift value to the fundraising industry in 2000 (OMG, 23 years ago) in Canada and 2003 in the US. Since then, I and my firm, Cygnus Applied Research, have continued to conduct research on this topic. Our latest study involved 7,000+ donors, all of whom had received at least one thank you call during the previous 12-month period. Here is some information that may be useful:
In reference to length and content, thank you calls are meant to be very short -- just saying thanks and not using the call for any other purpose. A tested script can be found in my book, Donor-Centered Fundraising, within a chapter devoted to structuring thank you calls and describing the research that demonstrates why they are so effective.
To avoid donors misunderstanding the purpose of your call -- ie, thinking that you are calling to ask for more money soon after they gave -- thank you calls need to be made soon after the gift has been received. Donors in our research say within one month is "OK", but it's better to make those calls within a a few days after receiving the gift.
What is the gift amount threshold for calling donors to say thank you? I have been arguing for calling first-time donors (whose gift values are traditionally the lowest) ever since our first research was published. Because thank you calls are so good at sustaining loyalty and because first-time donors are the most likely to NOT renew, improving donor retention is your best strategy for increasing fundraising profit. Never mind gift value; it is very often a misleading piece of information. All donors deserve thank you calls, but if you want to make the most money in the future, call first-time donors.
When I first started testing thank you calls, 50% were left on voicemail. If you made calls today, it would be closer to 90%. The really good news is that when measuring the ability of thank you calls to influence future renewal and higher gift values, messages left on voicemail are statistically equal to reaching donors in person. So just call, leave a message and move on. If you do reach someone in person, well you're extra lucky.
Penelope Burke, Cygnus Applied Research
Further research, controversy and discussion
A large study conducted over 6 years by an academic researcher, Anya Samek, and Chuck Longfield, former Chief Scientist at Blackbaud, published on-line in 2019 at SSRN, reported that there was no effect on future giving from making thank you calls.
Was this study definitive? No, it appears it was a special case.
A review of the result on the American Economic Association website suggested the utility of thank you calls “deserves more scrutiny”.
In fact, researcher and paper author Samek raised questions about their own study:
“We did find some evidence that people who reacted positively to the calls were more likely to donate in the future.
There is a great deal yet to be learned. Smaller charities often use board members or volunteers to make calls, and the impact of calls made by these groups is an open question. Further, our calls were made months following the initial donation, but calls made closer to the date of the donation could also be more effective.” - Anya Samek
Others have questioned the methodology of the study and its applicability to other non-profits.
Penelope Burke’s response to the study points out among other issues, that
the study called donors to public television who gave to on-air fundraising drives that typically involve a gift or benefit in exchange for the donation,
that the thank you calls were made by a paid call center employee not by the non-profit,
and the call was made 7-9 months after the gift.
An article on Donor Voice also covers methodology issues with the Samek/Longfield study, and includes detailed comments from several other leading practitioners.
Boomerang, in Actually, Calling Donors to Thank Them Does Make Them More Likely to Give Again (And Give More) also reports on the limitations of the Samed/Longfield study and reports on their own large scale study which shows an increase in retention of first time donors from 33% to 41%, and an increase of the median gift size for the second gift from $50 to $100 if a thank you call is made within 90 days of the gift.
Professor Adrian Sargeant in Lessons From Philanthropic Psychology: How to Thank Your Donors and Double Giving recommends
Thank throughout the year, in print, by email and by phone
Thank you’s that arrive 4-6 weeks…in advance of a campaign can have a massive impact on the response…and gift size”. [My comment: This is why we also advocate for donor impact emails, newsletters and or postcards between appeals.]
Thanking the donor for the impact they have made is the most effect thank you, verses thanking for the gift, or telling the donor how grateful the caller is.
Additional anecdotal info from the
afore-mentioned AFP discussion board
Posted 06-13-2023 08:34 AM
Hi all,
I have to say - I'm a HUGE fan of making phone calls. Our org tries to call every single donor at least once per year. We engage volunteers with monthly "thank you banks", ask Board Members to make calls, and our staff make calls throughout the year. I wholeheartedly believe that it is what sets us apart from other non-profits and why we have a great retention rate. In fact, I recently met with a donor who had never answered her phone - we have always left voicemails - but we connected over email. The very first thing she said to me when we sat down was how much she appreciates the calls and how that has always meant so much to her!! What a great way to start a conversation!!
A few things I will say based on other poster's feedback:
Yes, we all hate answering our own phones, especially when we don't know the number. I would say we leave voicemails for about 80-90% of the calls we make.
Yes, it can be awkward at first when you do get someone who answers. We do two things: 1) assure the donor that we are only calling to thank them; 2) have a 'pre-loaded' question to ask them.
It's also great if you can share the impact of their gift right off the bat, as that tends to put people out of "what do they want" mode, and more into "wow that's cool" mode.
Questions to get them talking should be related to how well you know the donor and how they made the gift if possible. For example:
I see this is your first gift! Welcome to our family of supporters! May I ask what inspired you to donate today/this week?
Thanks for attending our event! Do you have any feedback you'd like to share with the planning committee?
I know last time we spoke, you were interested in our XYZ program. Do you have some time for me to share an update with you?
We had an event last week, so we're calling everyone who made a gift that night. You'll see that we script 3 things for volunteers: if they leave a message, if they get the person on the line, and if the person answers but doesn't seem to want to talk. We give volunteers a list of about 20 names, phone numbers, and any pertinent additional info (sponsor, Board member [yes, they get calls too!], committee member, etc.). We also ask volunteers to take notes and then capture that in our CRM.
All in all, I am a big proponent of calls. In today's digital age, it stands out and it makes a donor feel SEEN. I can't tell you how many meaningful conversations I've had with donors during those calls - many of which led to further cultivation and larger gifts. Definitely worth it in my book!!
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Shannon Boltz
Chief Development Officer
sboltz@safehouse-denver.org
Here’s some more great advice about making thank you phone calls
Advice from Five Maples: My Thank You Call Journey
Advice from Bonterra Your quick checklist for brilliant donor thank-you calls
Advice from Clariifcation at Bloomerang 7 Keys to Rock Thank You Calls and Retain More Donors
Also from Bloormerang: Which First-Time Donors Should You Make Thank You Phone Calls To?
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Written by
Gary Henricksen
