What is it like to make thank you calls to your charitable donors and what happens when you do? Here’s My Thank You Phone Call Journey.

First-Hand Accounts of Donor Thank You Calls are Missing

There are plenty of listicles and advice blogs on the web about making thank you phone calls to charitable donors. Plus a few articles about the research. I’ve curated some of the best research and advice in Do Thank You Calls Work.

But I don’t find any first-hand accounts for what it’s actually like to do it. So, I decided to share my experience as a board member making such calls. I hope you find it helpful. 

Why I Decided to Start Making Donor Thank You Calls

I’m on the board of a local non-profit that provides a shelter, food, clothing and counseling for the unhoused. I got involved because my spouse was volunteering there in the kitchen and donation room every week and we’d been monthly donors for some years.

I wanted to see how I else I could help.

The development team consists of one full time Development Manager, a consultant helping with research and major giving advice and a volunteer managing Little Green Light (LGL).

As a fundraiser one of my first thoughts was what is our donor stewardship process?

Each board member, the ED and the Development Manager are assigned specific major donors to steward and there was a process around how to do that. So that was good.

For all donors, in addition to the automatic transaction acknowledgement, they were sending both an email and a postal thank you letter for each gift, plus monthly donor-centric e-newsletters, and twice-yearly printed newsletters and appeal letters. Also good!

But, except for major donors assigned to the ED, Dev Manager and board members, there wasn’t a process for thank you calls.

No surprise at that.  

Fundraising Staff Struggle to Find the Time to Make Thank You Calls 

Every day the ED and Dev Manager face a long list of essential tasks and immediate deadlines. Finding the time to call non-major donors isn’t realistic in many small shops. I’d say at least half the non-profits I talk to don’t have a process for calling annual fund donors….those who aren’t considered major or leadership donors. That, of course, is like 90% of the donors not getting a phone call.

In the shops I talk to that are calling these annual fund donors it is usually a staff member making the calls. Just the other day I talked to a staff member at a medium sized non-profit who was making 40 calls every day. After bowing in homage, I asked how she found the time. Her reply: it’s in my job description and I’m given the time to do it.

Now, according to Penelope Burke’s research, the renewal rate increase from thank you calls when board members make the calls is higher than when staff or volunteers make the calls. But, my experience (and most everyone’s) is that the board member who is willing to reliability make multiple phone calls every week is rare. So, that’s why mostly staff do it. But our one person shop has very little time for phone calls.

So that’s what I volunteered to take on. 

What is My Donor Thank You Call Process? 

My process follows the following rules:

1. Call the following donors:
   1. All new donors and all returning after being lapsed more than a year.
   2. Current donors once per year if they give $100 or more per year. Not ideal, but it keeps the quantity manageable.
   3. All monthly donors once per year.
   4. Exclude donors already assigned to staff or board members. This organization is too small to have a major gifts officer; but 50+ top donors are assigned to board members or staff, who make those calls.
   5. Exclude donors marked anonymous.
2. Timing goal.
   1. Finish each bi-weekly set of donations before the next one arrives.
   2. Spend 1 to 2 hours per week making calls.
3. Keeping a record. I enter a call report in LGL for each call made even if it was just “Thank you call, left voice mail”, but more detail if we talked. If the contact information has changed I send that as an LGL task to the LGL volunteer. Or if some follow-up is needed from the Dev Manager I send a task to her.
4. When to call?
   1. I usually call on a weekday afternoon sometime between 3:30 – 6:00, often on a Friday. It’s what fits my schedule.
   2. Keep in mind that the average donor age in the US is 65 years old. In other words, half or more of donors are retired and may be at home during the day.
   3. But in any case, I’m not trying to optimize for the number of people who answer the phone…since Burke’s data shows that voice mails are as effective as live calls.
5. Where to call from? I’ve called both from the office of the non-profit using their phone and from my mobile phone. I don’t find any difference in how many people pick up based on which phone I use.
   1. Admittedly, that’s a small sample and not conclusive.
   2. A call from either the homeless shelter office or from my mobile phone is likely to look like marketing spam in any case.
   3. And if someone has caller ID and they see it’s the homeless shelter calling, it’s often likely they’ll not pick up: they don’t want to risk getting asked for a gift by phone.
   4. I get a lot more calls made if I call from home...it’s just more efficient.
   5. Will I regret using my mobile phone number? Well, I’ve made hundreds of ‘get out the vote’ phone bank calls using my mobile phone and now lots of donor thank you calls. Only twice has anyone called me back (both positive calls). And I’ve experienced no spam or marketing calls so far as I know from doing this.
6. Thinking like a board member: what I learn about the donor before calling and why.
   1. I’ve got a login to LGL, and I look at the giving history, volunteer history and other info about the donor that is in there before I call. I want to properly acknowledge them, especially for their giving history. I’ve got enough trust equity with the team to allow me that LGL access.
   2. I live in a small New England town; the population of the county is only 35,000. I’ve worked and raised money in this town for two decades. I know some of these people I’m going to call. If they are a business person I may want to quickly check out their business first. Or, I might look them up on LinkedIn. I might have met them at an event or see them at a future event. They may have been involved in something I’m familiar with. I don’t spend much time doing this, but it helps in certain cases.
   3. The point is that while much of this calling effort is admittedly transactional, I’m interested in building relationships; so, if someone answers I’ll know how to engage.
   4. I’m not being paid by number of calls I can check off in the software!! I’m not a hired gun. I’m a board member and I care about the organization, the donors and the community. A few of them are already my friends, former work-mates or social contacts.
   5. I’m at every event for this organization; I want some memory of who I’ve reached out to, even by voice mail; I might meet some of the people I’ve called at those events😊.
   6. Another way to say this is, I’m thinking like your local insurance agent, Edward Jones advisor, real estate agent, etc.
   7. This might not apply in a metro area with a large constituency.
7. How much time does it take me? Checking them out on LGL, recording the call in LGL, and recording the call in the spreadsheet I use to keep track of what I’ve done, takes an average of 3-4 minutes. The call itself averages 1 minute for a voice mail and 3-10 minutes for a live call.
8. That means I average about 10 calls an hour. To be honest, I wish I could go faster. I know a paid call center would rip through these fast. But, that’s not really what it is about. See above!
9. If the phone number is no longer in service I send a note in LGL to the data manager to research it.

Note that this process doesn’t meet the standard that some recommend of “calling within 48 hours” or “calling within 1 week”.

• Evidence from some of the research is that calls within 90 days are still effective.

• Without a dedicated staff member who’s #1 task is to make those calls, it is unrealistic to expect a volunteer board member to make all those calls within 48 hours or 1 week, especially if suddenly there are 200 calls to make from the latest appeal.

Why not sign up another board member to do so? I’ve tried to recruit another one, but without success. Each board member is there for a specific reason, whether programs, HR, legal, finance, facilities, etc. They didn’t join to make dozens of phone calls. We’ll be happy if they do their assigned major donor stewardship work. 

Here’s my script for voice mails: 

Hello Mr./Mrs. X. My name is Gary Henricksen and I’m a volunteer and Board member of (name of organization). I’m not calling to ask you for anything. I am reaching out on behalf of the board and the organization to thank you for your generous donation (this winter, etc). With your donation we were able to (….insert impact). Without your donation we couldn’t do it. Thank you so much. You are really making a difference. Blessings on you and have a great evening.

If the call goes live I add some pauses to see if they want to talk and might ask a question like: What led you to make your first donation? Or, Have you visited the new facility?

What happens when someone does answer the phone? Two reactions:

1. At the first pause almost everyone says something like “Oh, thank you so much for the call. It’s such an important mission. You can count on me to keep giving”. I love that reaction.

2. Only twice has someone hung up on me, and that happened as soon I said “Hi, I’m Gary Henricksen” They immediately assumed I was a telemarketer and hung up. Perfectly understandable. I take no offense. I have some cards that I can use to drop a thank you note in the mail to them. 

Have there been any upside surprises?

A few: several donors have given again online within a day or two of my thank you voice mail. And the conversation with one donor I did talk with resulted in an invitation to setup a presentation at his retirement community and to host an ask in his apartment. 

Will we be able to measure the results from this effort?

Not directly. It isn’t an A/B test. The effect of this activity can’t be isolated from all the other communications, especially since the frequency of emails, direct mail, events and Facebook posts has increased this year.

These calls serve a purpose beyond expected dollars. They build support, make advocates of donors, help them feel part of the team, improve the reputation of the non-profit, set it apart from others, increase the probability of volunteerism or attendance at events.

These phone calls are a way to build community and lift spirits. 

You’ve Made My Day! 

Here’s what really motivates me to keep going: When donors do answer the phone, I can tell from the pleasure in their voices that I’VE MADE THEIR DAY. Their pleasure reflects back into me…and I look forward to dialing that next number. Plus, the increased retention and revenue from this effort will help meet the many urgent needs of the organization, that as a board member, I’m all too aware of. 

Here’s what my call log looks like after 4 months of calling: 

View fullsize

Well, I’ve only been able to reach 83 donors so far out of 181 gifts in the last 4 months. And that doesn’t include donors giving less than $100 per year unless they are new or recovered. It’s a long ways from reaching everyone.

But, the future boost in giving from those I am reaching will be worth it. Not to mention the collateral benefits in good will and connection.

I’ll update this log from time to time.

Meanwhile, I hope you can get started and keep going on thank you calls, if you haven’t already. 

Written by
Gary Henricksen

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