July 29, 2021

How to Craft the Perfect Donor Thank You Letter

For tips on how to write the perfect donor thank you letter, take a look at our list below.

donor thank you letter

When planning a fundraising event, it’s important to plan all details from beginning to end, including the thank you note to donors to wrap up your fundraiser. This may seem like an easy step to forget following the craziness of planning an event, but it’s one of the most important factors in keeping lasting support and engagement from your donors. A donor thank you letter should be informative and personal, while remaining short and to the point. For tips on how to write the perfect donor thank you letter, take a look at our list below.

  1. Be prompt: The purpose of your donor thank you letter is to thank them for their financial support, and this should be sent quickly. The faster you send out your letter, the better to ensure that donors feel appreciated and to keep your organization top of mind. Timing is key in keeping those donor relationships for future fundraising events.
  2. Share the impact: If someone donates to your cause, it’s because they care about what your organization stands for. Following your fundraising event or their donation, be sure to include details on where their money is going and what it will help your organization accomplish. This is also a great place to include the final fundraising amount raised from the event and how their individual donation helped your organization reach its fundraising goals.
  3. Tell your story: Along with the impact of their donation, be sure to include a brief story and information on your organization. By informing your audience even more about your mission and impact, they can then be confident in telling friends and peers about the organization. If possible, tell your story in a way that they can connect with and feel their impact towards the mission.
  4. Be specific: It’s important to keep your message as specific and brief as possible to make sure it’s read in its entirety. This study shows that the ideal email copy length is between 50-125 words to have the best response rate. This may seem short, but you want to keep it brief and specific in order to keep your reader’s attention the whole time. Choose your words wisely!
  5. Set your tone: This one is dependent on your organization and how you want your donor thank you letter to sound. Some approaches to take include using a casual, informal tone or a more formal style. While these will sound different, you can still effectively tell your story and keep it personal and heartfelt. When determining the tone of your thank you note to donors, keep your audience and organization in mind.
  6. Make it personal: Use their name when addressing the letter and, if possible, include the amount they personally donated to your cause. The more specific the letter can be, the more your donor will feel connected to your organization and valued on a personal level.
  7. Add visuals: If you’re following up from a fundraiser event, include one or two photos in your donor thank you letter from the event. You can also include photos of the people or causes that your organization is raising money for through its work. Images can make more memories for people, so choose impactful ones to share with them.
  8. Sign it personally: Instead of signing your donor thank you letter by the organization as a whole, have the CEO or director sign it to make it more personal. You want to show your donors that you take their donation seriously, and this is a small way.

Click here for a helpful template for your donor thank you letter. For more tips on how to write a donation thank you letter, take a look at the following articles.