FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

New Organization? Creating Your First Thank You Letter

ThankYouMary

When you’re new to using donor management software, one of the things you will do is create your first thank you letter. Even if you’ve been using the software for a while, you’ll probably create new letters, so a lot of what we’ll cover will apply to long-time users of the software as well. One of the biggest tasks of writing a thank you letter is deciding what to say. You want to strike a balance between conveying your organization’s mission and thanking the donor, while being personable, yet professional.

Within our software we provide a template to get you started. While we call this our “Generic Thank You Letter”, there certainly will be nothing generic about it once you’ve followed our lead. We provide the template, including automatically adding in merge fields for the gifts and the donor’s address. And more importantly, we provide pointers to give you an idea of what to write.

Before you even begin with creating your letter in the software, it’s important to know what you want to say. For a thank you letter, starting off by thanking the donor is a good first step. Next, tell the donor a little bit about what their donation has allowed your organization to do. It might seem obvious, for example donating money to an animal rescue allows the purchase of food or medical care for animals, and yet, putting concrete outcomes into the letter helps the donor to visualize what is happening. Saying that for each $5 donated, you can purchase 10 pounds of food or enough food to feed 50 hungry animals, is something that the donor can understand and hopefully respond to. Finally, it’s good to advise ways for the donor to keep connected, whether through a website, a newsletter, social media, or through other means. A way to learn more about your organization’s work is always a nice touch.

When you’re ready, open up the word processor and the generic thank you letter, if you’d like to work from our template, and start editing. If you wish to build your thank you letter from scratch, the word processor will open up to the default template, and you can begin typing. When you’re done, give your letter a code (for example TY001 or TYGENERAL) and click on FILE > SAVE AS to save your letter with its new name.

Now, every time you enter in a gift, select your new thank you letter from the drop down box. When you use our automated correspondence feature to send your thank you letters, it will send the selected letter to the donors.

Within FundRaiser, you’re able to have as many thank you letters as you need, which means you can customize them for any occasion. Need help? Reach out to our friendly support staff.

If you'd like more help on editing or creating thank you letters, we welcome you to contact FundRaiser Technical Support at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 800-543-4131

Moving up the Donor Management Ladder
Our Heartfelt Thanks As We Roll into the New Year

Related Posts

Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
increasing giving amounts targeted mailings legacy giving grants building donor relationships LYBUNTS Personalizing mode code adding personal notes to letters holiday letters online donations Thank You Task List large donations direct mail government grants security thank you letters New Year new donors on site training product news upgrading donors volunteering accounting software membership benefits moves management Groupings PayPal upgrade pictures customer portal publicity materials overview backing up data welcome packet reports social media online donations donor recognition small donations personalizing letters anonymous donors event management raffle tribute gifts campaign management appeal letters holiday solicitors End of Year Letters ticket sales relationship tracking In-Kind gifts Constant Contact entering auction gifts donor prospects GoFundMe project giving history Codes donor attrition rate membersip benefits Facebook campaign Snow Birds Donor Portal gift entry fundraising endowment campaign major gift prospects case study flash sales volunteers Tickles role of nonprofits donor targeting in honor of donations ticketsales lapsed donor features advanced tab nonprofit fundraising donor new nonprofit donor advised funds appeal announcements donor contact information follow up happiness mailing donor loyalty custom page donor retention rate Congratulations mission driven communications FundRaiser Hosted donor source NCOA processing community broadcasting membership programs texting donors Reporting to IRS GivingTuesday user interface arts Importing Data campaign Volunteer module capital campaign correspondence Resiliency National Change of Address community supported gardens how to handle auction gifts importing csv transparency user spotlights data conversion merge notes donor slip letter annual maintenance plan Excel community arts nonprofits auction donation history memorial giving #GivingTuesday data entry training tip Crowdfunding Campaign animal rescue holiday giving donor relations phoning donors board members segmenting donors SYBUNTS giving levels spreadsheets passwords Network for Good donor attrition operating systems customer service banquet correspondance Cloud brick campaign planned giving premiums technical support corporate sponsors alumni motivation change of address updating how-to videos donor retention foundations new version recurring gifts look and feel Alternative Addresses development director major donors password protection pledges FundRaiser Basic grassroots campaign charity golf tournaments add ons gift notes field motivation code new leadership annual campaign salutation operational costs email spare fields budget Facebook updates monthly giving general donor engagement prospects FundRaiser Spark support ROI gift acceptance policy data analysis merge fields donor preferences vacation disaster relief planning office the Ask Company culture tech tip tax summary letters Thanksgiving donor profile understanding giving trends Reminders repeat donors fundraising letters word processor training letter templates new features

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

   

The customer portal is unavailable. If you need support please reach out to support@fundraisersoftware.com Thank you.

 

  User Name:
  Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password