Donor Acknowledgement Letter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

How To Write An Effective Donor Acknowledgement Letter For Your Nonprofit Organisation?

Nonprofits are unlike profit-oriented organisations. They often depend on their donors’ valuable contributions to keep up their work. Every donor and their donations are of great value to nonprofit organisations. 

Generally, nonprofit organisations can’t use an attractive product or offer to rope in new donations. The best approach for nonprofits is to focus on their existing donors and ensure that they have the donor’s continued support. An ideal way to accomplish this is through a donor acknowledgement letter.

Here we explain how a donor acknowledgement letter helps nonprofits and how you can implement them effectively for your organisation.

What Is A Donor Acknowledgement Letter?

As the name suggests, the donor acknowledgement letter is a letter you send to donors acknowledging their charitable donation or gift. It is also called a donation acknowledgement letter. Its primary purpose is to document an individual’s or organisation’s philanthropic donations.

Sometimes the donor acknowledgement letter can also act as a donation receipt but only occasionally. Even though the letter’s primary purpose is to document the donations and acknowledge them, it does much more than that.

Anyone who makes an effort to contribute to society through a donation deserves a whole-hearted thank you. This logic applies regardless of the size or value of the contribution or gift. Sending a donor acknowledgement letter is the easiest and most effective way to thank your valuable donors.

Why Should You Send A Donor Acknowledgement Letter?

The primary reason for sending a donor acknowledgment letter is to let the donor know you received their donation. You can also use the letter as a thank-you note to the donor. People like getting acknowledgement for the good things they do, even if that’s not their purpose of doing good.

By sending the donor acknowledgement letter you can say thank you and explain how their contribution will help the people or animals in need. Besides thanking your donors, sending acknowledgement letters enables you to.

• Confirm the receipt for a donation.
• Keep a record of the gifts you receive. 
• Build a reputation and relationship with the donors.

As an expert in direct mail marketing, we advise you always to send a donor acknowledgement letter regardless of the value of donations. However, suppose the donation’s face value is over a specific limit. In that case, you may have a legal obligation to send the appropriate documentation to your donors.

Segmenting Your Donors

Apart from the reasons we discussed above, there is another reason for you to send the donor acknowledgement letter to your organisation. Sending acknowledgement letters to your donors often requires you to segment your donors into specific categories.

The first thing you need to do is to check whether automation is possible for sending the donor acknowledgement letter from your organisation. Check whether your nonprofit CRM solution and marketing tools can handle automation well.

You will likely already have tools and the capability to automate your emails. Nonprofits can streamline the whole process by using a donor acknowledgement letter template. The downside is that people often miss online or digital messages like emails.

Try to send your donor acknowledgement letter via mail. There is something about printed mail that grabs the attention of the recipient. And for some reason, a customised letter is more personal than an email or text message.

But the best part is that you can automate your direct-mail donor acknowledgement letter just as easily as your email. All you need is an advanced print and mail solution like PostGrid. 

You can easily send a personalised acknowledgement letter to thank your donors with the click of a button. Once you have all the tools and the system for setting up the automated letters, you can quickly segment your donors. After that, you can use the segmented list to build stronger relations with your donors. 

How To Write a Donor Acknowledgement Letter For Your Organisation?

Believe it or not, sending a donor acknowledgement letter can significantly impact your relationship with the donors. It is one of the most effective ways to show how much you value your donors. However, it is essential to correctly draft a letter to have the desired impact on the audience.

The donor acknowledgement letter could be very different from your regular business letter. Ensuring an empathetic acknowledgement letter in the correct format is essential for conveying your genuine gratitude to the donors.

Below we will discuss how you can write an effective donor acknowledgment letter for your organisation. Additionally, we will also look at the crucial elements to include in your letter to ensure that the recipient gets all the necessary information. 

Best Practices For Writing Your Donor Acknowledgment Letter

Writing a donor acknowledgment letter may seem simple enough at first glance. But, if you don’t include all the necessary details in your letter, it can cause gaps in your communication. Here are the essential elements you should include in your acknowledgement letters.

Donor’s Name 

Make sure to includedonor’s name in your donor acknowledgement letter and not use generic terms like “Dear Donor.” Personalisation is essential in your acknowledgement letters because you want to show appreciation. Addressing someone with anything other than their name could give the impression that you don’t appreciate the donor. 

Full Legal Name Of Your Organisation

The donors can use your doot acknowledgement letter as proof of donation. They can submit the letters when they file their taxes and get returns for their charitable contributions. Since your donors may use acknowledgement letters for official purposes, it is best to include your organisation’s full legal name.

Declaration Of Tax-Exempt Status

It is also advisable to include the declaration of the tax-exempt status for your organisation in the acknowledgements you send out. The reason to have this declaration in your donor acknowledgement letter is the same as the one we discussed in the above case. It enables quicker tax processing for your donors and gives them more convenience.

Australian Business Number Or ABN

Another way to reassure the donors about your tax-exempt status is to include your organisation’s Australian Business Number or ABN. The ABN is an 11-digit number you get from the Australian Business Register. Registering your charity or nonprofit organisation with the Australian Charities And Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC) is essential.

Date Of Receiving The Donation/Gift

The date of receiving a donation or gift is another essential element to include in your donor acknowledgement letter. Adding this information also helps your donors to cross-check it with their expenses and tally it up during their tax filing process.

Description Of The Gift/Amount Received 

Ideally, your donor acknowledgment letter should also include details about the gift or donation your organisation received. We are not saying that you should go on endlessly about the contribution. Instead, you can briefly describe the gift, whether it is a gift or money. 

What Is The Best Format For A Donor Acknowledgement Letter?

There are no formal rules or formats for writing donor acknowledgement letters for your nonprofit organisation. You can send your organisation’s donation acknowledgement via letters, postcards, or email. 

It is okay to use any of these formats for sending your acknowledgements. However, it is always better to use a feasible channel like mail for sending your acknowledgement letters, as they can create an emotional impact. 

You can also try an approach where you use multiple channels to send the same donor acknowledgement letter to the same recipient.

There is also an option where you can pick channels for your campaigns depending on donation types or amounts.

Handwritten Letters

Imagine you are writing the donor acknowledgement letter to a benefactor who donated a considerable amount of money. In this case, the best way to show appreciation to the donor is to send a handwritten acknowledgement letter. 

You should print the donor acknowledgement letter and sign it personally. It shows that you are willing to go the extra mile and show how much you appreciate their contribution. 

Bulk Mailing

Similarly, you can also consider instances where the donor makes regular recurring payments to your nonprofit organisation. Most people donate smaller amounts to charities. It means you need bulk mailing capabilities for sending a donor acknowledgement letter to each recipient in your list.

Email

You can always use emails to keep your expenses to a minimum or need help to afford an extensive bulk mail campaign. It offers a quick and efficient way to send your donor acknowledgement letter with minimum investment. But suppose you wish to make an impression on the donors and forge a stronger relationship with them. In that case, you are better off with postal letters. 

Templates

One of the most effective ways to optimise how you send your donor acknowledgement letter and other communications is to use templates. By creating quality templates, you don’t have to make identical mail repeatedly when someone donates. 

You are probably already familiar with templates for your emails. But it may surprise you that you can also use a template for your mailers. By employing an advanced tool like PostGrid, you can use templates for sending mail correspondence, including your donor acknowledgement letter. 

Automation 

As we discussed above, templates are a great way to speed up your acknowledgement communications. But templates are practically useless if you have automation capability. You can use an automation solution like PostGrid to quickly send a donor acknowledgement letter to each person who’s donated to your organisation. 

Implementing an automated solution for sending your donor acknowledgement letter ensures that every donor receives an acknowledgement. Before you start print and mail automation you need to prepare acknowledgement letter templates necessary for the same.

What Are The Details You Should Include In A Donor Acknowledgement Letter?

We already talked about the essential elements to include in a donor acknowledgment letter and their role in the letter. The details you should have in an acknowledgement letter to express your gratitude to donors are discussed below.

Four crucial parts come in a donor acknowledgement letter, and you should include them. The four critical components that make up an effective acknowledgement letter are as follows.

• Subject/Preheader
• Opening
• Body 
• Closing 

Subject/Preheader

Ensure that your donor acknowledgement letter comes with a subject or preheader so that the recipient can quickly tell the subject of the letter. The issue or preheader should be even more prominent if you use email. Different from traditional mail, email messages often go unread.

So, you must ensure that does not happen to your email. A simple way to do this is to include phrases like “Thanks for your valuable donation” in your subject/preheader. It establishes that your email is a donor acknowledgement letter and increases its open rate.

Opening

An donor acknowledgment letter’s opening is always crucial, and you should be extra careful with it. Keep the opening simple and use it to welcome the recipient and thank them for all the support you receive. Use a simple opener like the one below to start your acknowledgement letter. 

“Dear Kendra, thank you for your selfless donation to the neighbourhood tree project!”  

You can continue the donor acknowledgement letter by explaining how the donor is making a difference and how significant their contribution is to your organisation.

Body Of The Letter

Once you finish with the pleasantries, you can start with the body of the donor acknowledgement letter. Use the body of the letter for your content. You can use the body of the letter to include vital information, such as your ABN number and ACNC details. 

Including these details in your donor acknowledgement letter makes it easier for the donor to use your letter for tax filing purposes. You don’t have to include these details if the contribution consists of non-cash donations that are not tax deductible. 

In that case, you can prepare a separate template for such letters. Make sure to include a gift description in the donor acknowledgement letter for non-cash donations. Similarly, you should have a different template for assistance received in goods and services.

Closing

By the time the recipient reaches the closing of your donor acknowledgement letter, they already have all the necessary information. You can use the close of the acknowledgement letter to thank them again one last time. 

Use this section to inform the recipient about your work. Consider giving them a general update on how you are using their donation. Finally, you can use a friendly sign-off but in an empathetic manner. Hence, the recipient knows how much you value everything they do.

Donor Acknowledgement Letter Sample

Regardless of how much we try to explain all the nifty details of an acknowledgment letter, you may still need a sample to fully understand it. Below, you can find a donor acknowledgment letter sample that can help you understand what your acknowledgments should look and feel like to the recipient.

Subject: Thank you, Kendra, for your valuable donation to the Neighbourhood Tree Project!

Dear Kendra,

We at Neighbourhood Tree Project would like to thank you for your generous donation! Thanks to donors like you, we can continue with our work and preserve trees, and protect the natural habitat of various birds and animals.

You donated $369 to the Neighbourhood Tree Project on November 5, 2023. The payment was processed through your credit card and made in support of the Neighbourhood Tree Project.

Our is a tax-exempt organisation registered under the Australian Charities And Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC). Each contribution you make significantly impacts the work we do here at Neighbourhood Tree Project.

We are happy to inform you that your donation is fully tax-deductible. There were no goods or services exchanged for your charitable contribution. Please save this letter as part of your tax records.

We would like to thank you for your dedication to saving our neighbourhood trees and the habitat of the creatures they support. We are pleased to continue working closely with you to save trees for future generations.

Sincerely,
Kieran, The Neighborhood Tree Project

Do You Need To Send A Donor Acknowledgement Letter For Every Donation?

Nonprofit organisations often have regular donors who make multiple contributions throughout the year and sometimes multiple times a month. Does that mean you must send a donor acknowledgement letter for each donation?

Consider sending the donor acknowledgement letter for every single transaction or donation. It is an excellent way to boost your engagements with donors and show that you appreciate every effort the donor makes. 

You can also send the donor acknowledgement letter periodically. For the best results, you should use an automated print and mail solution like PosGrid. The tools allow you to access two critical features that can streamline your organisation’s communication, and they are 

• Scheduled Mail 
• Triggered Mail

Triggered Mail

This feature is very similar to triggered email, which you are likely already using for your online campaigns. It uses a triggering action to determine whether or not to send a message to the target audience. What if we told you that you could do the same for your printed donor acknowledgement letter?

With an advanced print and mail API like PostGrid, sending your donor acknowledgement letter is as easy as sending a text or email. You can set up your communication system to automatically send an acknowledgement letter when someone donates.

Talk to our experts to learn how to set up a triggered mail feature for your organisation. Using a triggered mail feature, you can ensure that every donation you receive is appreciated. The system automatically sends your donor acknowledgement letter after receiving each gift.

You don’t have to constantly monitor your mailing or donations to check whether you sent a donor acknowledgement letter to the donor. As a result, you get streamlined communication with your donors, making it easier to manage your engagement efforts.

Consider including a QR Code in your donor acknowledgement letter and let the recipients scan it. The QR code can lead to a page from which donors can download their donation details in PDF file format and safe-keep them.

Scheduled Mail

Scheduled mail is a feature or capability that lets you send your donor acknowledgement letter on a predetermined schedule. You can use this feature to send acknowledgements, invoices, thank you notes, Etc., automatically to your customers.

You can use templates and quickly send your bulk mail using scheduled mail. PostGrid even provides a free template gallery and a template editor to design your business letters. 

It also lets you use custom or in-house designs for the donor acknowledgement letter and other correspondence. 

A periodical donor acknowledgement letter is ideal for donors that regularly contribute to your organisation. It allows you to optimise your print and mail operations and minimise expenses or repeat mailing.  

Since nonprofits don’t have the deep pockets of corporates, it is best to use scheduled mail to optimise your expenses. Suppose you send a donor acknowledgement letter for each donation or monthly. Even in this case, sending a summary at the end of the year is still advisable.

It is because your donors could use the letters in their tax filing. Of course, they could also use the individual letters you send. However, a year-end donor acknowledgement letter is much easier. It is also possible that the donor needs help finding the previous notes and reaching out to you requesting the yearly summary.

How To Automate Your Donor Acknowledgement Letter Using Nonprofit CRM?

Above, we briefly discussed how an automated solution could help you get the most out of your donor acknowledgement letter templates. It might surprise you to know that implementing automation for your acknowledgements is easy, even via printed mail.

You can connect an automated print and mail solution like PostGrid with your CRM solution. PostGrid can access your CRM data and use the templates to create a personalised donor acknowledgement letter for each donor.

And the best part is that you can use PostGrid to print everything from a donor acknowledgement letter to marketing direct mail. Some of the other personalised printed materials you can print and mail using PostGrid include the following.

• Direct mail postcards.
• Brochures
• Catalogues 
• Invoices 
• Business letters.
• And more

Do you want to learn how PostGrid can help you create a personalised donor acknowledgement letter and other printed materials with the click of a button? Get a FREE demo to streamline your organisation’s mail communication!

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