Everything I do on receipt of a donation

First steps to a productive partnership

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This week…

Caroline has been back on the Fundraising Everywhere horse and is planning for Trusts and Major Donors 2025 with her partner in crime, Beth Upton.

She has also re-watched both Sister Act movies and bottled the somewhat experimental elderflower champagne which we made two weeks ago (can confirm it already tastes delicious).

Sorry - got distracted for a moment there…

If you don’t know what the hell we’re talking about, Trusts and Major Donors is THE annual conference for philanthropy professionals.

Caroline and Beth have been curating it for the past two years. Our mission is to bring you actionable content and thought-provoking discourse from the most interesting and influential voices in the sector.

Find out more and get your tickets here (please note this is an affiliate link).

• Do you have ideas for speakers / sessions?

• Who do you most want to hear from?

• Which one topic would make attending this conference a HELL YES for you

• Do you know Michael Sheen and can you introduce us (he’s top of our wishlist along with George Clooney)?

Please reply to this email with all your ideas. We really want to hear from you.

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Today’s article…

…is the first in a cultivation, stewardship, relationship building content bonanza!

These are arguably the most important things you’ll do as a fundraiser, but can so often fall by the wayside in the face of a giant target and diminishing prospects. Scrabbling around for short term funds is often prioritised over building deep and authentic relationships with supporters.

So to help out, for June and July, we’ll be sharing practical guides, case studies and inspiring and creative ideas to support all those fundraising activities which happen post donation.

We have big ambitions for The Nest Egg for the rest of the year and will send an extra email or two over the next few weeks to let you know more.

Bring on the summer!

GIF description: a woman jumping onto a rainbow unicorn pool floatie and immediately tipping over.

Thanks again for being part of our community. We’re so grateful to you all,

Tony and Caroline

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Everything I do on receipt of a donation

by Caroline Danks

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Picture description: a person holding a fanned out wad of $20 notes in front of their face

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I don’t know about you, but I love learning about how other fundraisers do things - maybe I’m just a bit nosy?

Here’s everything I like to do on receipt of a donation.

Feel free to copy / steal / share your version by replying to this email!

First thing’s first - phone them

The purpose of this call is threefold:

• to say thank you

• to go through any admin which will enable you to receive the gift into your bank account

• to ask about reporting preferences / requirements

Let’s explore each of these more detail:

1. Say thank you

Few people do this (over the phone) and yet it is SO appreciated by donors (the phone is novel nowadays), especially, those who make relatively small donations and where the recipient is a large charity.

As soon as you receive a gift, pick up the phone immediately and say something along the following lines:

• “We received your gift today, of course I’ll pop a thank you letter in the post but I wanted to let you know straight away that its arrived.

• Thank you so much, it really will make a difference to X.

• I’ve told the team and they’re thrilled, you’ve really made their day.

• I look forward to sending a report to let you know how we’ve spent your money.”

I did this a lot when I worked at the National Trust. Despite being a large national charity, there were many teams based in small, rural locations with limited opportunities for commercial income or membership sales.

For these, working in off-the-beaten-track locations, small gifts of three or four figures were often the difference between a project happening and not happening.

During these thank you calls, funders would routinely sound surprised and gratified to know that their gift really was going to make a difference.

They didn’t expect to hear from me and definitely had pre-conceived notions of how much a charity like the National Trust would appreciate a gift of c. £500.

A short video message is another way of relaying your immediate thanks, especially given that it is so much harder to get hold of people on the phone than it used to be.

If the grant is for a specific project, try and see if you could get someone from the delivery team, or one of your clients / beneficiaries to send a short message of thanks.

2. The admin bit

Chances are, you’ll have received notification of the gift via email.

Many donors will also request additional information which then allows them to transfer the funds, e.g. bank details.

Use your phone conversation to reassure them that you’ve seen and understood the instructions and let them know when and how you plan to respond.

This gives the funder confidence that you have your shit together and it readies them to send the money.

You can also reference your phone call when you later reply to the email.

When the funder receives the follow up email, they’ll be able to hear your actual voice when they read it. It will be instantly more meaningful (one reason why I constantly feel like we should be doing a LarkOwl podcast to accompany these emails…).

3. Plan the next steps

It’s then really important that you make a note of these requirements and ensure to build sufficient time into your calendar to prepare the report.

• Some donors will have a specific form they’d like you to fill in, or questions they’d like answered within a report.

• Some will require reporting before the grant period is up, others will require multiple reports in that period - make a note of these.

• Trusts and foundations tend towards a more formalised / structured reporting process.

For donors that don’t ask for anything specific, you should aim to send a written report of how you’ve spent their money and how’s it’s made a difference, within 12 months of receiving a gift, as a bare minimum.

Ensure you allocate ample time to report back properly. It’s still a fact that a huge number of charities fail to meet even the most basic of reporting requirements.

Allow this brutal excerpt from a charitable trust’s annual review allow me to illustrate the point:

Post phone call

You’ve phoned, thanked them, established their reporting requirements and made a note of when you’ll need to follow up.

Other actions you may wish to take at this stage:

• Send a thank you letter (maybe wait until you’ve received the cash - this can then serve as a receipt as well as a further confirmation of your gratitude).

• Depending on the size of the gift and the donor, you may need to consult your Gift Acceptance Policy and / or undertake due diligence.

• Involve others in saying thank you (depending on who the donor is and how they came to support your organisation) consider who else may wish to issue a personal thanks? Who may the donor be especially suprised / delighted to hear from?

• Is now a good time to set up an informal meeting with the donor?

I’ve seen (from my years of practice) these steps as effective foundations for strong and enduring relationships.

It’s really basic when you think about it (phone call + fulfilling basic reporting requirements) and yet so often the receipt of a gift is viewed as the end of a process rather than the beginning of something beautiful.

Next week, we’ll be exploring how to go above and beyond in your stewardship activities - do subscribe if you haven’t already so you don’t miss out!

What are your go to post-gift activities?

Is there something new you’ve tried recently which has really worked?

Hit reply and tell us more!