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UC Riverside (Events Management & Protocol team) For the events that were soon to be launched, we have incorporated some language on our event envelopes that gives us some flexibility. |
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Convert Event Tickets to Donations
Offer ticket-holders the "option" to convert their ticket purchase into a donation. Whereas before they could not have claimed tax credit for the amount of the ticket, by converting it to a gift they continue to support the organization they've already demonstrated interest in, but now it's tax-deductible. Follow up with those who choose the donation option with a special touch or two. Examples:
How are you handling acknowledgments and receipts?
The responses below have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Via Email
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All donors $5k+ will get an e-sig letter from our AVP of Philanthropy instead of the dean or EVPHA. Our thinking was that a letter from either Dean or EVPHA would look callous or fake. Once we return to normal (whatever that is), we’ll go ahead and send the letters we would have originally sent. We are also identifying a handful of donors/prospects our EVPHA or Dean can call right now.
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We are going fully remote, and where I was writing the Dean’s letters and having him personally sign them, he is now emailing them from his personal email account (well, one of his accounts). We had already transitioned to mostly digital email acknowledgements, except for the few for whom we don’t have email addresses. Our staff will send these out from their homes. We decided against emailing a PDF, as too many steps for the donor. Just an email.
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We are recommending changing our process to have the acknowledgment come from the signatory’s email based on our usual workflow for who signs what (dean/unit head/VP/president). I also provided recommended language for the acknowledgment to be coming via email vs. letter. With changing workloads and lack of solicitations the one thing we can all focus on is timely stewardship!
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We are shifting everything we can to email, and our acknowledgments team took home some paper stock/envelopes/stamps to cover the constituents that don’t have email addresses in our database.
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We already had switched Dean’s notes to email and were in process to transition anything below that threshold to simply email anyway (no PDF).
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We are also now in a full remote scenario but there will be a handful of staff who will go in for a limited number of hours each week and can help print and mail letters/receipts so we anticipate those operations to continue, though we may use a digital signature if needed.
We have a decentralized acknowledgement process in our schools and units but have discussed having one centralized acknowledgement come out digitally on a regular basis from the vice president to ensure that all donors continue to be thanked during this time.
Hybrid Digital/Analog Approach
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Our gift processing team will pick up mail once a week for processing, thereby mailing receipts as normal on a weekly basis instead of daily. We have had conversations about some endowment reports that remain undelivered by development officers—our DR team has offered to prep electronic copies for emailing. We were pushing to mail all of these reports by the end of last week, but that just didn’t happen. And now that the campus is locked down, we’re switching to e-delivery.
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Right now, we are still open (I expect that will change later today.) We won’t be able to get and process paper gifts, so we’re working on some language to explain that to donors. We just dropped a mailing, so we are going to see how that works. We’ll be encouraging online gifts, which have an automatic receipt.
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The president’s office has asked that we send acknowledgments to a shared email for documents that need the president’s signature. The idea of doing an electronic signature has floated around, but nothing has been set. Since we have not been asked to all work remotely (only those who were issued a laptop when hired), there are still staff in our building. So, for now, I anticipate our process being we:
- Send acknowledgments to the president’s office email
- Someone in the president’s office will print letter and procure signature
- Our admin will receive signed letter to mail, scan, and archive
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Our operations are still “open” though hours are reduced and everyone is mostly working remotely. Our mail is being delivered M/W/F so one staff member is going in those days to PDF checks into a remote server for gift entry staff to do from home. Receipts will be produced on a 2 day lag, and I am planning to go in 2 days per week to handwrite a thank you note on them and drop them in the mail. We also plan to do calls/handwritten thanks to donors who make gifts during these unusual times.
Via ThankView
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We had purchased our contract with ThankView a few months ago, and hadn't really developed our protocols. When the c-virus hit, we proposed that we send all acknowledgments via ThankView - no paper collateral. Our VP approved this idea. Advancement Services may send paper receipts, but we also just moved to Raiser's Edge NXT in the last few months, and I think you can e-receipt through that CRM.
We've spent the last few days collecting videos from all members of our campus, VPs, deans, students, Advancement team members, and more. We are currently working with our Advancement Services department to generate a daily report that will provide me with all the fields needed to send the acknowledgments. ThankView offers incredible personalization through the merge fields, so I can send a video that will address the donor by name, and thank them for the gift to their specific designation. ThankView also allows for you as the admin to send a request to anyone, to make a video and send it to you. All they need is their cell phone. You do NOT have to be with the person in real time.
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We are also planning to utilize ThankView quite a bit to send digital, video thank you messages from students – especially as it’s a way for us to offer hours to student workers.
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We are still in the office, but making plans to do e-receipts whenever possible if we go remote. One of us will bring supplies home to mail out those we don’t have email addresses for.
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We are remote for probably the next 3 weeks, maybe longer. I had planned on holding acknowledgements for the first two weeks (our next week is my school’s spring break). After that, acknowledgements were going to be printed and mailed under my signature with a handwritten note from the head of school for our custom letters over a large amount. I’m working from home and was planning on sending acknowledgements directly from here, but we’re a small org. I could see how that would be a challenge at a bigger institution.
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Our gift processing staff has been deemed “essential” so will work from the office entering gifts and preparing receipts. We are still working out the details of the acknowledgment letter process.
Via Phone
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I’m also hoping to recruit a team of folks to make phone calls to donors to say “thank you” from home. Depending on which analysis you’re looking at, the average American donor is a woman in her mid-sixties (someone who is likely practicing social distancing and is at elevated risk for the virus).
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I’ve been calling our older donors, just checking in. They really like that. With everyone working or staying home, this is an easy way to touch people that most people will appreciate.
What digital solutions are you using to engage donors in lieu of canceled or postponed events?
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We had thought to offer something for students (gift cards to lunch at nearby restaurants, so they can use it when they prefer, but also a little economic help for our community) to make a ThankView message for their donors.
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We are now talking about having faculty give short lectures, on different topics, that we Zoom or otherwise broadcast, to keep our donors engaged. Since they will be at home, they may be more likely to participate.
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Why not just give updates around what’s happening on campus? Updates from faculty about how distance learning is going, updates from students? Can you get faculty to do a quick lecture via Facebook Live or something similar? The Cincinnati Zoo and the Kennedy Center have been doing that for kids, but I suspect adults are going to be just as stir crazy.
Tech Tools
Check out this updated list from the ADRP Stewardship TechXchange. Many thanks to Cheryl Lintner and Alissa Stallings for compiling these resources!
Additional Thoughts & Tools
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I have been asked to create stewardship plans for various constituents whose gifts and/or volunteer efforts (i.e., reunion volunteers, affinity group volunteers, etc.) have been or will be impacted by social distancing efforts.
We are going into the final year of a very successful comprehensive campaign, thus we have lots of donors to whom we owe good, thorough stewardship - it will just be in a form different from what we had anticipated: more emails, videos, phone calls, etc., images from campus, outcomes, etc.
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Our department is hoping to use the next few weeks to really work on planning and strategizing. I’ve got a huge portfolio and I’ve been tasked with prioritizing that list and making plans for my top donors. Our supervisor has also asked me and our gift officers to reach out to everyone in our portfolio with a call, email, or note. Additionally, I’ve got a bunch of ADRP webinars I signed up for, but never got to watch. I’m hoping to go through one of those per day since I’ve got time now. I’m also taking home my copy of Donor-Centered Fundraising to read and any other articles I’ve collected, but not reviewed over the years.
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I know that many of us today are trying to figure out the signature process for commitment intent forms and gift agreements today. To help out in this time of need, I would like to share a document we created for our donors for Adobe signature a few months back. Adobe signature is not perfect but it will help you during this time. We are currently working on getting DocuSign set up within the next week or so.
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