‘Tis The Season To Thank Employee Donors

The holiday season is already in full swing and with it come all the messages of gratitude nonprofit organizations lavish on their donors. Thanking donors for all that they made possible this year is a wonderful thing; just make sure you’re not leaving out some of the most loyal donors to your organization – your fellow employees.

Employees who give back are passionate about the work you do and have more of a reason to want your organization’s fundraising efforts to be successful. Don’t treat these donations as a given because of who made them! it’s important to cultivate those relationships just like you would with donors outside of your nonprofit.

If you haven’t done enough to make your employee donors feel valued, make a resolution to turn it around this year. You can go from naughty to nice by taking these two simple steps.

1. Add Employee Donors to Thank-You Lists (as their own special segment)

When you’re making your thank-you lists, check them twice! Make sure that employees who made either one-time gifts or who gave multiple times through payroll are treated to a special thank-you message. Not only will you fill their hearts with good will and cheer, you’ll be encouraging them to make donating to your organization a priority in the coming year!

All too often, employee donors will receive their year-end donor summaries and standard thank-you. That’s a start, but you could do more to keep this special group of donors engaged and giving! A handwritten thank-you note acknowledging their donations and their contributions to the organization as an employee will make this group of donors feel all warm and fuzzy.

2. Start an Employee Donor Recognition Program

Now is the perfect time to start adding employee donors to the nice list! If your nonprofit hasn’t done so yet, establish a donor recognition program exclusively for employees. You can even incentivize membership for employees by offering a small token of gratitude like free admission to a fundraising event or a pin commemorating their choice to give back to your organization. Just like donors from outside of your organization, employee donors want to feel good about their decision to give back.

Creating an employee recognition program is also great for your organization! You can keep track of employees who care deeply about your mission and convert them into ambassadors, event volunteers, or peer-to-peer fundraising champions! In addition to those perks, an employee donor recognition program can help grow your donor base and increase the number of recurring donations to your organization as employees elect to become a part of this exclusive group of donors. It’s a win-win situation! Your employee donors are recognized for giving back and your organization gains more loyal, engaged donors!

Here’s a quick tip on starting a successful employee donor recognition program: Get human resources and payroll involved so new employees are made aware that the program exists during the onboarding process and can easily elect to give via payroll deduction when setting up direct deposit.

Need some fresh ideas on how to craft perfect thank-you messages? Use our guide: Show Donor Love With Incredible Thank-You Letters for inspiration!