Gift Acknowledgements

Eddie Roberts 2

Does your institution send personal acknowledgement letters, signed by school President or VP based on size of gift? If so, what is your threshold? We are curious at which level a donor would get a hand-written note from President ($5000? $25K) , vs. Vice President, or other? Thanks in advance for sharing your practices!

JoAnn Strommen

Our advancement CEO is now making notes on all gift receipts so hasn't done as much separate personal thank yous. But I run a list monthly of all gifts over $5K for the CEO to have and the list is shared with university president for personal thank yous from president's office.

We also send monthly list to departments for all gifts that department head can use to send a thank you. Most mail notes or letters but we give them the option to call or email. We now request info back and enter it as stewardship action on donor's record.

Barbara Kunkel

We send out personal notes for any gift of $500 or more. Depending on the gift amount, different staff members are assigned. For example, $500 to $1,000 Operations Manager, Development Officer from $1k to$2,500, Vice President Development over $2,500, President over $5,000, Board of Director Chair over $10,000. We also request confirmation of the notes sent to update the stewardship action in the donor's record.

Miki Martin

@Eddie Roberts I work at an all-girls' private high school in northern KY. Our acknowledgement letters go to every donor for every gift, and our president signs each one. For any gifts going toward our annual fund, our Director of Development also signs them.

Any gifts we receive that are $1,000 or over our president (currently an interim until we fill the position) also makes a phone call to the donor. Many times he will also write a small personal note at the bottom of the letter.

@Barbara Kunkel I like the idea of different people signing based on level, but I don't know if that would work at our school. It's certainly something to suggest, though.

Dana Burton

We are a non-profit, Christian organization and those processing mail, include a hand written note (the president writes each month) every $500 gift. The president writes a note on each letter (that is sent with the receipt) for every $5,000 total gift amount and for all board member gifts.

Carrie Powell

Our practice is similiar to Miki's - we're a religious organization, so the superior is also the corporate president. We send letters to all donors for their first gift and then for gifts above $25. If he's in town, he personally signs them and will often write a note. At a second gift, we include text that, if acceptable to them, we will will no longer mail acknowledgements for each gift but will instead send a year-end acknowledgement listing all gifts received in the year. (No one has let us know that plan is not acceptable to them.) Sometimes our development director will send a handwritten note, and often the superior will make a phone call to major donors ($1000+).

Cindy Gericke

Our CEO also hand signs a combination TY/receipt for every gift (except monthly donors and those who request consolidation) and often our Development Director or CEO will also send a handwritten note card or a personal email depending on the relationship or size of gift. We get inundated in December like all nonprofits so I create a call/email list for our board. They divide it among themselves and reach out.

Amelia Ketzle

Our VC signs anything over $5K. At $10K and up, the Chancellor signs an additional “fluffy” (that was her exact word) letter that goes to the donor.

Eddie Roberts 2

Thank you so much for your response.

Eddie Roberts 2

Thank you all so much for your response.

Christine Cooke 2

it's based on our giving levels (recognition). Gifts at Leadership Level (which currently for us is $3000) gets an acknowledgement signed by Head of School with pesonal note on letter. at $10k and above there is either a phone/email from President on Board. Anything under the $3k level is signed by Director of Development