Acknowledgements for Next of Kin

Ang Chappelle · September 2016

I was wondering if anyone can share what they send to their next of kin and how often they send something to the next of kin when memorial donations are made. Thank you in advance!

Ang Climenhage

OneFoundation for Niagara Health System

shani traum · September 2016

We send a letter to the NOK letting them know that a donation was made in the loved one's memory. We provide the name and address of the donor, but not the donation amount.

We try not to overwhelm the family with notifications, so we probably limit it to once a week with a list of all of the donations received in that one week period.

JoAnn Strommen · September 2016

Ang Climenhage:

I was wondering if anyone can share what they send to their next of kin and how often they send something to the next of kin when memorial donations are made. Thank you in advance!

Ang Climenhage

OneFoundation for Niagara Health System

Our NOK letter states that a gift has been received in memory of XXXX. It depends on if the NOK/family established/suggested memorials to our org or if the donor made the choice on their own. If donor gave it on their own, we use almost the same letter as a regular donor to that specific fund - highlights what/who the donation will benefit, how it will make a difference. If the family established the memorial fund, we thank them for remembering their loved one in that way. Many of our NOK letters are personalized with info on the deceased relationship to the Y. We provide donors' names and addresses. No $ amount. Letters sent once a week initially, less frequent - when gift received after that.

Carolyn Moatz · September 2016

Ang Climenhage:

I was wondering if anyone can share what they send to their next of kin and how often they send something to the next of kin when memorial donations are made. Thank you in advance!

Ang Climenhage

OneFoundation for Niagara Health System

Generally, we just send a card that says "A gift has been made to Germantown Academy in memory of NAME. With sincere condolences, DONOR". If there is a specail project or fund donations are being given to, we provide a list of names and the total amount received. If we expect to receive a lot of donations, but no special project or fund is identified by the next of kin, we send a list of donors generally two weeks after we start receiving them, then switch to cards, or send an updated list in another two weeks if we continue to get a lot of gifts. Cards are sent roughly once a week, depending on when I get around to them.

John Zajc 2 · September 2016

Ang Climenhage:

I was wondering if anyone can share what they send to their next of kin and how often they send something to the next of kin when memorial donations are made. Thank you in advance!

Ang Climenhage

OneFoundation for Niagara Health System

As you might expect, as a Hospice, we get a huge amount of memorial donations (7,598 gifts to 1,220 different designations in the newspapers between January 1 and July 31, 2016). Since I started here in June, we’ve had several discussions on how to approach this question. And, for us, there are two similar processes that have a small difference in our environment – thanking and communicating with the families who included us in the death notice and any general memorial gift.

We had been dealing with all of this, as I have understood it, ON A DAILY BASIS (driven by each gift batch, basically), which resulted in some families getting many, many letters notifying them of a gift in memory of their loved one (45% of our tributes garner 5 or more memorial donations). We are rolling out a new process this week where we will thank the family who designates gifts to us within a few days, but give notification of results 2x a month. We gave some thought to only monthly, but decided that would blow at least an entire day in get through all of them (and it would be harder to deal with oddball items). However, we do provide the family information on how to get information on who made a gift more quickly (contact one of the gift coordinators) for those who want it.

For the general memorial gift, we send a letter to the next of kin on a daily basis with the gift batch being the driver of the process. Also, we will continue to do this when someone specifically asks us to notify someone different than the person we have on file as “primary care giver.”

At my last job (the Cleveland Institute of Music), we had a process fairly similar to what Carolyn Moatz describes in her reply.

Ang Chappelle · September 2016

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. I would imagine you would have a large quantity of memorial donations. If you don't mind me asking another question, do you have a different process for acknowledging memorial donations online or do they follow the same acknowledgment procedure?

Ang

Debra Holcomb · September 2016

I want to add to the debate. Why is it we do not disclose the amount of the gift received? Many of us produce honor rolls so the level is available should the family read the annual report. Shouldn't the family be able to know if someone been extremely generous on their loved one's behalf (and aren't they in a better position to determine that than we are)?

Typically, the gift recipient can estimate the value of the item the received whether it be a watch, a gift card or a hand-made item. Why do we hide the value of the gift? Would you feel more generous when making your memorial gift if you knew the family would see the value? What are we trying to accomplish by not providing this information?

As someone who has been the recipient of memorial gift notifications, I found it touching when I learned how generous an older friend had been. While $25 may not have been a lot to the organization that received the gift, it was a lot to her, and it meant a lot to me she gave so generously. I also found it heartwarming to receive frequent notifications when memorial gifts were made. It's comforting to know when your loved one is being remembered; not necessarily overwhelming. What would you want if you were in the unfortunate position of receiving these memorial notifications?

John Zajc 2 · September 2016

Ang Climenhage:

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply. I would imagine you would have a large quantity of memorial donations. If you don't mind me asking another question, do you have a different process for acknowledging memorial donations online or do they follow the same acknowledgment procedure?

Ang

No. Luminate generates a thank you letter that includes everything necessary to serve as a tax record.

Notice of that gift is reported to the next-of-kin just like a gift by mail.

John

Acknowledgements for Next of Kin

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