Annual Giving feedback requested

Kathleen McGuinness:

We have decided to send a letter to donors that will include their annual giving for 2013 along with information on how we spent their money and where we are concentrating efforts this upcoming year.  I really appreciate any feedback you have on this topic.  Can anyone tell us how we should handle gifts that are soft credited to donors from Donor-Advised Funds or Foundations where thay already have tax receiptes from?  Businesses tyay are soft credited from? Is there anything else we need to be aware of in using this information?  Also, which donor criteria do you use to send this type of mailing to?  Thank you in advance for your time.  Kate McGuinness 

Kathleen,

Are you saying you are sending a letter with something like annual giving statement or are you sending a receipt?  We send receipts at the time gift is received.  I hope you do not mean you are sending a receipt now for a cash gift from this spring.  We send our newletter (annual giving update) to all donors as a separate function.  For us we have not found it necessary to do annual giving history type summaries for our donors. 

Yes, I would want to get that info on how $ used/plans to SC donors as they 'advised' giving the $. You may need to look at two segments to your mailing: donors and SC donors who get info but not giving statement/receipt.

Kathleen McGuinness:
Hi JoAnn.  Thank you for reply:)  YES, no worries, we send acknowledgements for all gifts received usually within 3 biz days!  In thinking of sending an informational letter as a special touch to donors above a certain amount saying something like "last year you gave $xxx.00" .......... and then talking about what we accomplished last year and where we are concentrating on this upcoming year w are concerned with do we need to add language stating this not a tax receipt to cover the circumstances of donations by donors who give through their Foundations/Donor-Advised Funds/Business (soft credits in our case) and then there is special event income, where the donation amount is not fully tax deductible.  I hope this clarifies my questions.  I could do 2 segments if I needed too.  Thanks again. KATE    

The letter sounds like a nice way to stay in touch with your donors.  Other than doing segments to handle those with direct gifts, those with SC and those with benefits don't know how you could could pull it in one process.  With those who only have partial tax deductions, putting either amount in the letter could cause confusion if they don't remember about deductions.

To me, easiest option would be that you use your criteria of gifts above a certain amount to generate your mailing list but letter is generic enough to cover any amount/fund.  Just something like "You've made a difference in so many lives because of your support to...." or more tradional "Thank you for your support of..."

Just my way of working around it.  Getting that giving amount with SC/the situations you described with foundations etc can be a challenge.