Whenever I train, teach, or speak on the subject of donor thank-yous, or audit them for others, one thing holds fast: the littlest details cause the largest roadblocks.

With furrowed brows and frustrated eyes, fundraisers ask me —

We’re required to put in a tax disclaimer... what the heck do we do with it?

There are three founders of our organization... can my thank-you be from all three of them?

There’s another charity in town that uses a P.S. in its thank-you letters... why are they bothering to do that? Should we?

If one of these frustrated fundraisers, is you, I understand completely.

You’ll be rolling along with a beautiful thank-you nearly finished when suddenly you realize... TAX DISCLAIMER. Required text. Legalese.

Ugh.

Way to kill the warm glow of giving, right?

Well, here’s the thing: you’re 100% right to sweat the small stuff! All of the best thank-you letters do.

And more good news!

There are simple rules to respect those devilish details, AND keep the joy of generosity and gratitude shining bright as the North Star in your letter.

Here are a couple of the most common stumbling blocks in thank-yous, and how to overcome them.

Postscripts (a.k.a. the PS)

The simple rule on postscripts in your thank-yous is, use them.

Yes, even in your email thank-yous to donors.

In fact, I want you to go so far as to picture your thank-you postscripts as the sweet, golden glitter on your gratitude cake.

Why?

Because your reader’s eye LOVES the PS!

So much so that in Siegfried Vögele’s legendary “Handbook of Direct Mail: The Dialogue Method of Direct Communication” his eye-tracking studies showed more than nine out of ten readers read your postscript first.

Signatories (a.k.a. who signs your letter)

The simple rule on signatories is, choose ONE... with the right title.

And I beg you: aim for a sign-off sweeter than “Sincerely.”

If you have multiple people of equal prominence — like the three-founder dilemma at the start of this article — choose just one to be your signatory whenever possible.

Whoever you choose, make it come from the top. Your donors are that important!

This means a letter from the leader of your organization, or the appeal signatory if it was a special campaign. CEO, Executive Director, President — these are all terrific choices for who should sign your donor thank-you letters.

Also: beware of titles that alienate or confuse.

Let’s say an organization decides to use the Assistant Director of Advanced Individual Philanthropic Giving to sign donor thank-you letters.

Well. To your nonprofit staff, that job title might mean something.

To your donors, though? It’s a title that says something completely different.

Such as: “we are using your donations for lofty-sounding titles.” Which leads to: “we pay a bunch of extraneous staff so less of your gift helps the cause.”

I’m not saying either of these things is true, mind you. That’s not the point.

The point is what your donors might perceive.

A lofty-sounding job title is also confusing because, almost always, supporters usually have no idea what it means. The end result is that their perception of how much they, and their gifts, matter is diminished.

One last note: if you are writing a thank-you to a major donor who has an established relationship with one of your major donor staff, it’s possible that staff person will be the signatory. Same goes with legacy communications, so please think critically about this each and every time.

This excerpt is from “Thankology—How to keep your donors longer, and giving stronger, through gratitude” by Lisa Sargent, soon to be published by Civil Sector Press.

Specializing in donor retention communications, Lisa Sargent is an international fundraising copywriter with an almost 20 year track record who is dedicated to helping nonprofits and charitable organizations get and keep more donors. She is also a nerd-level direct response donor communications specialist dedicated to helping passionate nonprofits get from where they are to where they want to be, through the world-changing results of individual giving and donor stewardship communications done right.