Enhance Donor Experience by Conducting an Acknowledgement Audit

Last updated April 6, 2022

Course Length

1h

Last Updated

April 6, 2022

Illustration of people donating on a digital device

Enhance Donor Experience by Conducting an Acknowledgement Audit

Last updated April 6, 2022

Table of Contents

Introduction and Best Practices
16:19 CLosed lock icon
Roadblocks & Assessing A Program
31:04 CLosed lock icon
Discussion and Questions
13:34 CLosed lock icon

Conduct a successful donor acknowledgement audit at your institution to enhance donor recognition and engagement.

Overview

Institutions offer myriad giving opportunities that donors might choose to support. From the unrestricted gift to the gift supporting a scholarship or program, many institutions offer dozens or even hundreds of ways donors can allocate their gifts. Unfortunately, with decentralized institutions, a multitude of giving options can lead to inconsistencies in the ways that units, programs, divisions, and schools acknowledge their gifts. For instance, some units or programs may have the resources to acknowledge their donors’ generosity promptly, while others may struggle to acknowledge them even within the recommended two-week time period. In still other instances, a gift may languish in a forgotten fund and be overlooked for months—or even forever! These kinds of delays or inconsistencies with gift acknowledgements can diminish the experiences of your donors and negatively impact your retention rate, causing you to lose contact with even your most loyal and generous donors.

Join us in this online training to help you prepare to conduct a gift acknowledgement audit at your institution by learning the steps that the University of Chicago took toward ensuring that their donors receive the thanks they deserve.

Who should attend?

This training is for advancement professionals who want to improve their donor acknowledgement processes and procedures. Whether you are in a central office working with units across the institution or at an individual college or unit with multiple departments, if your donor acknowledgement processes are inconsistent and notes of gratitude are not being processed promptly and consistently, then this program is for you.

Agenda

May 31, 2022

3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET

 

Preparing and Conducting the Donor Acknowledgment Audit

Identifying the units to speak with and the struggles they may be facing by analyzing your data—to find out where donors are giving—can be the first step toward a successful donor acknowledgment audit. Learn how to prepare for the audit by presenting information and securing buy-in from unit leads, allowing you to have conversations that reveal why donors may not be receiving prompt and consistent gift acknowledgements.

 

 

Solutions for Ensuring Donor Acknowledgments within Two Weeks of Gift

Ideally, each institution’s goal should be to ensure that gifts are acknowledged within two weeks. By conducting an audit, recommendations can be developed to help units across your institution to strengthen their acknowledgement programs. In this session, you will learn the steps taken by the University of Chicago and have the opportunity to talk amongst peers about how your institution can consistently and effectively strengthen donor relationships.

Tagged In

Advancement Services & Operations Donor Relations

$495

 

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Portrait of Mary Weingartner

Mary Weingartner

Director of Donor Relations, University of Chicago

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