Anniversary Letters: Celebrating a Donor’s Giving History

Celebrating significant milestones in a donor’s relationship with your institution is nothing new.

Colleges, universities and high schools across the country welcome alumni back to campus every year to celebrate reunions of their graduating classes. These events provide ideal opportunities for institutions to educate their alumni on the vision for the school’s future and ask that they play a role in its growth by making a gift.

Today, we’re going to talk about another way of celebrating a donor milestone to assist with fundraising, but this particular use can be done on an annual basis rather than every five to ten years.

Anniversary letters are an effective tool to increase year-over-year donor retention and flatten out the seasonality of educational fundraising programs. These letters are typically sent a few weeks prior to the year anniversary of the donor’s last gift and remind the recipient of their past generosity, educate them on the impact that their last gift made on the institution and ask that they consider making another gift at this time.

In 2010, three Excalibur Advancement clients initiated anniversary letter programs in hopes of increasing their donor retention and decrease the number of fundraising appeals they sent out in the fall and spring.

From a process perspective, our clients provide us with a list of the anniversary letter recipients at the beginning of each month, along with their mailing addresses and amount of their last gift. On the 15th of the month, clients send an update as to any donors on the list that made gifts since the first of the month, at which time we remove them from the anniversary letter list.

By the 17th of each month, the letters – which are personalized to the recipient, include references to the amount of their last gift and details on how the funds were deployed and ask for a follow-up gift – are printed and mailed, typically in a closed-faced envelope with a stamp to give the mail piece the appearance of a valued communication. Some clients like to include a brochure to remind recipients how their funds are used or inform them about a new strategic initiative or fundraising focus.

According to our clients, the response rates on these anniversary letters best even the most effective standard fundraising appeals. Response rates range from 10-14%, but beyond these impressive results, clients report that donor retention has improved through the use of this tool and, most interestingly, that donors are more inclined to increase their level of support in responding to anniversary letters than on other appeals.