全球视野 | 9个与捐赠人建立长期关系的致谢策略

全球视野

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文章《9 Tips for Thank-Yous That Make Donors Feel Valued/9个让捐赠人感到被重视的致谢技巧》发布在慈善纪事报上，作者是M.J. Prest。文章探讨了如何通过有效的感谢方式，与捐赠人建立深厚的情感联系，从而促进长期支持。研究表明，募款人员自身的感谢体验能够帮助他们更好地理解捐赠人的动机，使感谢更加真诚和有共鸣，并给出了九点具体建议。

While love languages have long been a fixture in pop psychology for improving romantic relationships, new science is emerging that learning to speak donors’ love languages forges lasting connections between nonprofits and their supporters. 

长期以来，“爱的语言”一直是流行心理学中用于改善亲密关系的重要概念，但最新研究表明，学会运用捐赠人的“爱的语言”，可以在非营利组织与支持者之间建立持久的联系。 

“The Love Project,” a new report from the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, identifies several evidence-backed ways fundraisers can help donors develop genuine feelings of love for the causes they support. The key is that fundraisers need to feel the love, too, by experiencing gratitude. That will help you tap into what drives your donors to give and thank them in a way that feels deeply rewarding and mutual. 

《爱心计划（The Love Project）》是可持续慈善研究所（Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy）发布的一份新报告，提出了多种有科学依据的方法，帮助筹款人培养捐赠人对他们所支持的事业产生真挚的情感。关键在于，筹款人自身也需要通过感谢的方式感受到这种爱。这将帮助你深入了解是什么促使你的捐赠人慷慨解囊，并以一种让他们深感满足且双方都感到愉悦的方式向他们表达感激之情。 

“It’s not like you’re using a technique to get love — it is a love experience. By definition, it’s an experience of feeling,” says Jen Shang, a philanthropic psychologist and co-founder of the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy. 

“这并不是在运用某种技巧来获取爱，而是一种爱的体验。从本质上来说，它是一种情感的体验。” 可持续慈善研究所联合创始人、慈善心理学家詹·尚如此说道。 

The Chronicle spoke with Shang and two other fundraising experts who shared their advice for cultivating loving, long-term relationships with donors, beginning with thank-you notes. Here’s what they say. 

《慈善纪事报》采访了詹·尚及另外两位筹款专家，他们提供了关于如何与捐赠人培养充满爱意的长期关系的建议，而这一切可以从一封感谢信开始。以下是他们的见解。

From your earliest interactions with new donors, employ warm, poetic language in your outreach and thank-yous, Shang recommends. Pairing sensory text with a photo will set a scene and place donors in a moment by telling an immersive story about what their gifts will accomplish. 

詹·尚建议，从最初与新捐赠人的互动开始，就在沟通和感谢信中运用温暖而富有诗意的语言。结合感官化的文字与照片，可以营造场景，让捐赠人沉浸其中，通过生动的叙述让他们感受到自己的捐赠将带来的改变。 

How you should do that depends mostly on the people your nonprofit serves, she says: “Think of it in terms of human stories we can tell.” For museums and symphonies, you could talk about the joy of people who might not otherwise be able to afford a ticket to a performance or exhibit. For a conservation charity, the focus could be on how it feels to breathe fresh air or drink clean water. 

詹·尚表示，具体该怎么做主要取决于你的非营利组织所服务的人群：“要从可以讲述的人物故事来思考。” 对于博物馆和交响乐团，你可以讲述那些原本负担不起演出票或展览门票的人们所感受到的喜悦。对于环保类慈善组织，重点可以放在呼吸清新空气或饮用干净水源的感受上。 

“If we don’t connect with our senses, we are teaching or telling,” Shang says. “But if the purpose is to grow love, you can’t grow love without feelings. It’s the courier of love.” 

詹·尚表示：“如果我们不与感官产生共鸣，那就只是教学或讲述。但如果我们的目的是培养爱，就不能缺少情感。情感是爱的载体。”

Lisa Sargent, a fundraising copywriter and author of the book Thankology, says it’s critically important to treat supporters as close, valued partners in a thank-you letter. To that end, there are three little words she urges you to never write. 

筹款文案撰写人、《感谢学/Thankology》一书的作者丽莎·萨金特表示，在感谢信中将支持者视为亲密且受重视的合作伙伴，至关重要。为此，她强调有三个字绝对不要写。 

“My greatest wish is that no thank-you letter ever starts with ‘on behalf of…’” she says. “It’s isolating. It creates a layer between me and my gift.” 

萨金特说道：“我最大的愿望就是，感谢信永远不要用‘谨代表……’来开头。这种表达会让人感到疏远，在我和我的捐赠之间制造了一道隔阂。” 

You might think you should be sharing thanks from a multitude of people behind the scenes, but donors want to feel included in the mission work, Sargent says: “You’re creating that little distance, but people crave connection and love. Don’t underestimate how much your letter will mean to the recipient.” 

萨金特表示，你可能会认为应该代表许多幕后的人来表达感谢，但捐赠人更希望感受到自己是使命工作的一部分：“这样的表达无形中拉开了距离，但人们渴望联系与爱。不要低估你的感谢信对收信人的意义。” 

Instead, begin with a short, heartfelt story about the direct impact of their gift. You can even use creative-writing techniques like alliteration or rhyme to make the language sing, she says. 

相反，你应该用一个简短且真挚的故事来开始，直接展现捐赠所带来的影响。萨金特表示，你甚至可以运用头韵或押韵等创意写作技巧，让语言更具感染力。 

Starting with a story helps form an intimate bond that makes the donor feel more connected to your mission, person to person, she explains. 

她解释道，从故事开始有助于建立一种亲密联系，让捐赠人以更个人化的方式感受到与组织使命的连接。 

Sargent shares an introduction she wrote for an international animal-welfare group as an example: “Half a world away, a boy and a veterinarian huddle together at the roadside. They don’t even speak a common language. But today they work side by side, barely a breath apart. Why? They are here to save the little boy’s dog. And all thanks to you.” 

萨金特分享了她为一个国际动物保护组织撰写的开头，作为示例：“在半个地球之外，一个男孩和一位兽医在路边紧紧挨在一起。他们甚至说的不是同一种语言。但今天，他们并肩工作，几乎没有一丝间隙。为什么？因为他们要一起拯救这个小男孩的狗。而这一切，都要感谢你。”

Shoni Field, chief development officer at the British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, recommends referencing the appeal that prompted the gift in your donor acknowledgments. 

不列颠哥伦比亚省防止虐待动物协会的首席发展官肖尼·菲尔德建议，在感谢信中可以提及促成了捐赠的募捐活动。 

As an example, she describes a campaign to raise money to care for pets that had been evacuated during a wildfire in Canada. The thank-you letters she sent out shortly thereafter recognized donors as an essential part of their team of first responders. 

作为一个例子，菲尔德介绍了一个募捐活动，该活动旨在为在加拿大野火期间被撤离的宠物提供照料。她在活动后不久发送的感谢信中，将捐赠人视为急救人员团队的重要组成部分。

She told donors, “‘In an emergency, we are all pitching in together, and we are all connected.’ That is very affirming for people.” 

菲尔德对捐赠人说道：“‘在紧急情况下，我们都在一起共同努力，我们彼此紧密相连。’ 这对人们来说是非常鼓舞人心的。” 

Field likes to use video to drive this point home. “The thank-you will be a video after — the triage of the animals coming in, then showing what happens when they are clean and fed and not fearful,” she says. “It can make tangible that very visceral difference in the animal’s situation. We all came together and made something magical and special happen.” 

菲尔德喜欢使用视频来加强这一观点。她说：“在感谢之后，我们会播放一段视频：动物被送进来后进行分流，然后展示当它们被洗干净、喂饱并且不再害怕时会发生什么。这可以让人们真实感受到动物处境的变化。我们齐心协力，让一些神奇的、特别的事情发生。”

The rule of thumb is that you have 48 hours after receiving a charitable gift to send a thank-you note, Sargent says. Missing that two-day window substantially lowers the chance that the donor will give again. 

萨金特表示，一条经验法则是，在收到慈善捐赠后的48小时内发送感谢信。错过这两天的时间窗口，会大大降低捐赠人再次捐赠的可能性。 

However, if that feels rushed, she says it’s better to take more time when it’s the difference between a personalized letter and a generic one. 

不过，她表示，如果觉得时间太紧迫，最好花更多时间，因为这关系到最终呈现的是一封个性化的信件还是一封泛泛的感谢信。 

“What matters most are speed and quality,” she says. “If it takes you a few extra days to get a genuine, authentic, caring letter out the door, take the few extra days.” 

她说：“最重要的是速度和质量。如果你需要多花几天时间才能写出一封真诚、 真实和充满关爱的信，那就多花几天时间。” 

If you’re looking to streamline your communications, she adds, it’s fine to combine your thank-you letter with a receipt that acknowledges the amount of the gift so that donors don’t receive redundant messages from you. 

她补充道，如果你想简化沟通，完全可以将感谢信与确认捐赠金额的收据结合起来，这样捐赠人就不会收到重复的消息。

On whether generative A.I. can be used as a time-saver for donor thank-yous, the experts universally counseled caution. 

在讨论生成式人工智能是否可以作为节省时间的工具，来写捐赠人感谢信时，专家们一致建议要谨慎使用。 

Shang says A.I. programs like ChatGPT could be useful to “spark a feeling of gratitude” for the writer of your thank-you letters, but the output will not be good enough to send because it will lack an authentic person-to-person connection. “I would never, ever want to send out a message of gratitude without a human being behind it,” she warns. “It’s an ethical consideration, to start with. Gratitude in itself is a good human experience.” 

詹·尚说，像ChatGPT这样的人工智能程序可以帮助“激发”写感谢信的人的“感谢之情”，但其输出的结果并不足以直接发送，因为它缺乏真实的人际连接。她警告说：“我永远都不想在没有人类参与的情况下发送感谢信。首先，这是一个道德问题。感谢本身就是一种美好的人类体验。” 

Sargent feels strongly about this topic as well. “You think about the topics we write about — an animal who’s been abused, or a child who is the first in their generation to go to college, or a famine in another country,” she says. “These are tough topics. When thanking someone, it needs to come from someone who is living and breathing.” 

萨金特对这个话题也深有感触。她说：“你想想我们所写的主题：被虐待的动物；或者是在自己这一代中第一个上大学的孩子；或者是另一个国家的饥荒。这些都是沉重的话题。在感谢某人时，这必须来自一个活生生的人。” 

While it is extra work to strike the right personal tone, your supporters should respond in kind. Sargent says the effects of a touching thank-you will be so powerful, you’ll hear about them from donors long after the fact. 

虽然找到合适的个人化语气需要付出额外的工作努力，但你的支持者将会以同样的方式来回应你。萨金特说，感人的感谢信会产生巨大的影响，你会在事后很久仍从捐赠人那里听到他们的反馈。 

“When people get gratitude right, your CEO will start to get fan mail,” she says. “Those letters will come in shaky handwriting, but they will be so genuine.” 

萨金特说：“当人们真正感激时，你的首席执行官会开始收到粉丝信。这些信字迹会很潦草，但它们会非常真诚。”

Every long-term relationship starts with getting to know each other, so earlier thank-you letters should look very different from the ones you send after years of loyal giving, all the experts agree. 

所有专家都一致认为，每段长期关系都是从了解对方开始的。因此，早期的感谢信应该与捐赠人多年来持续捐赠后的感谢信，有很大的不同。 

Before sending that initial note, Field says, you should ask yourself, “What am I thanking them for?” 

菲尔德表示，在发送初始感谢信之前，你应该问自己：“我在感谢他们什么？” 

“The easy and obvious answer is that you’re thanking them for the gift, but that’s thanking them for a transaction,” she adds. “You’re really thanking them for being the kind of person who values your mission work.” 

菲尔德补充说：“简单且显而易见的答案是，你在感谢他们的捐赠，但那只是感谢他们完成了一笔交易。真正应该感谢的是，他们作为一个重视你们使命工作的人。” 

Many of her first-time donors seek out her group because they have witnessed injustice against animals. She validates their feelings of anger and sadness in the first thank-you note, but longer term, she wants to make donors feel hope that they are part of an ongoing solution just by caring about these issues. 

许多首次捐赠人之所以选择菲尔德的组织，是因为他们目睹了对动物的不公。在第一封感谢信中，她确认了他们的愤怒和悲伤，但从长远来看，她希望让捐赠人感受到希望，让捐赠人意识到只要他们关心这些问题，他们就成为了持续的解决方案的一部分。 

Field says this is an important nuance because if you want to inspire donors to commit to your organization for the long haul, you need to make them feel like they belong to a community with shared values. “You’re building their feelings of well-being regardless of whether the gift comes in,” she explains. 

菲尔德表示，这是一个重要的细节，因为如果你希望激励捐赠人长期支持你的组织，就需要让他们感觉自己是一个拥有共同价值观的社区的一部分。她解释道：“无论是否收到捐赠，你都要培养他们的幸福感。” 

And don’t forget to thank your monthly donors. Shang’s institute conducted research on sending notes of gratitude to these donors every six weeks. This strategy resulted in additional donations on top of those automatic recurring gifts, as well as a lower attrition rate among monthly supporters. Giving increased by about 16 percent in the first eight months, leading researchers to predict the continued use of this approach would result in a 100 percent increase in total giving over 40 months. 

还有别忘了感谢你的月度捐赠人。詹·尚的研究所进行了一项研究，每六个星期向这些捐赠人发送一次感谢信。这一策略的结果是，除了自动定期捐赠之外，这一策略不仅促成了的额外捐赠，还降低了月度支持者的流失率。在最初的八个月里，捐赠额增加了约16％。研究人员预测，如果继续使用这一方法，40个月内的总捐赠额将增加100％。 

“Like any relationship, it takes time to develop feelings of love,” Shang says. 

詹·尚说：“就像任何关系一样，培养爱的情感需要时间。”

Sargent says you should tailor the way you express your gratitude according to how the donor chose to give. 

萨金特说，你应该根据捐赠人选择的捐赠方式，来调整表达感谢的方式。 

For online donors, you should begin saying thanks as soon as they click “donate.” On the splash page that follows a gift, address a message to the donor by name and make it warm and direct, she advises: “Say: ‘You’re amazing, thank you for your generosity.’” 

对于在线捐赠人，你应该在他们点击“捐赠”后立即表达谢意。萨金特建议说，在捐赠后的页面上，要提及捐赠人的姓名来向捐赠人致谢，并且要热情、直接。她建议：“要说：‘您真了不起，感谢您的慷慨解囊。’”

Ask donors for their communication preferences and then live by them, she says. If they opt in to direct mail, then you can send a hard-copy thank-you letter. Text messaging is also fine if you have their permission to reach them that way. 

萨金特还建议，向捐赠人询问他们的沟通偏好，然后按照他们的偏好行事。如果他们选择直接邮寄，那么你可以发送一封纸质的感谢信。如果你得到他们的许可，也可以发送短信。 

But for blockbuster results in future giving, pick up the phone to thank longtime or major donors — nothing beats a thank-you call. “If a month or two goes by, you can call special donors,” Sargent says. “The effect is massive.” 

但是，要想在未来的捐赠中取得丰硕成果，就要拿起电话感谢长期或主要捐赠人。没有什么比感谢电话更有说服力了。萨金特说：“如果过去了一两个月，你可以给特别的捐赠人打电话，效果会是巨大的。”

Charities have long used the social-psychology concept of reciprocity to generate donations by sending presents to prospects. For example, they might send address labels, pens, or other small tokens in an attempt to prompt recipients to return the favor with another charitable gift. 

长期以来，慈善机构利用社会心理学中的互惠概念，通过向潜在客户发送礼物来募集捐款。例如，他们可能会寄送地址标签、钢笔或其他小纪念品，试图促使收件人用另一份慈善捐赠来进行回馈。 

However, “It’s a very old-fashioned way of raising money,” Shang says. “It potentially guilts people into giving.” 

然而，詹·尚说：“这是一种非常老式的筹款方式。它可能会让人们产生内疚感，从而被促使捐款。” 

Field concurs that not only is this strategy outdated, it could be seen as wasteful or even antithetical to the cause: “Donors will say, ‘I don’t need the pen and the magazine.’ It’s us being conscious of our resources, but it’s also being mindful of how our donors see our use of our resources.” 

菲尔德也认为，这种策略不仅已经过时，而且会被视为浪费，甚至与慈善事业背道而驰：“捐赠人会说，‘我不需要笔和杂志’。我们需要关注资源的使用，同时也要考虑捐赠人如何看待我们对资源的利用。” 

She reports her supporters often don’t even want hard-copy letters of thanks and ask for e-receipts instead because they are trying to be more intentional about not wasting paper or postage. 

菲尔德报告说，她的支持者甚至不想要纸质版的感谢信，而是要求提供电子收据，因为他们希望更加有意识地避免浪费纸张和邮资。 

That said, the British Columbia SPCA mails out stickers for donors to put on their doors that list the animal residents of a home, as a way to notify first responders in an emergency. “Mission-aligned gifts are a different beast,” she says. 

尽管如此，不列颠哥伦比亚省防止虐待动物协会还是会邮寄贴纸给捐赠人，让他们贴在门上，贴纸上会列出家中居住的动物，以便在紧急情况下通知急救人员。菲尔德说：“与使命相符的礼物是另一回事。”

The letter should be signed by the person in your organization who is the strongest point of connection to the letter’s content, says Shang. That might be a program leader, CEO, board member, or a beneficiary of your group’s services who is telling their story. “Who signs it is not as important as what’s in the letter,” she says. 

詹·尚说，信件应由组织中与信件内容最相关的人来签名。这可能是项目负责人、首席执行官、董事会成员，也可能是正在讲述自己故事的组织服务受益人。她说：“谁签的名都没有信件的内容重要。” 

Stick the landing in your thank-you letter with a powerful wrap-up, Sargent advises. 

萨金特建议，感谢信的结尾要有力，做到收尾完美。 

That means putting some extra thought into your valediction. Don’t sign off with “sincerely,” she says: “Use, ‘For the good in your heart, we hope good comes back to you.’ You can take every corner of your thank-you and make it beautiful.” 

这意味着在结束语上要多花些心思。她表示，不要用“此致敬礼”作为结束语：“可以用‘感谢您心中的美好，我们希望您得到美好的回报。’你可以让感谢信的每一个角落都变得美丽。”