Here’s the story. Over the past several months I have made small gifts ($25) to a number of CLIENT organizations that I worked with during the same period. To be exact, I made 10 gifts of $25 each: seven made online, two sent by mail, and one handed to someone at the organization while I was onsite. These gifts represented my first donations to these particular organizations, and were undesignated so that the money could be used where it was most needed.

So far, so good, right? Here is where it gets interesting. Take a guess at how many acknowledgments I received for the 10 gifts I made. It’s less than half – actually, it’s way less than half. TWO! Two thank yous out of 10 gifts made! One from an online gift, and one from a mailed gift. And, yes, every organization had my mailing address and I did not indicate anywhere that I did not want to be acknowledged for my gift. Don’t blame this on me!

Here’s a little more insight into my experiment. I have followed up with most of these organizations over the past month, starting with the two that did send me thank yous. Both of these organizations were a little surprised when I called to thank for thanking me. Most of my contacts at organizations that didn’t thank me were themselves surprised that I had not received a thank you, and promised to follow up and to be sure that I was thanked (and still not one thank you as of January 22 – so now they have had TWO opportunities to thank me and have failed to do so both times…) And, keep in mind – these were all Raiser’s Edge clients. There is absolutely no excuse for not acknowledging donors.

What surprised me most, however, was a comment my contact from one of these organizations made in regards to why I had not received an acknowledgment. She said, “It’s our policy to not acknowledge gifts under $250. We only acknowledge gifts that are over $250.” She did go on to say more, but I honestly didn’t hear a thing she said after that. They really have a policy about NOT thanking some donors?!?

This whole thing has me very puzzled. I would have understood if one or two organizations had neglected to thank me, but eight out of ten? Was my sample not representative of the industry? Plus, these were Raiser’s Edge clients, so I know they have the infrastructure to efficiently acknowledge gifts – it’s just as easy to run 100 thank yous as it is to run 10, right? Did they think I didn’t need an acknowledgment because I work for a company that is one of their vendors? Or, are these organizations just out of touch with their missions?

I didn’t make these gifts just as an experiment. I also genuinely believe in what these organizations do (I would share with you what these orgs do, but it would be too easy to figure out who they are). And, to be honest, yes, I was personally testing them. How they handle a small gift tells me a lot about how accountable they are as an organization. Can I trust them to use my money in the way I intended? If I worry about what they did with my $25, I surely am not willing to give them more money.

Loyalty is a two-way street to me. I want to give to an organization that I know cares deeply about the mission they serve, and also about me as a supporter of their mission. I get asked for money all the time, and I have my own rules about who I give to: your mission has to touch me personally, you have to show me that my dollars (no matter how big or small) can make a difference, and you have to treat me like I am part of the team. What are you doing with my (and everyone else’s) money? How is this helping you accomplish your mission? Loyalty is a two-way street to me.

So, am I expecting too much? Was this homemade experiment skewed in some way? Should I be as puzzled about the outcome as I am? Or, should I accept this as the state of fundraising today? I would love to hear your thoughts!

We’ve been having an ongoing discussion in Blackbaud Products around customer expectations for communication and how different approaches can help meet these expectations. The discussion has a decidedly Web2.0 bent to it. There’s a long list of needs, including:

• Customers need to get ‘help’ on how to use a product
• Customers need to give suggestions on product features
  • Customers need to know that someone is reading their suggestions
  • Customers and Blackbaud need suggestions to be prioritized
  • Blackbaud needs clarification on suggestions
  • Suggestions need a status - customers need to know if and when and how a suggestion will be met
• Customers need to know everything about new releases and how they will affect their organization
• Blackbaud needs ongoing feedback on requirements and design
• [fill in your needs here]…

Lou Attanasi tells us about the early days at Blackbaud when every suggestion received a hand written ‘thank you’ letter acknowledging the idea. One or two people were employed exclusively for this purpose. As Blackbaud grew, of course it became impossible to keep up with this practice, but new technologies and techniques make it possible for us to re-invigorate this level of personal attention in a much more manageable fashion.

Rather than one person writing thank you letters, we can now have multiple designers responding and asking questions about customer suggestions. Rather than a product manager prioritizing suggestions behind closed doors, it can be done in public, in conjunction with customers and business analysts. Rather than calling 5 customers to ask them their opinion on a new feature, we can post the feature publicly and get feedback from 500.

The really tricky part comes when we start thinking about how to create and structure channels of communication in such a way that the messages are easily managed and the feedback loop is strongly supported. How do we harness the strengths of each tool so as to make the process overall that much more robust? How do we make sure we’re providing ways to communicate and not just more places to put thoughts that are never acknowledged? These are the questions we must answer in order to meet these evolving expectations.

The key Web2.0 message that customers are sending to businesses in all industries is that there are no more excuses (Customer2.0?). There are no excuses for not talking to us and there are no excuses for not listening to us. Organizations that ignore this message will quickly find themselves stuck in the mud and passed by competitors who truly connect with their customers.