Doing It Right! Plymouth Community United Way (Plymouth, Michigan)

Are you thanking your donors, volunteers, and community members? How are you letting them know you are thankful for their contributions?

Some United Ways use social media to thank their contributors, some United Ways use their annual report to say thanks, and other United Ways send out letters or make phone calls to donors. It’s so important to not only show your donors that you care and that their contributions are making a difference, but to also show your volunteers and community members that you are thankful for their contributions.

Plymouth Community United Way (Plymouth, Michigan) is making sure their thanks doesn’t go unnoticed. When you arrive at their Web site, one of the first things you will see is the phrase “Thank You” in the menu bar at the top of their Web site. When you click on those words, it brings you to a Web page specifically dedicated to thanking their supporters.

What are they doing right?

First, Plymouth Community United Way is using their “Thank You” Web page to reach out and say thanks to everyone who has supported their United Way. They are thanking individuals and companies who donated items and money, volunteers who donated their time, business and community leaders who attended their annual meeting, community members who took part in a survey, and an owner of a restaurant who hosted a fundraiser.

Second, they are communicating with donors who may not have been thanked personally. A struggle a lot of United Ways face is communicating with all of their donors who give through workplace campaigns. More and more often, workplaces are not providing United Ways any personal contact information for their employees. United Ways are then left with no way of connecting with these donors outside of the workplace campaign, which makes it difficult to thank donors.

There are many ways to thank donors, but dedicating a Web page specifically to thank your contributors is a great way to show everyone in the community that you care and to communicate the impact of their contributions. The next time you are planning on thanking your contributors, think of what Plymouth Community United Way is doing to make sure all of their supporters are thanked. Plymouth Community United Way, you are Doing It Right!

P.S. Check out some other unique ways United Ways are thanking their donors, volunteers, and community members by clicking on the “Thanking” category to the right (above the tweets) or click here.