How to Manage Thank You Letters

We've all be taught from a young age that saying thank you is important! This really holds true in the context of nonprofit fundraising.

With this in mind, many organizations take the wise step of sending a personalized thank you letter to their supporters after a gift has been received. MonkeyPod automatically sends donation receipts for online gifts, acknowledging supporters' contributions and providing a receipt for tax purposes, but adding the extra touch of a personalized thank you letter goes a long way in making donors feel seen and appreciated.

We know it's extra work, but it's worth it! And the Thank You Letters report helps you keep track of which gifts (including donations, grants, and pledges) still need a personal follow-up.

I'd like to use this report. How do I set it up?

The Thank You Letters report is an option for all MonkeyPod users. To enable it, choose My MonkeyPod > Organization Settings from the main menu. In the Organization Settings, select the Relationships tab and expand the Thank You Letters option.

Choose the Yes please! option to enable the Thank You Letters report and have the related thank you letter status displayed when viewing a gift in your MonkeyPod.

Next enter the date you want to use to start tracking thank you notes. Only gifts received on or after the date you enter will have their thank you letter status tracked.

How do I find which gifts need thank you notes?

You can find the Thank You Letters report under the "Fundraising & Sales" section of the Reports menu.

The report lists all gifts that were recorded on or after the date specified in your settings. It defaults to showing those gifts that still need a thank you letter, but you can use the status filter at the top of the list to see gifts for which thank you letters have already been recorded as sent or skipped.  

What types of gifts are included in the report?

By default, all donations, pledge payments, and grants are displayed in the report, but you can filter the report using the checkboxes at the top of the report page to show only the gift types that are important to you.

Use the filters at the top of the report to narrow this list to a specific time period, or to certain types of gifts (donations, grants, pledge payments or pledges), or to certain relationship types (like individuals or foundations).

Choose which details to display in the report using the Show / Hide Columns checkboxes. ("Date" refers to the gift date; "Letter Sent" refers to the date the letter was recorded as sent.)

How do I indicate that a thank you letter has been sent?

After sending a thank you letter to one of your supporters, mark it as "Sent" so that you and your team know it’s been taken care of. This is especially helpful if you're lucky enough to have other team members helping you to write these letters: as long as each person updates the status for the gift they've acknowledged, you can all use this report as a shared "to do" list for writing thank you notes!

There are a couple of ways to mark that the thank you has been sent:

Option 1: When viewing the page for the gift in your MonkeyPod, look for the "Thank You Letter" section and select the checkmark there.

After selecting the checkmark, you'll be prompted to enter the date, and then click Record. That’s it!

Option 2: When viewing the Thank You Letters report, select the checkmark at the end of the row for the gift. That will record it as sent on that day.

Option 3: Change the status of a batch of gifts to show that they all had thank you letters sent on a certain date. Use the check boxes in the first column of the Thank You Letters report to select the  relationships that received the letters, then select the Mark Sent button and record the date. Note that if the relationship has multiple gifts that need acknowledgement, they will all be marked as sent.

What does it look like when someone has been thanked?

Once you've recorded that the thank you letter has been sent, the thank you status in the report will appear as “Sent” and the "Sent" status will be displayed on the gift as well.

If you want to view all of the gifts where thank you letters have been sent, return to your Thank You Report, and select Sent from the status filter.

What if I don't need to send a thank you for a particular gift?

Some gifts might not need a separate thank you—maybe you already thanked the donor in person, or you only send notes for gifts above a certain amount.

In those cases, simply choose the archive icon (instead of the checkmark) either in the Thank You Letters report or on the gift transaction page. That will change the status to "Skipped" to show that the thank you note was deliberately skipped and not just forgotten.

This removes the gift from the “Not Sent” list in your Thank You Letters report, so your report stays focused on the gifts that still need attention, but you can find "skipped" gifts easily by changing the status filter to show either "Skipped" gifts or "All" gifts.

How do I change the status of a gift?

You can easily change the status of a gift by selecting the new status using the icons at the end of the row in the Thank You Letters report. For example, the gift in the example below has a "Skipped" status. If you later change your mind, and decide a thank you letter is needed, just select the undo icon to revert the status to 'Not Sent'. Or choose the checkmark if you've gone ahead and sent the thank you.

If you're viewing the gift directly in your MonkeyPod, you can similarly change the status there as well.

Can I update the status of multiple gifts all at once?

Absolutely! Just use the checkboxes in the first column of the report to select the relevant gifts, then choose the desired status from options at the top of the report. You'll be prompted to confirm the bulk change before proceeding.

How can I use this report to print mailing labels or other exports?

If you'd like to work with the content of the report in a spreadsheet, use the Export button at the top of the report to generate a a CSV file of the gifts listed.

First set the filters to display the types of gifts you want to include (for example, "Donations") and filter by the appropriate status (ie, "Not Sent"). Then select the Export button at the top of the report.

Choose the fields you want to include in your export, then click Export. Your MonkeyPod will email you a CSV file with the information you need.

How can I see additional donor details to help make my thank you notes more personal?

Adding a line as simple as "Thank you for being a supporter since 2010!" can really help to make the donor feel seen and appreciated. Being able to place this contribution in the context of someone's lifetime giving ("We're so grateful to see that you've continued to increase your contribution to our cause over the years!") can also be a powerful way to show donors that their contributions are noticed and appreciated.

Here are a couple of ways to get that extra insight to include in your letters:

Export details

Use the Export option to export the gifts in your Thank You Letters report with additional relationship and contribution details—including any custom attributes you have set up. For example, you could choose to include total contributions this year, lifetime contributions, and the date of the first gift in your export so that you have all these details right in front of you as you work through a list of thank you letters.

View the relationship record

When viewing the Thank You Letters report, right-click on the supporter's name (or use Ctrl-click) to open their relationship page in a new window. There you can see all of their interactions with your organization, including their contribution history.