One thing you should do today to increase donations: Thank you scrubs

Do your online thank you page and email confirmation sound like they were written by HAL the computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey? If so, change it.

Thank you messages should feel warm and authentic – not generated by a computer. Do one thing today. Review your thank you pages and email confirmations and give them some heart and personality.

Need some creative inspiration? Here’s a confirmation message I got from my favorite online retailer Moosejaw:

Way to go. This is the best order confirmation we’ve sent out all day. We recommend either printing this receipt and framing it to hang in your foyer, or at least taking a screenshot and using it as the background on your iPad.

It would also be nice for you to forward it around to a couple friends and maybe even an enemy or two. If you’re bored, check us out on Facebook or Twitter. Our CFO said he doesn’t understand why anyone would use Twitter. He also thinks that a narwhal is a made-up animal. Please don’t tell anyone about it.

Of course – snark and comedy is probably not your thing if you’re in the progressive non profit space (we tend to be oh so serious). But making your thank you’s personal in a brand-aligned way will make your donors know that you take your thank you’s as seriously as you take your cause.

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This is the third post in a weekly “One Thing You Should Do Today” series I’m writing throughout year-end fundraising season. Let me know if these actionable tips are helpful.