Just like there’s an art to asking, there’s an art to gratitude. And it’s complicated. If we throw it around willy-nilly, it starts to lose it’s meaning. But a quick “Thank you” can be worth a lot. It makes you warm and fuzzy when you hold the door for someone or when you pick up something they’ve dropped. I’m certainly not going to be able to unpack gratitude in a post, but I’ve got a few ideas about the act of saying thank you when you’re working with a charity.
Three weeks ago, I sat down with the Headshots from the Heart volunteers and talked about asking and thanking. About how the goal of the fundraiser isn’t to ask for people’s money but to build a connection with our audience and inspiring them to help out. The most important thing they could say wasn’t “Please give,” but “Thank you.” We want to celebrate people who contribute in any way they can. We want to connect with them, because we’re genuinely grateful.
“Thank you” is a phrase that we hear a lot but most of the time it lacks context. Charities thank donors, but more often than not it’s a logistical issue, the subject of generic cards and announcements at events. It’s not that it’s not true, it’s just that any large organization has so many people to thank that it’s hard to do it in a way that really hits home with them. It can take a lot of work, but I think it’s worth the effort in a lot of cases. When I worked with Hopespring Cancer Support Centre, that was one of our goals. Our committee set out to connect with donors in the community, even just for a brief phone call, to thank them for their past donations and, if we hadn’t been in touch with them, to apologize honestly for our absence.
With Headshots we can work on a much smaller scale, which lets me thank donors personally and with context. I can know when they donated, how much, and what their message was (if any). We spent a lot of time thanking them on air, and we’re also going to send them a message. the cold, fund developer in me says that this is a way of stewarding donors into larger donations, and that’s not neither incorrect nor morally wrong. You want people to feel good for giving to you in any charitable effort, whether with time, talent, or treasure. Not so they’ll give more, but because they deserve to feel good. They’re stepping up to help out with what they can. They’re taking actions that matter. With charity, it should never be “Thank you for your time, or your money, or whatever.” It should be “Thank you for being the person you are, and taking the time and effort to make a difference in someone’s life.”
Everyone who came too our LAN party put a new game in a hospital somewhere for kids to enjoy, and I got to shake their hand and personally thank them. It wasn’t a duty, it was a privilege. It may also be why I’ve been a little sick since we finished up, but it’s a price worth paying. And it’s not just donors. It’s volunteers. In a way, volunteers are more precious because they take a lot of time to learn to do what they’re doing right, and then to do it. Sometimes it’s a lot harder to donate that kind of time than it is a bit of money. As organizers of charitable efforts, we have a responsibility to thank them and mean it. There isn’t a nonprofit in the world that wouldn’t collapse without volunteers, from trade unions to medical agencies. It was great to shake hands or hug them as they left, and say thank you. this is also likely why many of them are a little sick now.
But thanking donors and volunteers aren’t the only things that are important when it comes to charity. They’re the front line certainly, but there was something I’m happy to say I learned from last year’s Headshots and carried forward to this one. You have to thank the organizers. The people pushing the project forward, putting hundreds of hours into administration, recruitment, promotion, or solving tech problems. For me, they’re the people to my right and to my left and it can become all too easy to take their efforts for granted. It’s easy to think that they’re doing what’s expected, or that they’re just acting on their stake in the event or organization. But a thank you in a thankless job means a whole lot. Incidentally, they are all really sick right now. It may be unrelated.
Or not. Gratitude should spread like a bacteria, because it should spread through real, genuine contact. It should infect people and inspire them, and when they cough or sniffle, they can be reminded that they’re part of something larger than themselves, something that’s doing something good. If you’re involved in charity, you might say “Please give” or “Help any way you can.” But most importantly, always say “Thank you.”
