The IRS is so hip they're making YouTube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRX9GQZM ... annel_page

"For donations big and small, you get a record of giving."

Otherwise known as a thank-you letter.

I heard about one museum which said, recently, that for gifts under $250, we will no longer send thank-you's - your check is your receipt. Just one problem: "Check 21" is killing the paper check as we know it. Most people don't get checks back anymore.

.......and some small donors "test the waters." If an organization does not send a thank-you, that donor may move his/her philanthropy to another cause thereby cutting off the museum from a future LARGE donation.

Case in point on how consistent thank yous pay off big involves a local charity whose development director is my neighbor. He told me that for twenty years a childless couple were regular donors to the cause in modest amounts. For each gift, a thank you card was di rigeur. The two died suddenly without heirs and left the charity $850,000!

Sloan

IMHO it's a BIG mistake to not acknowledge a donation with a thank you letter. To not do that is a slap in the face to the donor. There's a big difference between having to issue a recipt for a donation and sending a well worded and sincere thank you letter. This should be signed in pen by the Chair of the Board or some other high officer.

Our Museum sends a thank you letter regardless of the size of the donation. Of course, if the donation is $250 or more, then a museum must send the donor a formal receipt with the amount shown, the date received and the receipt should have the statement that no goods or services were provided by the museum in connection with the donation.

We feel that it's vitally important to acknowledge even the smallest of donations. For donation of less than $250, we enter basic information on the donor onto a database. Then when we're ready to send the thank you letters we use MS Word mail merge to bang-out a bunch of letters and envelopes or labels. Usually takes about 30 minutes to get the job done. The database is useful later to do a mass mailing to all previous donors.

Thanks!

On the future of checks (as your reciept)... the UK just dropped the other shoe.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091216/lf_ ... in_cheques
Matter of time before it comes to the U.S.

As usual, the financial journalists screw it up..

Checks are a special form of "drafts" or an order to pay, but one "drawn against" a bank.

PAPER checks may disappear, but US banks are heavily pushing debit cards, which are electronic drafts.

PS I never use a debit card, because your rights in case of an error are NOT the same as those for a credit card. Plenty of horror stories on Clark Howard's show.

I'm the president of a small family foundation, and the owner of the Francis L Suter (former Pennsy business car 7503, featured on Kelly Anderson's nearby post). I'd like to second the thoughts of everyone speaking about the importance of friendly personal thanks for every single donation. I and the other family members deciding who gets what from our foundation have stories of thoughtfully-chosen charities, with causes we care about, who never sent a thing (or only a formal acknowledgement). The following year, they get zilch. The story of the couple who left a fortune after a lifetime of small gifts is completely believable. People may not say much at the time, but they notice, they care, and they remember. When I am at the car at Strasburg, many people come and chat, ask questions about the car, and about chartering it. I treat every single person as if he or she could easily afford to take the car to Seattle next week. I have no way whatever of knowing their means. The person I am short with will be the millionaire who was thinking of a trip on the car.

The fast pace of our society and respective lifestyles has largely eliminated these types of otherwise simple acknowledgements.

As an example, I was recently appointed as the membership lead for our local division of the NMRA (same idea, just a wee bit smaller). One of the first things I implemented was to acknowledge by email/snail mail, a membership renewal, or conversely if a membership had not been renewed, a simple nudge/reminder/what can we do to bring you back on board ? type of letter.

To say the response has been positive is an understatement. Many people expressed that they had never been previously contacted in such a way, others were glad to know that the organization was doing something more than simply taking their dues once a year, interest and involvement in the local division is growing (slow but sure), and there has been nothing but favorable feedback.

As with many things in life,, it's the little things we take for granted that we,, well,, shouldn't !

Keeping in touch and developing relationships is more than just acknowledging a contribution. Here are two examples of other examples of contact work.

I heard the story that one of the significant railway museums in this country received a bequest from a person who was not even a member or otherwise known to them. Upon inquiry they found that the individual had visited the museum just once was but was escorted around and otherwise made to feel appreciated. When an other group this man was associated with gave him a snub he looked elsewhere and decided that this railroad museum was worthy.

I am a member of a historical society located near in central Nevada. Earlier this year I visited the museum and talked with the part-time permanent employee (partially funded by the country). She said that membership and membership renewals were down. As I walked out the door at the end of my visit I realized that the group had not sent our any mailing during the previous year. They once put out a multi-page publication twice a year; but the "prime movers" behind this had retired and moved to larger communities to be near medical facilities, etc. The society by not even putting out a simple newsletter sheet that year -- so it was not keeping in touch with its membership. Without keeping up its relationship with the members the members were not seeing any reason to renew. I probably should send them a note.

My personal experiences with donating has been donating my time as I usually have more time than money. I have noticed a trend where man hours are not thought of as worthy as "dollars". While cash makes the world go around, you would have to have a lot more of it if you didn't have volunteers donating time, same for equipment donations. Funny how when we start treating our museums as businesses we sometimes "throw out the baby with the bath water". The way most businesses treat their employees, is it a wonder there is very little loyalty? Business can't seem to figure this out, maybe running our museums like businesses needs to be examined or adjusted some?

But back to the courtesy of thanking donors large and small. Back a few years ago at a local Midwestern RR museum, the head of MOW dept mentioned he was in dire need of rail. Steel prices were going through the roof and light 85-90 lb rail was getting hard to find. This man is a real mover and shaker, doesn't pull many punches so I took his plea seriously. Found a small pile of 85 lb rail [approx 175 sticks]. No money or help available from the museum to ship it or buy it. I got the rail donated. Had to get a letter of acceptance before moving it. Had to keep on them to get the acceptance letter out so we could get the rail. Finally it came. Got the rail donated, got a tractor and flatbed from two different companies donated for the haul, fuel included, Got the loading donated by a personal friend. Had to borrow and return the blocking from a customer of the trucking company I worked for. Not sure if the stars were aligned or not, but it all worked out great. But I was adamant that the people who donated truck, trailer and loading got thank you letters and hopefully a couple of tickets for a train ride. Rail was going for about $100 a stick at this time. It was like pulling teeth to get the letters sent to the donors. I made sure it got done, but felt that this courtesy should be a no brainer. A simple form letter was all that anybody would of expected and would of been sufficient. Guess I am an old guy now and out of touch with humanity. This is wrong. Courtesy goes a long way and it is not out of style or shouldn't be.

At the same time a fellow member who is also a mover and shaker of accomplishment was almost single handily building a badly needed section of camp car track. He needed some heavy equipment to do some work. He pulled some strings got a large "hoe" delivered on low boy trailer, got the work done for free. He had to pull teeth to get a simple letter of thanks to the owner who donated the equipment and time for this little operation. Sorry folks but this is wrong. We need volunteers and donations in what ever form they come in. Big or small a simple thank you and maybe a couple of tickets for a train ride go a long way. Most donors do not want a huge front page article in the paper telling the world how good they are, often just a simple thank you will suffice.

The time it took to get the acceptance letter to the donor cost us all the angle bar that was included in the donation. It was stolen off the pile. I would of taken it right away, but I couldn't touch anything until it was "accepted. I could of gotten $7-8,000 for the rail at the scrap yard. It was badly needed and almost totally used up a few years later. The cost of a thank you letter and the time it took to run one off the printer was worth it in my book. The cost of getting a "hoe" on property and the time it saved was well worth the cost of a thank-you letter. I do not remember if the donor got one or not. That donor was very disgruntled by the attitude shown towards them. I think some of those in charge of accepting donations and fund raising need to wake up, times are tough enough as they are without insulting the smaller donors or donors who donate services instead of cash. In many cases those who might not have cash donations can still donate services. Of course if your fund raiser gets commission on donations received it might be harder to get their percentage from $2000 worth of machine shop services? Food for thought? Cheers, John.

The advise about "Thank you" letters also applies to politicians and bureaucrats who help get or approve those public moneys and other aid that you may dream about. I agree that it is a difficult choice if the "crook" who voted for your museum's support does not belong to your political party.