SOFII announces the return of the thank-you letter clinic.

New thank-you letter clinic to champion a renaissance in
charity thank-you letters, starting with Lee Saunders –
and YOU.

It all started when veteran fundraiser and SOFII user Lee Saunders kindly sent SOFII a packet of charity thank-you letters he’d written for charities in Western Australia.

Lee’s packet made its way around the globe to me, US-based copywriter Lisa Sargent. And as SOFII’s resident thank-you letter specialist, I’m delighted it did. Because Lee’s letters have become the very first exhibit in SOFII’s second thank-you letter clinic.

The future plan for the clinic is to bring you the ‘best of the best’ on the art of saying thank you creatively to the wonderful people who make the work you do possible, your donors.

Featuring real thank-you letters from real charities and practitioners, like Lee Saunders, the clinic will feature periodic ‘live’ copywriting overhaul sessions, plus top tips, techniques and examples.

For the second exhibit, we need you to send in your in-memoriam thank-you letters.

In the months since SOFII’s first thank-you letter clinic, we’ve heard from many of you. And one thing is clear, what you want most is help writing your in-memoriam, or memorial, thank-you letters.

So exhibit two of SOFII’s second thank-you letter clinic will be on in-memoriam thank yous.

As before, send us your letters for a free critique and overhaul. The rules are simple:

• One letter per organisation only, please.
• In submitting your letter, you agree that we will be allowed to use it as part of the online exhibit with full attribution to your organisation, both before and after versions, with annotations from Lisa. So please get whatever permission you need before you send in your letter.
• Please send your samples to sue@sofii.org, in Word (.docx or .doc both OK).
• And for this exhibit, it’s in-memoriam letters only please.

Then I will get to work on your letters, and before long, the in-memoriam thank-you letter exhibit will be ready for you to use. One last thing – on behalf of fundraisers from Toronto to Tasmania, thank you Lee Saunders for leading SOFII’s thank-you renaissance.

Lisa Sargent.

Head of Lisa Sargent Communications, copywriter Lisa Sargent publishes the Loyalty Letter, a free e-mail newsletter for nonprofit and charitable organisations, which is read by subscribers all over the world. Sign up free on her website.

Sargent specialises in fundraising and donor development communications for direct mail and e-mail. She works almost exclusively with the nonprofit industry – often directly with mid-sized organisations that use in-house and remote creative teams.
A member of the DMFA, Lisa’s articles have been featured in Mal Warwick’s newsletter, FundRaising Success magazine and The Agitator, and her copywriting clinic on donor thank-you letters is one of the most visited exhibits on SOFII.