First thing’s first… you must keep track of your donors! If you don’t keep track of who donated and how much, you won’t be able to accurately total what you raised, or properly thank those who supported you. Thankfully, I have created just the thing to help you keep track of your donors!
If your service initiative involves monetary or material donations, use my Free, Downloadable, Printable Donor Log HERE. Note that in the “amount donated” section, you could notate an amount of money, or for example if you’re collecting toys or school supplies, you could notate “15 school supplies,” “6 toys,” etc.
If your service initiative involves gifts of time, use my Free, Downloadable, Printable Contribution Log HERE. This is handy if you’re leading a tree planting party, beach cleanup group, etc. This way you keep track of who showed up, what they did, and for how long! That way when you report results of your initiative, you have tangible numbers and results to talk about.
Feel free to make a copy of these logs in your Google Drive and make them your own digitally, or print out a copy to write on.
Pageant girls- knowing your results is particularly important for you! It’s also essential for those intending to discuss their service in a college or job interview, etc. In general, the numbers summarizing all your hard work are important to keep your initiative going. For example, reporting how much I raised for Operation Joy, how many hours it took, how many cupcakes I baked, etc. lends credibility to my service initiative and gives it legitimacy to more and more people. This is how I help it grow!
THANK YOU NOTES:
Next, every person on your donor or contributor logs needs a thank you. This could be a personalized email, message, phone call or handwritten note thanking them for their generous monetary or material donation, or their gift of time to you. Whatever you choose, make it personal, detailed and give it some time and love. When people feel appreciated, they’re more likely to support you again. This is especially important to older generations!
However, I know you’re busy. This service initiative building is no small feat! So it’s okay if you don’t get those thank you notes in the mail by the next day. Things are better late than never, so just make sure get that thank you out in a reasonable amount of time. For myself personally, I waited until the conclusion of Operation Joy’s 2020 programs to start thinking about thank you notes, that way I could use one note for multiple contributions by one person. Saving paper & making it extra heartfelt!
So there you have it! Once people start donating, just make sure to keep track of their contributions in one of the free logs I’ve provided you, and give them a personal thank you message!
Head now to the FINAL step, PATH #2, STEP #8, Letters of Confirmation.
Joy From Scratch! 