Posted on November 17, 2010
On September 16 in preparation for Yom Kippur my family made several contributions to various organizations. The following week or so we received acknowledgement and thank you letters from all of the organizations except one, which we only received last week! That is almost two months since and the letter was not personalized in any way. This is inexcusable and should not be tolerated.
If an agency cannot acknowledge and thank their contributors in a timely fashion they do not deserve the support. Larger agencies generally have a staff person whose sole responsibility is taking care of these letters and they tend to get them out quickly, as they should. For smaller agencies it can take more time and as a small organization I can understand that the staff is often working on 47 different projects. However, I think that the donor should be thanked in some way (e-mail, phone call, automated thank you note and acknowledgment for online contributions) within 24 hours of the gift and a formal letter that they can use for tax purposes should be sent within a week of the gift at most.
Areyvut like any other organization needs support. As a small organization we pride ourselves in acknowledging and thanking our donors in a timely fashion regardless of the level of the gift. Several years ago Ari. W. sent me an e-mail saying that no agency has ever sent him a thank you letter as quickly as we did. Contribute to Areyvut today and your letter will be in the mail tomorrow.
