A donor who gives on Tuesday and hears nothing until three weeks later rarely complains. They just give a little less warmly the next time. Getting a thank-you out within two business days is one of the cheapest ways a museum, zoo, or garden can protect its donor relationships. It’s also one of the first habits to slip once gift volume picks up or the person who “always does the letters” goes on vacation.
The 48-hour standard isn’t really a writing problem. It’s a workflow problem: knowing every gift that came in, who signs it, and what has already gone out. Below is one way to set that up in Altru so it survives staff absences and year-end volume.
Decide what “48 hours” actually means
Before you change any process, pin down the definition. Teams that say “we acknowledge within 48 hours” often mean different things:
- 48 hours from the gift date, or from when it was entered in Altru? Checks that sit in a mailroom for four days will never meet a gift-date standard.
- Business days or calendar days? A Friday-afternoon online gift is the classic edge case.
- Sent or delivered? For mailed letters, “in the outgoing mail” is the only part you control.
Most development offices settle on two business days from the date the gift is posted to Altru, plus a separate goal for getting checks and mailed gifts entered quickly. Write that down. A standard nobody can measure turns into a vague intention.
Tier your acknowledgments
Not every gift needs the same treatment, and trying to give every $25 gift a hand-signed letter is how backlogs start. A simple tier structure keeps the fast path fast:
- Standard gifts: a prompt receipt (email for online gifts, a printed letter for mailed ones) that includes the tax language below. This should be close to fully routine.
- Mid-level gifts: the same letter, signed by the executive director or development director, sometimes with a handwritten line.
- Major, first-time, and tribute gifts: the letter plus a personal touch, such as a phone call from a board member or staff lead, or a notification to the honoree’s family for memorial and honor gifts.
Set your dollar thresholds based on your own donor file, not a number borrowed from another organization. The point is that tier one never waits on tier three.
Build the daily list in Altru
The backbone of a reliable process is one saved revenue query that answers a single question: which gifts have been posted but not yet acknowledged? Useful fields to include are the constituent name and address, gift amount, gift date, designation, payment method, any tribute information, and the solicitor or relationship manager if you track one.
How you flag “acknowledged” depends on your setup. Some organizations use Altru’s built-in letter or acknowledgment tracking where they have it configured; others use an attribute or a note on the revenue record. Whichever you use, use it consistently, because the daily query only works if every acknowledged gift drops off the list. If you’re not sure how your instance records acknowledgment status, test it on a sample gift in a non-production environment or ask Blackbaud support before you rebuild your process around it.
Then make it a routine: someone runs the query every morning, works the list down to zero, and marks each gift as done. If that person is out, a named backup runs it. Batching to “Fridays” is how two-day turnaround quietly becomes ten.
Mailed acknowledgment standards
Printed letters still matter, especially for older donors, check givers, and anyone who needs a paper record for taxes. A few standards worth adopting:
- Use the right salutation. Pull addressee and salutation from the constituent record rather than typing names by hand. Clean up household and spouse names in Altru first; a letter to the wrong name undoes the goodwill.
- Reference the specific gift. Amount, date, and designation. “Your gift to the education fund” lands better than “your generous support.”
- Keep a copy. Store or log what was sent so anyone answering a donor call can see it.
- Refresh the copy regularly. Repeat donors notice when they get the identical letter every year. Rotate the story or update it seasonally.
- Proof a small sample from every print run before stuffing envelopes, especially after anyone edits a letter template.
Get the tax language right
For US organizations, the IRS requires a written acknowledgment for any single contribution of $250 or more, stating the amount (or a description of non-cash property) and whether the donor received any goods or services in return. When a payment over $75 is partly a gift and partly a purchase, such as a gala ticket or some membership levels, you also need to disclose a good-faith estimate of the value received.
Membership revenue deserves extra care, since member benefits can affect the deductible amount. Agree on the wording with your finance team or auditor, build it into your letter templates once, and stop letting each staff member improvise it.
Measure it monthly
Add one more query: gifts posted last month, with the gift date, posted date, and acknowledged date side by side. Review the average turnaround and the outliers. The outliers usually point to a specific cause, like mailed checks waiting for a deposit, tribute gifts waiting on honoree addresses, or a signer who travels a lot. Fix that cause rather than asking everyone to try harder.
Quick answers
Is an email receipt enough?
For many online gifts, yes, as long as it contains the required tax language. Many organizations still mail a letter for larger gifts or donors who prefer paper.
Should recurring gifts get a thank-you every month?
Usually not a full letter. A thank-you for the first gift and an annual giving summary at year end is a common and donor-friendly pattern.
What if we’re already behind?
Send the backlog now with a short, honest letter rather than skipping it, then start the daily query fresh so new gifts don’t join the pile.
