OrilliaMatters received the following open letter from Doug Varty of Oro-Medonte on charitable support and its acknowledgement by recipient organizations.
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An open letter to Orillia and area charities:
I believe my wife and I are quite generous with our charitable giving and support many local, national and international charities.
The majority of our charitable giving is through automatic monthly payments or charges for our convenience and because we know charities love the commitment and monthly cash flow that giving in this manner provides (as an aside, more people should opt for this type of giving).
As Christmas approached, we also made a number of seasonal donations.
This year we made six donations of which four were to Orillia area charities.
It was interesting to note that two of the Orillia charities/not for profits provided a relatively prompt response and personal thank you for our donations. These were Big Brothers Big Sisters Orillia and the Orillia Silver Band.
As of the date of this letter (January 15th, 2019) we have received no acknowledgement or thank you from the other two Orillia charities. I am not going to name these charities, as the point here is not to shame them, but rather to remind them of the importance of donor/supporter appreciation. I will send them a copy of this letter.
We all receive many many many requests for our charitable dollars over the course of the year and particularly during the holiday season and as year end approaches. The vast majority of these charities do great work in our communities and are increasingly in need of donations from the public to carry out their mission.
I believe most charities recognize the fact that they live in a world of increasing competition for donor’s attention (and donation dollars). So, in this environment I believe that charities that do not acknowledge and appropriately thank their donors run the risk of losing the current and on-going support of these underappreciated donors.
So, the open question I have for charity Executive Directors, Board members, fundraising and other senior charity staff: Is your charity appropriately recognizing your donors and volunteers?
Don’t get me wrong – we donate time and dollars to many charities because we believe in their mission and objective. But it is still nice to have our support acknowledged.
Doug Varty
Oro-Medonte
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