From the Nominator

The donor relations team in Stanford University’s Medical Center Development reimagined a holiday card strategy. Philanthropists receive dozens of mailings from nonprofits that they support over the holidays, but most go unopened. We wanted our message to not only be read but to deepen the donors’ relationships to the organization. To accomplish this, we enlisted the CEO of Stanford Medicine and Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine to send personalized emails to our top 75 donors. Our goal was to thank Stanford Medicine’s key donors for their specific contributions. Collaboration was key to our success. The donor relations team pulled a list of the top donors and drafted an email template. Then we asked a team of fundraisers and their support staff (almost 50 people total) to review the list and help personalize the templated emails to each donor. The entire review took place over Google Docs and Sheets. Our centralized process streamlined communications, minimized email, and simplified the feedback process. The results were overwhelmingly positive: Twelve donors replied to Stanford Medicine leadership, thanking them for their thoughtful message, and one donor even reached out for a meeting. We accomplished our goal: We created a simple, effective, and genuine message of appreciation for our closest donors that held meaning for them, and the project was an easy lift for the development staff during a busy time.

From the Judges

Holiday cards are such a headache! This is an excellent example of streamlining a process using Google Docs and outlining responsibilities. We liked the personal touch and that it was not just another task on their to-do list, but a more meaningful approach. This could be implemented at another institution easily.