As you think about your current grantmakers, what do you know about each of their preferences for capacity and preference for communicating with grantees? What types of success stories do they seem to get most excited about? What types of communication do they usually respond to – phone or email?

As you think about how to express your gratitude for the grantmakers currently supporting your organization in unique and customized ways, today’s challenge is to think outside of the box for ONE grantmaker. What can you do to say thank you to them in a customized way beyond your standard thank you letter?

Here are some ideas to consider:

1 – Create a photo montage of the program they funded and post it to social media with appropriate tagging of the funder’s accounts.

2 – Have program participants create an art piece as a thank you to the grantmaker (this works with children’s programs, art therapy programs and many others) and put it in a frame before sending it to the funder.

3 – Have scholarship recipients write thank you letters for the foundation’s support and deliver a small packet to the grantmaker.

4 – Send a handwritten invitation to an upcoming event for the grantmaker to attend as your guest.

5 – Have program participants hold a custom thank you sign to the funder during part of a program, take a picture of the group (with photo release permission, of course), frame the photo and send it to the funder.

After you see how the first customized thank you action goes with a current grantmaker, pause to consider how you can work the idea into your annual grant strategy. Can you do a customized thank you once a month? Every other week? Time to put it on the grant calendar and also to check out these other tips to strengthen your grantmaker relationships!

Don’t forget to share your journey on the 30 Day Grant Readiness Challenge by using the hashtag #grantreadiness on your posts and updates on social media.

Did you miss the launch of the 30-Day Grant Readiness Challenge? It isn’t too late for you to start! You can sign up at any point and it will start you back on Day 1!