Donation Certificate Templates

Whether you’re a parent who has just started a Kickstarter campaign to help offset medical costs of your special-needs child, the owner or operator of a non-government organization (NGO) or charitable organization, or something in between, donation certificates are a valu-able way to show your appreciation to the people who offer you support—financially or otherwise.

Encourage Donations Through Donor Recognition

Joint research conducted by Harvard University and Yale University has shown that recogni-tion can increase donation probability and donation amounts. At the same time, research by Barasch, Small, and Bermin has shown that for people engaged in pro-social behavior—activities such as blood or even organ donation, charitable giving, and volunteering—monetary awards such as cash, gift cards, or expensive items can make them feel their sin-cerity has been cheapened and their efforts monetized. A donation certificate is the perfect way to show a donor that you appreciate their charita-ble donation, without cheapening their experience. Donation certificates can also serve as donation receipts. This makes them a great way to show someone that you’ve contributed to an organization they care about. This might be because they’ve asked you to make a charitable contribution in lieu of a birthday or Christmas present. In one humorous example of this kind of use of donation certificates, voters who wanted to protest the results of the recent election decided to donate to a charity they cared about, but in Vice-President Mike Pence’s name. Voters knew that, for every donation Planned Parenthood receives, the organization sends individual thank-you certificates. Voters also knew that Vice-President Pence does not support Planned Parenthood. You can imagine his reaction, then, to the 82,000 donation certificates that arrived at his Indiana office. While these donations were made as a form of political protest, people could also donate to an organization such as Planned Parenthood in a person’s name who does support the cause. And in that case, the certificate serves as an acknowledgement for the gift given.

Fundraising Best Practices

If you’re involved in a fundraising campaign, there are some best practices you should keep in mind.

• Name Drop

  – A study by TechnoServe and Yale University compared a set of direct-mail fundraising requests sent out in their name. Some of the letters indicated that an anonymous donor would match the donations, while the rest specifically named the well-known donor: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The experiment showed that prominently displaying the recognizable name increased the likelihood of donation by 22%. This would be of enormous benefit to any charity, and was clearly the result of the quality signal that a big-name donor broadcasts.

• Matching Donations

  – Small donors typically feel their donations are insignificant in the broader scope of the cause you represent. For this reason, it helps to send a clear message that their donation counts. Advertising matching donations from a recognized foundation makes this possible.

• Downplay Overhead

  – All organizations need to cover overhead costs. However, a study by Uri Gneezy with the University of San Diego, published in Science, showed that people are more likely to donate if they know their money isn’t covering those costs. Once overhead costs have been covered, playing up that fact to potential donors is a useful strategy. Also, if your organization is tax exempt or has earned a government grant to cover some costs, tell potential donors that.

• Donations May Be Tax Deductible

  – If you operate a non-profit organization, then donors may be able to use their donation as a tax deduction. Not every NGO qualifies for this status, but if your organization does then this is a selling point you want to mention in your donation request.

Donors like to be recognized for offering their hard-earned money to causes they care about. And you can substantially increase your ability to fund those causes by customizing a donation certificate template for use by your organization. The act of recognizing donors, even when the certificate is nothing but a simple “thank you,” can be of enormous benefit.