I need documentation/policy for response time of a memorial contribution, acknowledgement both to the donor and family of the deceased. Thank you Nancy

We have 24-48 hr turnaround goals for all donations once they reach our office (we have affilates and it sometimes takes them a few days to get them to us due to part time help) I send Tribute Acknowledgments to honorees and family members bi-weekly. Laurel Quaintance Friends of Bassett Manager,Fund Development Services Cooperstown, NY 13326 [Email Removed]

We also have a 48 hour turn around goal for our acknowledgment letters. However, sometimes an honor/memorial event occurs where there are a number of donors making gifts. So, about once a week, we will send an acknowledgement to the person to be notified of gifts (family of the deceased or honoree), giving them a list of those who have made gifts in honor/memory. The thank you letter to the donor goes out in that 2 day time frame.

Hope that is of help.

Ditto here. Typically same day; however, when major event is going on, or annual appeal, it may take 48 hours.

We are small (size-wise) organization and our normal turn-around is that the memorial or honorary card goes out the same day the donation is received for processing (trust me this helps with the people who wanted to know why an acknowledgement did not go out on a weekend). This understanding comes in handy during our busy season from November through January. Donor Services for us is 1-1/2 people so we can get behind in dataprocessing then up to 4 days. Hope this helps! Denise Thompson Donor Services Coordinator IOCC [Email Removed]

Absolutely the same or next day. We want the message of encouragement to get to the donors and families of the deceased as soon as possible.

Good day, I try to prepare all acknowledgment letters the same day I receive notification of donations. However, the letter being sent depends upon when the appropriate person signs them. I also prepare acknowledgement cards as requested, to designated person (friend or family of deceased.) I always attach a copy of the acknowledgement card to copy of donation check for future references, if it ever needed.

We process gifts for 7 entities and have a 48 hour turn around time for receipting and acknowledging gifts. However memorials are acknowledged every 8-10 days with a list of contributors being sent along with a letter to the family. This allows us time to not only collect all gifts from the numerous entites but cuts down on having to send multiple notifications to the family. Barb Kortas - St. John Health Foundation.

I agree with barbara. I believe that once a week is enough for memorial/tribute notifications. As having been a recipient of such notifications it was much better to occasionally get a list of all donors than get new names every day for weeks. I personally believe it is much too much with a very active memorial to expect a person to take in at such a potentially difficult time. I would not do less than weekly because you do not want too much time to pass by when these people are receiving visits and calls from these donors but personally I believe daily is too much (for both your staff and the recipient) Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

We send the acknowledgement card immediately, always the same day the gift is received. The thank you letter may wait up to 72 hours depending on signature turn-around time, but the card goes to the honoree or deceased's family immediately. With a few families we know well, who had very active memorials, we have asked them how they felt about receiving numerous acknowledgement cards, and whether they would have preferred fewer acknowledgements with more names on each one. Without exception, they have all said that it really comforted them to receive all the cards, and that they enjoyed being able to go back and look at and/or respond to all of them. Some people even displayed them.

Our goal is to acknowledge memorial gifts within 24 hours. We send a card with receipt information to the donor. The tribute name, the fund the donation will go to, and the name of the donor is sent on a card to the family for each gift received. We do not include the amount given in the card to the family. There are many times when a family will bring a group of donations to our cancer center. No matter how long the department keeps them we respond within 24 hours once we receive them. Pat Dell Donor Relations Specialist MeritCare Foundation Fargo, ND Pat Dell Donor Information Specialist MeritCare Foundation Fargo, North Dakota

I have to agree with Barbara and Lis. When the gift is a tribute, you have to aim for that 24 hours. Most tribute gifts are extremely timely and that card has to go to the notificant. If you wait for once a week for the donor letter, well, that's not so bad except they think that means that you haven't put out their tribute card. We do nearly $100,000 in tributes every year, for us they are such a big part of the bottom line that we can't afford not to keep the donor happy. Melissa Brown Manager, Donor Services Abramson Center for Jewish Life www.abramsoncenter.org Melissa Brown Abramson Center for Jewish Life 1425 Horsham Rd North Wales, PA 19454 www.abramsoncenter.org

We send acknowledgements to donors within 24-48 hours regardless of whether or not the gift was a tribute. I simply have a different schedule for the tribute notifications to recipients. I guess it is a matter of personal preference or what your donors expect but I have never had a problem with our schedule and we honestly do not get a ton of tributes to begin with. Maybe if we did it would necessitate a different process. Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves (at) villageforchildren.org www.villageforchildren.org GET ON THE BUS! Check out what the Blackbaud User Society is talking about today at www.blackbus.org!

Lis, what is "the card"? We experimented with a (I thought) tasteful card to the survivors, but it had to be generated manually, and we got bogged down. Could you elaborate? Thanks.

Hi. My name is Jan Platt and I recently started working here at Lourdes Health System in Camden, NJ. I wondered if you could possibly send me a sample of the memorial card you send. My address is Jan Platt, Foundation, Lourdes Health System, 1600 Haddon Ave, Camden NJ 08103. Thanks very much.