Picture this: you just hosted a charity auction to raise money for your organization’s new program. It’s the first event you’ve been able to hold in-person since early 2020, and you surpassed your revenue and engagement goals. You and your team are feeling pretty good about your accomplishments. But what’s next?

After your auction, you’ll need to thank your supporters for their contributions. They might include event attendees, bidders, item donors, corporate sponsors, event ambassadors, volunteers, and more. Essentially, anyone who played a role in your event’s success.

Thanking your auction supporters is one of the last touchpoints you’ll have with them from your event, and it’s also one of the most effective ways to start building deeper connections for ongoing engagement. As you plan your upcoming charity auction, make sure you don’t neglect this critical step. Take the time to coordinate your appreciation efforts and communicate to key supporters that their contributions matter in a big way.

In this guide, we’ll discuss some of our favorite ways to thank dedicated auction supporters. These include:

Handwritten letters
Social media shoutouts
Email blasts
Phone calls

Each idea comes with its own unique set of benefits and drawbacks, and not every method matches every supporter. Consider the individuals you’ll be thanking and use that to determine the best way to communicate your appreciation. Let’s dive in!

1. Handwritten letters

A handwritten letter is a nice, personal way to thank your top supporters, including donors, volunteers, and ambassadors. Since it can’t be mass-produced, it shows that the recipient is worth the time and effort it takes to draft and send a personalized note.

As you write your thank-you notes, consider the following tips for maximizing your impact:

Address the recipient by their name (or preferred nickname). Go personal. Using the donor's first name is always better than Dear Donor. This shows your letter (and appreciation) was written specifically for that person.
Acknowledge how that individual in particular supported your auction. Similarly, be sure to specifically mention how the letter recipient supported your event. Did they donate auction items? Make a donation? Purchase a live or silent auction item? Help volunteer? Acknowledging the role they played in your success will make the note more personal.
Invest in high quality materials to make your letter look professional. You don’t want your thank-you note to look like an afterthought or like you rushed through it. Go for the extra touch, such as nice paper and envelopes, logo stationary, or hand written notes.

Consider starting with a useful template (like these donor thank-you letters), then tweaking your letter to be individualized to each recipient.

For a more memorable gift, get creative and adjust your letters to be unique to your cause. For example, if you work with youth in your community, you can have young beneficiaries draw pictures, sign your letters, or write their own notes showing their gratitude. If you work for an animal shelter, you can even sign your letters with colorful paw prints.

2. social media shoutouts

Social media shoutouts are another great idea for public supporter recognition and are often popular with younger donors and corporate partners. These tried-and-true social media tips can help you make the most of this strategy:

Choose your social media platform based on follower demographics. Every social media site has its own pros, cons, and specific audiences. For example, Instagram is excellent for sharing images and videos, while Facebook lends itself to shareability. Consider the platforms that are most used by the supporters you’re looking to recognize!
Encourage supporters to interact with your posts. When your followers interact with your social media posts by liking, commenting, and sharing, they can increase your reach and expose your organization to many more potential supporters.
Incorporate engaging visual elements into your content. Social media content containing images and videos are more likely to be noticed and shared. Consider adding event photos and videos to catch your audiences’ attention.

Social media is a good way to thank local businesses that donated auction items to put up for bidding, venues, and other forms of in-kind gifts or sponsored support. When you acknowledge their contributions on social media, they receive free publicity from your followers and you might be exposed to their customers as well!

3. email blasts

According to this OneCause guide to peer-to-peer fundraising best practices, communicating your appreciation for all sorts of donors and supporters is a must—and email is a great way to do it! Here are tips to consider as you craft your email thank-yous:

Choose a catchy and memorable subject line. Your subject line is one of the most important elements of any email as it directly affects whether the supporter will open your message. Make it clear from the subject that you’re showing your appreciation rather than asking for a contribution.
Incorporate visual elements to supplement your copy. Embed images in your emails to engage the reader, keep their attention, and break up chunks of text.
Use donor-centric language to position the supporter as the hero of your story. When thanking supporters, make sure that you focus on the donor and how their contributions are driving your mission forward. Use more “you” than “us” language to emphasize that the donor is the one making your vision possible. Talk about the impact of their donation, and what it helped power!

Keep in mind that your auction software should automatically send confirmation messages with donor receipts. But be sure to send additional emails and communications throughout the year, to drive deeper engagement, and thank supporters in more personal ways. You also might want to target different segments with messages outside of giving, such as new volunteer opportunities, content, resources, program updates, and other upcoming events.

4. phone calls

Appreciation phone calls are among the best ways to say thank you to your high-level donors and volunteers.

As stated in Lumaverse’s list of top volunteer appreciation ideas, “Calling supporters on the phone provides a personal means of connecting with them and allows for conversations to occur.” With volunteers, this encourages ongoing relationships and increases the likelihood that they’ll get involved in your next event as well.

The same guide also notes that phone calls to donors can increase an individual’s chance at a second donation by more than 25%. When considering phone calls as an appreciation strategy, be sure to note the following tips and ideas:

Have a high-level member of leadership make thank-you phone calls. While any volunteer can make an appreciation call, it can mean more to your supporters to receive a call from someone on your leadership team or a board member.
Provide volunteers with a loose script to base their phone conversations on. Provide a script to those making calls. It’s a great jumping off point and ensures everyone is communicating the same mission message. Just be sure callers are able to make the conversation feel organic, rather than like they’re reading a manuscript.
Communicate the impact that the individual’s support has on your mission. Take this time to let your supporters know how much their contributions have helped drive your mission forward. Is their generous donation allowing you to feed X number of hungry children? Tell them that!

Because making personal phone calls can require an investment of time and effort from your fundraising or leadership teams, it’s a good idea to retain this idea for your highest stewardship priorities.

conclusion

You might think that your work is done now that you’ve completed your auction and provided bidders with the items they’d won. Not so fast! Thanking your auction supporters is one of the most critical steps in the entire process.

Regardless of the ideas you choose, be sure to incorporate the impact that supporters’ contributions had on your event and your organization as a whole. Perhaps your fundraising team was able to meet its revenue goals due to generous donations and bids from guests, or your staff was able to run a smooth event thanks to hardworking and dedicated volunteers. Make sure to communicate that impact to the people who help you drive your mission forward.

Not only does it leave a positive final impression on event attendees, you can also set your organization up for continued success with deeper relationships and increased levels of donor and volunteer retention.

This post was contributed by Kelly Velasquez-Hague, who brings over 20 years of fundraising, nonprofit management, and sales/marketing experience to her role as the Director of Content Marketing for OneCause. As a member of the OneCause sales and marketing team, Kelly manages all of the company’s content strategy and execution. She is passionate about empowering great missions and loves that her current role allows her to continue to help nonprofits reach new donors raise more funds for their cause.