It's all about the thank you

Wunderkind Chris Brogan has yet another great post up today about the importance of saying thank you. I could not agree more.

One of my work projects that I am most proud of is a team-led idea of creating a video of my organization's beneficiaries who had been helped by my organization, and we asked, on camera, what they would say to a donor if they had the opportunity. Each one chose to say "thank you" in the most heartfelt and genuine way - it was beautiful.

We launched this video, via an e-mail and a social network push right around thanksgiving and the response was overwhelming. We received more than two dozen e-mails from recipients stating they were humbled by the video and that they were honored and inspired to have an opportunity to serve the poor overseas. We intentionally had no ask in the e-mail, but our year-end campaign (which started a week later), did spectacularly, despite the tough economic climate. It was so well received that we are planning to make this an annual event around Thanksgiving.

Whether the "thank you" video increased the year-end campaign's response is indiscernible, but judging from the people that took the time to write in, taking the time to thank them - and most importantly to give them the opportunity to hear it from someone they have helped - seemed to have an incredibly powerful effect.

It is also posted to youtube here.