As we begin the holiday season, I’ve been thinking a lot about thanking. Not just thankfulness – I am thankful that I’m in this program, that I have a job, and that my family is in good health. I have spent lots of time the past two months thinking about how I can more effectively engage the volunteers I work with through thanking.

The questions I have been struggling with over the past several months are common to many nonprofits. How can I thank my donors more effectively? How can I make sure I’m thanking the right people at the right time? In the non-profit world, we know it’s important that we thank donors and volunteers for everything they do for us throughout the year. But the key is making sure we do it effectively.

My elective this quarter is marketing and I’ve been able to apply so much of what we have learned in class directly to my job. I’ve started thinking about segmenting the donors and volunteers I work with into more manageable groups. Using the lesson that Professor Kolsky repeats often in class, “It all goes back to the customer”, I analyzed those groups and thought a lot about how to make my approach more personal for their characteristics. I developed a plan and a few weeks ago, I started targeting specific groups with different messages.

These ideas are definitely experiments and I have no idea if they will lead to an increase in volunteer engagement. But the MSC program so far has given me some tools to look at different parts of my job in a different way, ultimately making me a more effective employee. I’m excited to see the results!