If you know rescue, you know the many different ways people help. If you know those who spend day in – day out working the rescue, you may not know, thank yous are critical to our heartbeat.
A friend of mine and I were just having this conversation. How to say, “Thank you.” When to say it? When to write it? Sure, there is all the Miss Etiquette stuff out there. We all know you are supposed to thank people for their kindness, their generosity, their wisdom, whatever it may be they have bestowed upon you. The modern day issue is everyone runs on website platforms.
If you have a non-profit, chances are you are on several on-line platforms. Today there are crowdsourcing platforms, there are insta-platforms, there are the places people go to see updates, there are the places people go because they are already there checking out something else. If you touch their heart, they may send you funds to help your cause. It’s as easy as a click or two and poof! The money is in the receiver’s account. It’s so easy for the donors, which is what everyone wants. But there are rules. There are rules on every platform. Rules that say you can’t see who donated. Rules that say you can’t see how much was donated. Rules that take a percentage of the donation because the platform is “free” and the platform is why you earned a donation to begin with. Some platforms want you to post your physical address, or your personal phone number. Some platforms create a web (so to speak) that is more like a puzzle that you have to find your way through blindly so you can figure out who to thank. I would say with most non-profits, most rescues, especially the smaller ones, like us, we are ever so grateful to earn even a dime of help, support and love. When we have a successful fundraiser and we met a goal that will help us through the next year of food, the next medical visits, or the next trip to save a little guy in need…it all counts. So what I was telling my friend, it truly gnaws at my heart to know that someone or someones out there gave us funds to help a dog and I can’t thank them. She said those people worry less about the thanks and are just glad to help. I appreciate that answer but that doesn’t settle my soul. I was telling her the issue is, if you receive funds from a platform that doesn’t take a percentage, they also won’t share an email address with you. I understand if no one wants to give out their physical address, but at least an email can let the person know that we received their gift, we recognized their support and we appreciated them thinking about us. Their support is everything to us. So then my friend suggested I find out the names of people and list them individually on a public platform. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I don’t know if it’s nice, fair or right to publicly list those that gave. Maybe the ones that didn’t couldn’t this time or didn’t see the announcement. Maybe this particular situation didn’t speak to their heart. Well that doesn’t mean it won’t the next time. That doesn’t mean they haven’t given every time before this. It just seems erroneous to call out a list. Some people who give don’t want to be publicly announced. In addition, those who comment, who send us positive words, who we see watching every time, those people mean a great deal to us.
We all know we can’t do it without money, but it’s also about encouragement. Everyday thoughts cross rescuers minds, “Can I keep doing this? Can I keep cleaning up after them? Can I keep going to the vet? Can I keep burying them? Can I keep breaking my own heart over and over?” Without the words of so many people cheering us on, there may be no rescue. There may not be a next time.
It’s more to us than just a “Thank you Bob.” When it comes to those actual words, that never seems like enough. Not only do we have to search for who have helped us, when we find them, “thank you” doesn’t seem significant. We can’t take everyone to dinner. We can’t physically hand write a card for every donor, which on one point is a good problem to have, but…it still gnaws at me. We continue to thank groups as a whole but that’s not my style. It’s impersonal. The platforms that help us generate the most donations (and take zero fees) won’t be handing out email addresses anytime in the near future. We’ve signed up for every possible way to find our donors, but the biggest source isn’t sharing the information with us. We will continue to send gracious “Thank yous” through email, cards, and personal messaging when we can and as we know who you are. We do our best when Pekingese are saved to thank all involved. All I know to do is keep doing what we are doing, keep saving who we are saving and hope we continue to touch the hearts of those who love a dog. Pekingese are a special breed; they own our hearts. We hope that shines through in our work and our public conversations on the world wide web.
