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As part of my year-end giving, I decided to join four different history organizations (one historic site, three historic preservation organizations).  I support the mission of every organization I joined–there’s no attempt to embarrass them here–but I also wanted to see how a new member and unsolicited gift was received.  In this tight economy, every organization seems to placing a great emphasis on growing membership and support, so it’s useful to learn what others are doing.  Admittedly, this is just a limited experiment, but for each one I downloaded their membership forms from their websites, filled it out, and then sent it in with a check for the basic individual membership level all on the same day in mid December.  So far, I received responses from three of the four organizations (and they arrived about a day apart) and here’s how they compared:

• All three were in the form of letters on color letterhead: one handsigned by the executive director, two by the director of development or membership using digital images of signatures.
• Two recognized my donation as membership, one as a gift to the annual fund.
• All said “thanks” and two had extensive statements about benefits (printed on the back side of the membership card or letter).
• One misspelled my name (okay, it’s a bit tricky) but another had a misspelled word in the body of the letter.
• One included a membership card (die cut and removed by peeling it off the page); one included two membership cards (perforated to be torn out of the page) and the latest newsletter.
• All mentioned the amount given and the amount that was tax deductible.

For comparison, here is the opening paragraph of each letter:

1. Thank you for supporting Preservation Maryland through your Annual Fund contribution of $35.
2. Thank you for becoming a member of the Friends of Drayton Hall.  I am delighted to welcome you into our community.
3. Welcome to Indiana Landmarks membership!  Thank you for your full tax-deductible Individual membership dues of $35.00, which we received on Wednesday, December 14, 2011.  Your new membership card, valid through 12/31/2012, is attached below.

And the closing sentences were:

1. We greatly appreciate your contribution and hope to see you at our spring Homeowner’s Expo.
2. Again, thank you for joining!
3. The Board of Directors and staff of professionals join me in thanking you for your leadership and involvement in historic preservation in Indiana.

Every organization has to craft a membership program that’s appropriate to them and takes advantage of their distinctiveness–I wouldn’t recommend copying the content or format of another organization you admire.  Just in these few examples, however, you can probably identify things you like and things you would change–and perhaps prompt you to review your membership materials.