Thanks for the direct response.
(Note: I overstated the delay in acknowledgment-we will be 2 months late, not 3.)
The staff member who received the check says there was no correspondence with the check or notice about any website, login, etc. I know mistakes happen, and maybe we were a fluke. I will email you offline about it.

It would be really helpful for nonprofit recipients if the donor’s name and donation source were on the check.

I think that part of our delay stemmed from the address being wrong on the Guidestar record (listed as NE instead of NW). Which raises another question-what does NFG do when they cannot locate a nonprofit?

Yes, what I guess I’m wondering is as Network for Good processes gifts for a number of third party sites like Causes and Change.org, does the nonprofit get a record like that says “Network for Good – Causes” or does it say “Network for Good – Causes – Farra’s Birthday Wish” <– or something that connects to a specific campaign within Causes or whatever channel?

Brooke, sorry for your trouble! But I promise, your check most definitely came with an insert explaining everything to do to log in and track the donation. If you email me (katya dot andresen at networkforgood.org), I will send you a copy so you know from here on out. I’m also all ears on what you’d like to see added to that letter! Your input would be so helpful. Bring it on. I have no doubt you could help us improve it. If you’re willing, I’d love the feedback. Last, it’s never too late to thank a donor:) You can throw me under the bus for the delay if that helps!

So I just went and checked in, started up our account, and found that, egads, we had a donation on December 31. How did I not know about this? I started tracking the donation. It turns out that we just received the check less than a week ago. As in, nearly three months post-donation. According to the staff member who processes donations when they come in the door, there was no letter, despite this being our first ever donation from NFG, and the check itself does not have the donor’s name on it. We are in DC, and Snoverkil probably delayed it a bit, but we absolutely would have failed your test through no fault of our own.

All of this is to say, I think NFG could do a better job of alerting first-time recipients of donations know about the donation, about what NFG is and how it works, and processing the funds more quickly. I am now going to be int he awkward position of thanking a donor for his first-time donation more than three months late, something you’ve just highlighted as hard to excuse.

I think this might confuse some donors.
1. I don’t think most donors close attention to who is ‘processing’ the gift. Rather, they think they donated via {Friend’sName}’s birthday wish or campaign.
2. The wording makes it sounds like the gift source was a designated project.

Thoughts?