Homemade Cookies Help an Advocacy Charity Cement Relations With Its Top 100 Contributors

A Tennessee charity has found a simple way to sweeten its relationship with 100 of its most-generous donors every year — at a cost of $25 or less annually.

For the past 13 years, the Memphis Children’s Advocacy Center has been delivering homemade boxes full of cookies every

Valentine’s Day to its biggest donors. The donors who received cookies for last week’s holiday gave from $1,000 to $55,000 in cash or donated products and services.

The cookie project is fueled by volunteer efforts and donations from local affiliates of two companies. Perkins Restaurant and Bakery donates enough cookie dough for 8 to 10 large cookies per donor, and Gate Gourmet, an airline catering company, bakes them in their professional ovens free.

Some years, children as young as 5 and 6 have decorated the boxes in which the cookies are placed, but this year a group of 30 students from a local high school sponge-painted pink and purple hearts on the white cardboard boxes, which are tied with a pink ribbon.

Virginia Stallworth, an associate director for the children’s center, says the sweets are a way to thank donors, not to solicit them, but the cookies have helped prompt repeat gifts from many of the people who get them.

“Every year we receive calls and notes from people who receive the cookies,” Ms. Stallworth says. “For that day we are on their minds.”

Last week 10 volunteers each delivered 10 boxes of the freshly baked treats to the donors’ offices or homes. A volunteer writes a thank-you note to the donor, including an explanation that the cookies were produced by volunteers and donated services. This year’s notes read: “It’s a joint effort, our work — and this thank you, which says, again and again, you are the Sweetest, you have our Heart.”

Lucilla Garrett, a local businesswoman and a board member at the children’s center, crafted the message. She has volunteered on the cookie project for the past six years, delivering the treats to donors in the Memphis business district. When making her deliveries, Ms. Garrett wears a name tag identifying her as a member of the child-advocacy group.

Donors appreciate the personal nature of the gift, she says. “It shows there was a great deal of effort by the center in singling someone out and organizing the gift.”

Ms. Garrett recalls that when she made one delivery, “the man was totally astonished.” She adds: “He looked like he thought I was going to ask him to do something. The fact that I was there at 10 a.m. on a weekday just to give him a gift was like, ‘Wow.’ The surprise factor is enormous.”

Ms. Stallworth says the cost for all the boxes, ribbon, and cards bearing the thank-you message is typically $25 or less.

“Recipients like that the gift comes from volunteers and isn’t some pricey item purchased for them,” she says. “I don’t think most donors want to receive crystal bowls. For a child-serving organization, it is a great fit.”