The Leprosy Mission: how we created and delivered our thanking retreat
- Debra Chand
- Jul 9
- 5 min read
By Debra Chand, Senior Supporter Experience Advisor, The Leprosy Mission.
Debra led the Thanking Retreat at The Leprosy Mission in January 2026, where the whole organisation got stuck into sharing the love with their supporters.
Initial feedback already shows the impact this had on their supporters, and the potential it holds for growing long-term loyalty.
Thank you so much for sharing, Debra!
The Leprosy Mission is an International Christian development charity. We support people across Africa and Asia by providing cure and care services for this treatable disease, with the goal of ending the heartache and discrimination of leprosy in our lifetime. We’d held a thankathon before, and had felt the benefits of this event first-hand: thankathons can show supporters how valued they are, and they’re a great way to involve everyone at The Leprosy Mission in the supporter experience.
However, our 2025 staff survey showed that only 64% of staff actually took part: many felt “too busy”, questioned whether it was part of their job, or simply felt “lonely” writing cards at desk. These were pain points we chose to target in 2026, by creating a thanking event that would unite the organisation, deliver a great experience for supporters, and reflect the values and ethos of The Leprosy Mission.
"We created a thanking event that would unite the organisation, deliver a great experience for supporters, and reflect the values and ethos of The Leprosy Mission."
The Thanking Retreat
We set ourselves a challenge: to design a culturally appropriate event for The Leprosy Mission, which thanks our supporters and shows staff how valued they are.
To do this, we focused on our longer-term regular givers, who hadn’t been thanked for a while. We know this group like to be appreciated, and to hear about their impact, but at a low cost. We chose to hold the event in January, when the darker, shorter days can feel a bit flat for many. In the end, the Thanking Retreat was a full day of activity, both online and in-person!
The day started with a morning event for all staff at a local church. There was coffee waiting for everyone, with uplifting music and worship sessions, a “thanking wall” that people could add to, and a chance to come together to write cards and make phone calls to supporters. The worship focus set a positive, upbeat tone that was in line with our values, with a wonderful buzz and lots of excited chatter across the room. We even had a winter BBQ for attendees, which was a real hit - staff felt appreciated and loved being involved, especially our ‘back office’ teams.
We also invited supporters to an online ‘Teams’ meeting, where the CEO and regular giving administrator shared with supporters exactly how their regular giving makes a difference, especially in enabling longer-term planning and confidence through crises. This online activity enabled us to extend our thanking to a wider group of supporters, including church reps and volunteers. Supporters also loved the opportunity to draw closer, and to hear about the impact of their support.
"Supporters loved the opportunity to draw closer, and to hear about the impact of their support."
Having buy-in from the senior leadership is important, and for us, managers were key enablers in many aspects of the activities. Your event may look very different to this: it’s important to be true to who you are as a team and with your supporters.
What we learned – and what you need to know
If you’re planning a thanking event at your organisation, here’s my advice:
Find others who share your passion, to dream and plan together.
Planning something this big can be a daunting and somewhat lonely task. But it can be a great development opportunity to offer your team members, and working in teams will bring more energy and expertise to the project as whole. Our cross-team group of five included fundraising (partnerships and community, including a church pastor), programmes, supporter experience and the lovely Tash from About Loyalty. There’s a lot to do, so share out the tasks early on!
Give yourself plenty of time to prepare.
You’ll need to check your contact lists, ensuring confidentiality of data during the event, and make time for post-event logging of who’s been thanked. Make time in advance for developing your thanking resources and guidance, communicating with supporters, arranging the online meeting, and following up on feedback.
Think about how your event can fit with and reinforce your values.
For The Leprosy Mission, our keywords were compassion, justice, integrity, inclusion, and humility. What will this look like for you?
Listen to your ‘grapevine’ and seek to allay any worries.
We focussed on clear pre-event emails and guidance to reassure stakeholders – including directions, timing, parking, refreshments and more - plus optional card and phone scripts. The key message was that you won’t have to do anything you don’t want to, as we’d heard that staff had felt a bit worried about making calls. In the end, we found that phone calls had the deepest engagement of all: we even ran out of numbers to call!
"We found that phone calls had the deepest engagement of all: we even ran out of numbers to call!"
It was wonderful to see the positive feedback from supporters: from their joy at meeting the staff team, to feeling that we’ve helped to make the organisation feel real, to tangible actions such as one supporter setting up a new direct debit. Here's just some examples of the feedback we received on the day:
“Very informative… I’ll now set up a monthly DD…”
“What a joy to see and hear the people behind the wonderful work…it made the organisation real…”
“It is heartening to hear you have your prayer meeting…”
“So wonderful to hear once again how much The Leprosy Mission is improving the lives of people in such desperate need”
"It’s lovely to be thanked and not just asked for money."
There’s never a right time to run a thankathon. But overall, it’s a great way to raise awareness and build a culture of thanking as part of a wider programme to deepen loyalty. So, have a go!
P.S. This is your sign to share the love with your supporters.
It's Kay from About Loyalty, here - whether you're picking up the phone, recording a reel, or putting something in the post, our research shows that gestures of gratitude can have a tangible impact on someone's likelihood to continue supporting you in the future.
We're always happy to chat about the steps that will help you on your way to a successful thanking event. Drop us a message to get started.
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