Not too long ago, people in the fundraising community, would peg stewardship as the thank you letter that was sent to a donor upon receipt of a gift. A form letter with an unrecognized signature, stuffed into a #10 standard envelope and run through the postage machine. In many fundraising shops the gift information would be logged into a donor database and that would be it until the charity went looking for the next gift from the donor.
A production line approach with little in the way of personalization, little in the way of sharing the mission and vision of what the organization was about, in other words a quick fix attitude to saying thank you.
Times are changing. In our nanosecond society where billion dollar fundraising campaigns are becoming commonplace and donor expectations have surged past long standing traditions, a one time thank you letter is not enough. Donor retention is uppermost in the minds of fundraising leaders.
How do you handle stewardship?
Tough economic times of the last three years there have put more pressure on fundraisers looking to meet this year's goals. Acquisition of the gift today has become a measuring stick for performance for many not-for-profits. Getting that first gift is important. What a charity does to retain that donor and how it works toward building a long-term relationship speaks to the process and methodology of stewardship.
You will find Question & Answer discussions that I have had with a number of people who live stewardship, day in and day out. These Q & A chapters have been organized in such a way as to get you thinking about what, how and why you do things in donor relations.
Throughout this section you will find some Workbook Questions for you to answer. Go ahead, jot down some notes, some ideas that come to mind. You can use this publication as part of your fundraising toolkit.
This article is a keeper. One that you will want to go back and refer to six months, maybe a year from now to track your progress along the journey. So grab a pen and jot it down as you go.
Question: How much does it cost to acquire a new donor for your organization?
Choose Annual Giving, Major Gift or Planned Giving as your base. Or you could do this for all three.
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Question: How often do you look at these management statistics on acquiring new donors? (circle your answer)
A. Every six months
B. Once a year
C. Once every two years D. Not being done, yet
Some charities have become proactive in enhancing the relationships with their donors. Part of the process begins with effective plan on how to access and use the database systems you have paid for. Information management is becoming increasingly important.
However, research suggests that something is missing in many fundraising shops. There appears to be a direct correlation between the importance given to stewardship and the fundraising success of the organization. Better stewardship........better results.
A starting point
Stewardship means many things to the fundraising community. How would you define it and more importantly, how does the rest of your fundraising team define the concept called stewardship?
Question: Define Stewardship in a sentence or two.
Once you make your notes, share with a fundraising associate and see what they think. Do you share the same point of view?
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Being able to agree on a common definition of "stewardship" is a formative step in the process. Once accomplished this allows the fundraising team to evolve it's own style of working with donors. Over time the culture of stewardship can grow and thrive within the organization in such a way that donors can feel a genuine sense of belonging, an attachment to what you do and why you do it.
Stewardship guidelines
Do you rely on your memory about how you or a departed staff person last spoke to or communicated with a Major Gift donor? Do you have a system in place to write down and record stewardship activities for future reference? Do you have a consistent process of engaging and qualifying donors in one category to see if they are suitable to move to the next level? Stewardship guidelines can help.
Clearly defined parameters in donor relations can help boost efficiency, productivity and the morale of fundraisers. Intangibles like internal morale and sense of purpose, can be galvanized in the process of defining what a fundraiser does. How much time do you spend on developing a Mission Statement? How much time did you spend defining stewardship?
Recently stewardship has begun to develop an infrastructure, more formalized in the large shops and less so in the smaller ones. Stewardship is much more than just saying thank you after a donation has been received.
There is a series of steps and process, there is an attitude, there is a culture of stewardship that surrounds and envelopes people. Saying thank you is just one step in the stewardship circle. How do you define stewardship? Jot it down and refer back later on, see if your perspective has changed.
There is a transformation underway in the fundraising community that is centered around the concept of stewardship. The appointment of staff, the allocation of budget, the heightened awareness of the very word stewardship is evolving before our eyes. In the introduction I likened this emergence to a butterfly with a unique life force all unto itself. The inference of stewardship extends beyond information management of donors.
In early November of 2003, at the New England Stewardship Conference, a new entity the Association for Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP) was formally announced. Position announcements are calling for a Director of Stewardship in education, health care, social services, the arts community and other fundraising organizations.
The transformation is gathering speed and with it comes the layers of complexity justly deserved for a notion that was once just a wink and a nod and hearty thank you embrace.
Theory of Implied Stewardship
Something new to think about. Why does a first time donor choose a specific charity for their donation? The reasons are likely varied depending on the individual and what has touched them in their lifetime. One underlying premise is that the donor selected that charity because they had faith in what the charity was going to do with their donation. How did they arrive at that decision?
History. The historical past of the charity comes to bear on the current day decisions to make a donation. The outward stewardship of previous fundraising efforts is distributed throughout the community by press releases, TV interviews, newspaper thank you ads and word of mouth from one person to the next. Long before the fundraising ASK is made the prospective donor has an opinion about the charity. An opinion that is shaped in a modest way by the implied messages, of stories of how the charity has been accountable for money raised and spent. Stewardship extends in two directions, back to the current donors and forward in an implied context to those who would consider the charity with their next gift.
Get people talking about stewardship
Make some notes, shares your thoughts with colleagues in and outside of your organization. Stewardship will be defined in the manner you choose it to be. One thing is for certain, accountability will be foremost in the eyes of the donors.
"...the mind once expanded by a new idea
can not shrink back to its original size." ( from an unknown author.)
This article will attempt to present ideas and best practices in the field of stewardship, information you can use today.
What is the largest gift your organization ever received? _______________________________
Why did the donor make that gift? __________________________________________________
What type of stewardship procedures do you use for ONLINE Donors? ____________________
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When was the last time you reviewed ALL the Stewardship Procedures? ___________________
Set an exact date for the next review and write out your GOALS in Advance. ________________
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Be awesome........make a difference today!
Dig In Research
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