Donor Stewardship 101: Five Things to Keep Your Donors

Happy and Raise More Money

Remember the Cycle of Giving

Identify

Invest Inform

Involve

Impact

Stewardship and Donor Relations

• Stewardship is about gift management, including

processes such as acknowledgement, making sure

that the gift is used as intended, and ensuring donor

satisfaction with the giving experience.

• Donor Relations includes but is not just about

stewardship, it is about developing meaningful

deeper relationships with donors who might have

the capacity to be loyal or major or planned giving

donors.

Stewardship and Donor Relations

• Stewardship is something which you must do for all

donors.

• While donor relations is applicable to all donors it is

typically focused on a small group who have the

capacity to make larger or estate gifts.

Stewardship and Donor Relations

• Both are about impact

• “It’s Almost a Requirement Now to Tell Donors the

Impact of Their Gifts” Headline from the Chronicle

of Philanthropy, April 2, 2019.

How many of you are?

• Doing only acknowledgement?

• Are taking a donor-relations/stewardship

approach?

• Both?

Anyone want to share an example?

R U Using Best Practices?

• Sending letters how soon after a gift is received? ____ 48 hours

____ One Week

____ One month

• What are you doing to ensure that gifts are being used as intended?

____ Depositing funds into accounts use for specific expenditures

____ Gaining staff buy-in regarding use of designated funds

____ Developing gift agreements for endowed or similar funds

• Ensuring a gratifying giving experience?

____ Sending letters, making a call or visiting to say thank you.

____ Mailing an annual “impact report”.

____ Sharing beneficiary stories

Impact Story:

“Another Year in the Books”

Know Your Donors

Who are your donors? Age, stage, interests, etc.

Why do they care about the library?

Stewardship: 5 Things to Keep

Donors Happy

1. Recency

Acknowledge within

48 hours of gift receipt.

2. Frequency How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Showing Donors Some Love

Jerry Panas said

thank seven times.

Let’s count some ways 1. Letter

2. Handwritten note

3. Phone call

4. Social media shout out

5. Send a picture

6. Welcome package

7. Video

Keep this in mind. . .

. . .”She is not YOUR donor

. . . You are one of HER Charities!”

3. Focus

4. Give Meaningful Thanks “You might not realize it … but you actually DO have

something to give back to the donor that’s of great

probably inestimable – value for many of them … all those

at least with standard-issue psychological software and

hardware. Give them …

Your love.

Your respect.

Your admiration.”

Tom Ahern, Ahern Communications

Examples?

5. Impact

Tell the story

Tell the Story

Tell the Story!

About the difference that gifts make in the lives of those you serve

(and in the lives of donors as well!).

Key Points about Storytelling

1. Focus on a patron who has a

2. Problem and describe

3. How you help them solve the problem and

4. How gifts enabled you to do so.

Adapted from The Nonprofit Storytelling

Field Guide & Journal, Nonprofitstorytelling.com

Example: Juniata County Library

Donor Stewardship

and Your Board

Resources

• Association of Donor Relations Professionals, ADRP

• Intentional Stewardship: Bringing Donors to Their

Highest Level of Philanthropy, Julia Emlen

• Journal of Donor Relations and Stewardship

Thank You

Sophie W. Penney, Ph.D.

President

i5 Fundraising.com

sophie@i5fundraising

Brady Clemens

District Consultant

Central Pennsylvania District