How to Improve Your Donor Stewardship

Laura is a writing wizard with over a decade of experience in higher education and medical philanthropy.

Rookie Fundraiser Learns a Lesson

At my first fundraising gig, it was my job to personally phone and thank every donor who gave over a certain amount. Every Monday, I’d pull a list of supporters who donated the previous week and fire up the phones.

As a fundraising newbie, I didn’t question the practice, but I did notice something interesting. Just by phoning to say thanks and ask about their reasons for giving, donors would ask what else they could do to help or upgrade their gifts. Others would take me up on my invite for coffee. These conversations evolved into meaningful relationships between the donor and the charity, often leading to larger outright or planned gifts.

My stint as the in-house thank you caller taught me an important lesson: simple stewardship practices lead to more frequent and generous donors.

This Article Is for You If…

You’ve seen how stewardship can increase fundraising revenue, and you’re ready to ramp it up.
Donor stewardship is new to you, and you need help getting started.
You’re sold on stewardship and need to get the rest of the team on board.

What You’ll Learn

We’ll start by defining donor stewardship and why it’s so important, then cover the three stewardship essentials – thank you calls, letters, and sharing impact. Next, you’ll learn how to create a Donor Stewardship Matrix by segmenting donors, forming a menu of stewardship offerings, assigning tasks, and making a stewardship calendar. Finally, we’ll close with pro tips to play with when you’re ready to take stewardship to the next level.

What is donor stewardship?

Before diving into best practices and how to make them work for you, let’s step back and look at what stewardship is. Simply put, donor stewardship is your charity’s efforts to take care of your donors and be good stewards of their gifts. It starts when a gift is made and lasts through a donor’s journey with your charity.

Stewardship is often divided into 4 categories:

Acknowledgement – fast, personal, and sincere expressions of gratitude for donations through thank you letters, cards, emails, phone calls, and/or small gifts
Recognition – public recognition of gifts through physical space naming, plaques, donor walls, giving clubs or societies, stories in print/online, gift announcements, or events
Impact Reporting – showing donors their gifts made a difference through annual reports, newsletters, formal impact reports, Zoom meetings/calls, or tours
Engagement – deepening donors’ connections to your cause by offering opportunities to engage as volunteers, ambassadors, board members, or advocates; providing unique ways to experience your work first-hand

Why is donor stewardship so important?

Stewardship matters to donors. They give because they want to do good, and stewardship gives you the tools to show them their dollars are making a difference.

If you don’t steward donors well, they’ll give to a charity that does. In fact, the absence of two stewardship essentials – receiving a thank you and an update on how their gift was used – are among the top three reasons donors stop giving to a cause.

Timely stewardship reinforces the dopamine rush donors get from making a gift and fends off donor’s remorse. It reassures supporters their gifts are well-received and will be used as intended, establishing trust and credibility - both essential before asking for the next gift.

For a great overview of how stewardship motivates donors and increases your fundraising revenue, check out The Better Fundraising Co.’s post - Your Fundraising Communications Should Create A Virtuous Circle.

The best stewardship immerses donors in your charity’s work, so they see themselves as essential to your story. And the more closely connected donors feel to your cause, the more consistently and generously they’ll give.

Donor Stewardship 101: The Three Essentials

If you’re new to donor stewardship or looking to improve your offerings, start here. The three stewardship essentials below are evidence-based best practices. They’re easy to implement and guaranteed to help you retain donors and increase revenue.

1. Thank You Calls

Remember the Rookie Fundraiser tasked with donor thank you calls? Now it’s your turn to put this tried-and-true practice to the test.

Thank You Call Timing

According to industry standards, it’s best to phone your donors and say thanks within 24-48 hours of when your charity receives their gift. In Burk’s 2013 donor survey, 34% of givers said they gave again because of a thank you call (or voice message) they received.

If the tight time frame seems impossible, no worries. Rookie Laura’s thank you calls were completed within 2-3 weeks of gift arrival, while other studies show benefit when calls are made as late as 90 days post-gift.

Bloomerang’s study on thank you calls found first-time donors who received more than one call within 90 days of making a gift were retained 58% of the time – compared to the industry average of 45%. In addition, donors who received at least one call at least doubled the size of their second gift, and those who got two calls made their second gift an average of just 53 days after their first gift.

The take-home? The sooner you can phone your funders, the better. And if you can thank them more than once within the first 90 days, you’ve nailed it.

Who Says Thank You Matters

Most donors like to receive a thank you call from someone in a position of authority like the CEO or the Board Chair. In one study, Burk found newly acquired donors who received a call from a board member within 24 hours of making their gifts increased their next gift by 39%. But a thank you call from someone within your organization is always better than outsourcing calls.

For great tips on assigning thank you calls across your charity, check out 7 Keys to Rock Thank You Calls and Retain More Donors.

2. Thank You Letters

Much like thank you calls, there’s plenty of data backing up the benefits of a well-written thank you letter.

In a 2013 donor survey, 45% of donors said it was “an outstanding thank you letter” that inspired them to give again, while another “23% said they gave more generously” because of a well-crafted acknowledgement letter.

But not all thank you letters are created equal. Letters that inspire repeat and upgraded gifts are warm, personal, and written with a specific donor in mind. Below are some tips to help you craft inspiring letters.

Top 10 Tips for Writing Exceptional Thank You Letters

Keep it personal by using first name(s) and avoiding generalizations like “Dear Friend”

Steer clear of formalities or institutional language like “On behalf of ABC…”, acronyms, and terms only someone in your field would know
Express heartfelt gratitude – consider including a story or quote from someone who has benefitted from donor support
Restate the gift amount, what it’s being used for, and how it will make an impact
Handwrite the address (and the letter if it’s an important relationship)
For high-value donors, send a thank you from your charity’s leadership and ensure they hand-sign it
Customize by referring to the donor’s giving history and interactions with your charity
Include opportunities to engage with your organization
Do NOT ask the donors to give again
Tell the donor when they will hear from you about the impact of their gift

For more tips on writing great letters, check out Donor-Centered Thank You Letters: Your First Step to the Next Gift.

Thank You Letter Timing

Ideally, thank you letters should land in mailboxes within 2 weeks of donations coming through your charity’s door, especially for high-value, new, or upgraded donors. This “two-week turnaround (two days for electronic thank yous) is now considered by donors” as industry standard.

3. Share Impact

Once thank you calls are done and letters are out the door, donors eventually start to wonder – what happened with that donation? Did it really make a difference? That’s why the third stewardship essential is sharing impact.

When to Share Impact with Donors

On Frontier FM’s Stewardship and Board Talk, Ep #47, fundraising expert Jocelyn Kwok recommends sending an informal update to donors within three to six months of their gift. She suggests charities start by asking themselves – what are we doing besides our annual report to show impact to our donors?

How to Share Impact with Donors

According to Jocelyn, sharing impact is an “everybody task” that looks different across charities. For example, a cancer charity could deliver impact by emailing an article about a recent breakthrough in prostate cancer to its donors to men’s cancers. Or a charity bringing water to people in rural Uganda might communicate impact by sending its donors a video clip of clean water arriving to villages for the first time.

She encourages talking to program staff, volunteers, and the people who benefit from donor funds to find impactful stories. Because these people are involved in the day-to-day operations of your charity, they’re often the best source for inspiring stories and creative ways to engage donors.

What’s the Best Method for Sharing Impact?

Use whatever delivery method(s) work best for your charity and donors to spread the word – everything from social media, newsletters, written reports, voice, and video clips to zoom calls, events, and in-person meetings. Anything is possible – just keep your target audience in mind.

How to Build a Simple Donor Stewardship Matrix

Now you know the donor stewardship essentials, the next step is putting a process in place, so these practices become part of your charity’s day to day.

Start by creating a donor stewardship matrix – or a chart that breaks up your donors into groups and assigns different stewardship offerings to each.

A matrix lays out who receives what form of stewardship, when they should receive it, and assigns the execution and tracking of each task to a position or department within your organization. Stewardship grids range from simple to complex, depending on the needs and resources of your charity.

Step 1: Segment Your Donors

The first step is to segment your donors into groups. Ideally, all donors would receive a personalized stewardship experience. Since this isn’t possible, the next best option is to divide your donors into groups and tailor your offerings for each segment.

You can break up your donors however you want, though most organizations divide according to gift size or donor type. Other possibilities include total giving history or gift frequency.

You get even more granular and sub-categorize by demographics, history of engagement, or communication preferences. And if your CRM is up to the task, consider grouping prospective donors by financial capacity, likelihood of making a gift, or known connections to your cause.

Step 2: Create a Menu of Stewardship Offerings

Next, come up with a menu of stewardship offerings for each group of donors, starting with the three essentials. In addition to thanking and sharing impact, include opportunities for recognition and, most importantly, engagement.

Aim for touchpoints that make your donors feel they’re getting a bespoke experience, while considering where you want to allocate your time and resources. For more ideas on stewardship offerings, check out The Storytelling Non-Profit’s 21 Ideas to Refresh Your Stewardship.

Step 3: Assign Responsibilities and Track

With your menu complete, assign each task on your matrix to a team member or department. Because turnover is high in the charitable sector, delegate responsibilities based on positions rather than current colleagues, so processes continue when roles change hands.

Also, clarify how and who is responsible for tracking completed stewardship actions in your database. You’ll want to monitor your data over time to see what’s working and what’s not, then adjust to make it more effective.

Step 4: Start a Stewardship Calendar

Finally, take the list of stewardship offerings from your matrix, and start to fill in an annual stewardship calendar for your charity. You may also see this referred to as a donor engagement or donor experience calendar, as in the example below.

Some activities will be ongoing, like thank you calls and letters, while others can happen at predetermined times each year. For example, if you’re planning to host an annual lunch for all planned giving donors, choose a date and month for the event each year. Rinse and repeat for each deliverable on your grid.

Then, review the calendar with other departments to check for conflicts and distribute the workload evenly across the year. If your offerings rely on program staff, board members, leadership, or volunteers, confirm the dates with them before finalizing the calendar.

Going Off the Grid

With your stewardship matrix and calendar chugging along, you can start to get more creative with how you engage your donors. This is where magic happens – when you bring donors into your story, deepen their connection, and create lasting relationships.

Here are a few ideas to keep your donors delighted, engaged, and giving for years to come:

“Spark and Surprise”

In Ep #47 of Frontier’s podcast, founder Benjamin Johnson talks about using “spark and surprise” to create meaningful donor experiences like having a celebrity supporter make a surprise cameo during a donor Zoom call.

Or as Rachel Beer describes, “make it your aim to deliver a little bit of joy every time you communicate with a supporter … Giving should feel good – and when something feels good, we want to do it again.”

Look for ways to delight your donors with unexpected acts of stewardship like birthday phone calls, acknowledging milestone giving anniversaries, or sharing impact stories that make you think of them.

Creating “spark and surprise” for your donors is next level donor stewardship. It’s what will distinguish your charity from the rest and lead to unforgettable moments.

Loyalty Begets Loyalty

As Jocelyn explains on Ep #47, consistency is key when it comes to donor stewardship. If you want loyal, consistent donors, you’ve got to be a loyal and consistent charity. And she’s not talking about consistently sending appeals.

Show donors you’re interested in a relationship with them beyond their money. Thank them, share the impact of their giving, and offer ways for them to engage with your organization. Help them see themselves as partners in your mission. After all, it’s not possible to do your good work without the collective efforts of your charity, the community you serve, and your donors. When you’re loyal and consistent with your donors, they’re much more likely to return the favour.

Get Personal

As we touched on earlier, segmenting donors is a necessary evil when creating and rolling out your stewardship plan. But it doesn’t mean you can’t simultaneously get to know your donors better, record the information you gather, and then use this data to fine tune how you communicate with your donors.

Surveys are a great way to engage a high volume of donors while gathering information on their interests, communication preferences, and motivations. Include open-ended questions on what led them to donate, and you may end up with inspiring stories they’re willing to share in your next newsletter or social media post.

When you make your thank you calls, be prepared to ask questions if the donor seems open to chatting. Ask what inspired them to give and what type of stewardship they’re most excited to receive. Then, track this information in your database so you can deliver on their preferences.

Talk to your volunteers and program staff. They often know more about your donors than you do. Anytime you learn something new, record it in your system. The more you know about your donors, the better you can steward them. Tracking also ensures smooth transitions when staff turnover occurs.

What’s Next?

Hopefully you’re convinced donor stewardship is a worthy investment and have some concrete next steps to enact a stewardship plan.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take heart. Donor stewardship isn’t all or nothing. Start small, stay consistent, and expand when you feel ready. Little changes over time make a big difference.

If you’re a fundraising pro, how about running your own experiment to see if making personal thank you calls within 48 hours really does make a difference?