Cheap, Easy, Everyday Stewardship

When many people think of stewardship, the first thing that comes to mind are expensive donor recognition banquets, pricey donor walls, and gimmicky chotzkies. Besides the costliness and the inconvenience of the planning involved (ever tried storing one-thousand branded frisbees in your office?), the time it takes to focus on such things can really get in the way of everything else you have to do as a nonprofit professional.

While gifts, events and donor walls can all be positive additions to a stewardship plan, I'd like to suggest an alternative. Rather than focus on the hardest-to-do, most expensive, and logistically complicated parts of stewardship, focus on the easy stuff and develop a habit of doing it consistently.

What's the easy stuff, you ask?

There should be two simple goals for your stewardship program. Show your donors that they are appreciated and that they were wise for having given to your cause. That's it. You can hold the grandest, best attended recognition event in the world, but if you don't do those things, it will be a failure. Instead, focus on activities that do these things well with little investment of time, energy and money on your part. Here's a few examples for your consideration.

1. Handwritten, hand-addressed thank you notes. Few people do this anymore, so you can be sure that it will be noticed. It doesn't have to be long, just a short note expressing your gratitude for the difference a donor' gift made. Setting aside an hour a week to write short notes to your donors will make a significant difference.

2. Text a photo or a video to a donor of something that speaks to the impact of their giving. Did your donor contribute toward the renovation of a classroom? Take a quick photo of students using that classroom and let them know you were thinking about the difference they made through the gift. Don't worry that it's not professionally produced, it won't matter to your donor.

3. Schedule a coffee with them to give them a personal update on how their money is being spent. Donors want to feel personally connected to the organizations they support. If you want to kick the experience up a notch, bring along another staff person along with you who's an expert in the work your organization is doing and can speak more authoritatively about your mission. This sort of thing can be done effectively by video conferences as well.

4. Make phone calls to thank your donors as gifts come in. Even better, recruit your board to help you with this work. Recent research has show that thanking a donor for a gift within 48 hours increases the likelihood of them giving again in the future. It's fine if they don't answer, leave a voicemail, people don't do that anymore either!

These are just a few examples of ways your organization can improve its donor stewardship in meaningful ways without breaking your bank or exhausting your staff. They all have a few important things in common. They are direct, they are timely, they demonstrate to the donor that you appreciate them and they communicate gift impact.

If you consistently focus on these types of stewardship activities, you will see your donor retention rates improve along with your fundraising revenues.

Are you ready to start a major gift program at your nonprofit? Is the one you have lacking the "oomf" you need? There are twenty questions you need to answer in order to have a strong major gift program! Take my free, 15 minute online class on this topic by clicking the button below!

20 Questions To Ask Before Starting A Major Gift Program