Donor Stewardship Tips

What is Donor Stewardship?

Donor Stewardship is about effectively caring for your donors in a way that allows you to foster long-term relationships with them that are beneficial to everyone involved. This means conveying how much you really appreciate each donor’s contribution to your organization and how much you care about them as members of your community.

Following an effective stewardship plan can help you to create strong personal connections between your donors and your mision, transitioning them from supporters to integral members of your organization.

Post-Empowering Possibilities Donor Stewardship Tips

1) Have a Stewardship Plan in place before Empowering Possibilities

Donor Stewardship begins before you receive your first donations on Empowering Possibilities! When you are first building out your Empowering Possibilities profile you should start to think about how you can use the information you provide to foster future Donor Stewardship efforts. Work on utilizing your story, donation levels, and Peer-to-Peer fundraising to foster a greater sense of connection and relationship-building with your supporters!

If you are already working to engage your board in your Empowering Possibilities efforts, then you should also utilize them in your stewardship goals! If you have rallied your Board members to be peer-to-peer fundraisers for Empowering Possibilities, they should also be engaged in thanking those donors who contributed to their individual campaigns! Share our Donor Stewardship resources [link to sample thank you templates] with your Board members at your next meeting or host a get together specifically targeted to training your Board in the wonderful ways of Donor Stewardship!

Showing genuine, timely, and regular donor appreciation is a huge part of maintaining strong relationships with your supporters! A “thank you” message following a donation for Empowering Possibilities should be your standard practices. On your Empowering Possibilities profile editor, you will be able to create a custom “Thank You” message during your Empowering Possibilities profile completion process. However, the gratitude should not stop there! Hand-written thank yous and thank-you calls can be even more impactful and everlasting! In addition to the standardized thank you message that is included with your donor’s online donation receipt, consider sending out a more personalized message a few weeks to a month after Empowering Possibilities.

This email should include your donor’s name and other personalized features. Tell them how their gift is changing or improving the services you provide as a nonprofit. If possible, show them the impact their gift is making with concrete images or stories.

4) Remember that gratitude lasts all year long!

Donor Stewardship and the gratitude that you show for your donors does not begin and end with Empowering Possibilities. Rather, it is about starting a dialogue with your donors that makes them feel as though they are a concrete part of your organization and community.

You can start this dialogue by asking your donors how they prefer to be contacted (phone, email, text message, etc.) and then proceed to contact them in that way. Showing initial respect for their preferences will go a long way.

Ask your donors for feedback and be a responsive and active listener by monitoring your social channels and emails to keep track of popular suggestions. Make sure you follow up with your donors and inform them of how you are using your feedback to move forward.

After Empowering Possibilities schedule regular touch points on your annual calendar to ensure that you are staying constantly engaged with your donors.

  • Make it a point to share images and updates on projects that your donors’ contributions are directly helping to fund.
  • Organize reminders to reach out to your supporters on special dates, like anniversaries, birthdays, or major milestones for your organization.

Want to learn even more about Donor Stewardship? Check out our 5-Step Donor Stewardship Guide for Nonprofits!