Building meaningful and strong relationships with your supporters is the key to your nonprofit’s long-term success and growth. This article will help you get started.
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What is the #1 most important resource for nonprofits? Donors, of course!
Without donors, your organization wouldn’t be able to do the important work that it does. That’s why it’s surprising that some nonprofits still don’t have a solid donor stewardship plan or use donor management software to develop long-lasting relationships with supporters.
If you’re new to donor stewardship or if you simply want to revamp your donor stewardship plan, you’re in luck! In this article, I’ll walk through 6 great steps you can take to strengthen your stewardship strategy, in addition to other important points to consider.
First, let’s answer an important question:
Donor stewardship is the act of building meaningful relationships with your donors to encourage more donations in the future.
“Act” is the important word, there – stewarding donors requires a series of ongoing actions to help maintain and strengthen relationships.
A solid donor stewardship plan will include regular and varied outreach, personalized communications, and special attention. The hope is that the donor will feel valued by your organization – which, by the way, should be the case for all of your donors – and not like they’re being pestered. The goal is that they’ll keep giving to support your work.
The best way to manage donor stewardship is with a solid donor management and engagement tool, like the upcoming Donorbox CRM. It empowers your team to organize donor records, track supporter activity, and manage more thoughtful follow-up. That makes it easier to build consistent, long-term relationships with your donors.
These terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but donor stewardship and cultivation are two different things.
Donor stewardship is all about interaction with donors that doesn’t include an ask for another donation. This includes things like donor appreciation events, newsletters, and donor acknowledgments. In other words, this is communication that should help build and solidify the relationship.
On the other hand, donor cultivation is about making the ask. Donor cultivation can happen with people who haven’t given yet, with donors who you’re hoping will give again, and with lapsed donors. This type of communication shows the value of your nonprofit while also typically including a call to action.
Here are 6 actionable steps your nonprofit can take to build or improve your donor stewardship plan.
Your first step toward a donor stewardship plan is to have solid records for all your donors.
Donor records should include any basic biographical information you have, like name, email, mailing address, birthday, and company/occupation.
It should also include their giving history. How much they gave, when, the method of giving (online donor, in-person, or cash donor), and to which campaign they gave to are all part of a solid record. Plus, it can help you decide which type of donor someone is.
Donorbox helps you collect all that information and store it in one easy-to-access place. Whether the donor gave through your online form or used Donorbox Live™ to give in person at your location or events, every piece of data gets stored in the Donorbox database. Plus, manually enter offline donors and any additional information, so your supporter records are as robust as possible.
Here’s what editing a supporter profile on Donorbox looks like:
Anytime you receive a donation, it’s vital to send an acknowledgment as soon as possible. This is a key part of the donor engagement cycle.
This thank-you letter should include your heartfelt gratitude, along with basics about the donation like the amount, any special designations, etc. You should also go ahead and send a year-end tax receipt to your donors to make tax filing easy on their end.
With Donorbox, customize the automatic acknowledgment (or donation receipt) that donors receive after making their gifts. This means that instead of getting a form letter, they’ll get a customized letter that better reflects your organization. This acknowledgment also includes all details of their donation.
Here’s what the receipt email editor looks like on Donorbox:
There are a ton of ways to thank donors – and sending a prompt acknowledgment is just the first step.
Donor meetings are a great step toward stewarding donors.
This meeting can be a casual coffee date where you ask your donor what they like about your organization, why they decided to donate, and what they think your organization can improve on.
It’s unlikely you’ll be able to do this with all of your donors, so choose mainly your major donors –who have made more of an impact on your organization – to meet with. Come up with a mid-level donor strategy to engage your other donors.
Remember to send a donor meeting thank-you note after, too! This will help secure the goodwill you built during your meeting.
When it comes to stewardship, personalized connection is everything. It’s also one of the best ways to welcome new donors properly and reconnect with supporters who’ve gone quiet.
Plus, it’s more than just using someone’s name in an email, although that’s a start! To make your outreach feel truly personal, first segment supporters based on their giving behavior and where they are in their donor journey.
Donorbox, for example, makes this easier with filtering options on the Supporters page. You can:
With the upcoming Donorbox CRM, you can save those segments as Lists, then launch your stewardship and re-engagement campaign right from the platform with Donorbox Email Marketing.
Sign up with Donorbox and Segment Your Donors
Pro tip: Send value-driven content like newsletters, exciting updates, and videos to your donors. Remember, stewardship isn’t about making the ask – it’s about connection!
Figuring out how to demonstrate the impact of your donors can be really tricky. The best way to do it is to rely on data and storytelling.
Your annual report or impact report is a great place to include both types of donor impact demonstrations. You should plan on sending this out to your donors during the same month every year, in order to build consistency.
A very important aspect of your donor stewardship plan should be making sure you aren’t annoying your donors. Being too pesky – and reaching out too often – is a great way to sour a budding donor relationship.
Instead, monitor how often you reach out by tracking your communications with each donor.
This is super easy to do with Donorbox. For each donor record, you can keep logs of communications, including inbound and outbound communications coming from a variety of sources. You can also include a note to avoid repetitive conversations. Here’s what it looks like:
Donorbox has a free donor stewardship checklist for you, which includes free samples of a donation receipt and a donor acknowledgment. And much more!
Good donor stewardship relies on consistency and genuine care for your supporters over time. And, the more intentional your outreach is, the easier it becomes to build the kind of trust that keeps donors invested in your cause.
Donorbox CRM (coming soon) supports these efforts by giving your team a seamless way to organize supporter information and manage donor follow-up. Join the waitlist, and learn about all the other powerful fundraising features Donorbox has to offer.
Want more tips and best practices on donor management? Check out our Nonprofit Blog. Plus, subscribe to our monthly newsletter to receive a curated list of Donorbox’s best resources in your inbox every month.
Lindsey spent years wearing many hats in the nonprofit world. Whether she was helping arts nonprofits with their messaging and content, planning a fundraising gala, writing an NEA grant proposal, or running a membership program with over 400 members, she learned how to navigate – and appreciate! – the fast-paced world of fundraising. Now, she loves sharing those hard-earned lessons with the Donorbox community.
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