A masterclass in donor stewardship
...with guest contributor Olivia Andrews
Today’s article…
…is an updated version of one of our most popular blogs, featuring guest editor / contributor Olivia Andrews (give her a follow / friendly message over on LinkedIn - she’s really worth having in your orbit).
Here’s how the original started:
At the time of writing (January 2021), so much of our daily lives feel like an uphill struggle. It’s really hard to feel good and to find the motivation to do the basics.
We can send out the same number of trust applications. But unless we’re working on the frontline to relieve the direct impact of the global coronavirus pandemic, then we can’t expect a positive response from as many as we might have pre-2020.
Stewardship is EVERYTHING right now because new business is incredibly hard.
Competition is fierce, and even before the pandemic everyone knew that it takes so much more effort to recruit a new donor than it does to retain an existing one.
Well. Hindsight is truly a mother**ker.
In seriousness, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and stewardship is more important than it has ever been.
And in a world where scarcity reigns, these activities which sandwich charitable donations like the freshest sourdough (lockdown vibes anyone?), are likely to be shelved in favour of “short term” income generating activities.
Right now, we’re determined to provide helpful and positive suggestions.
So in that spirit of positivity, we’re providing an in depth checklist / planner you can use to ensure you’re ticking ALL the stewardship boxes.
Thanks again for being part of our community. We’re so grateful to you all,
Tony and Caroline
A masterclass in donor stewardship
by Olivia Andrews and Caroline Danks
Picture description: a perfect flat white coffee, complete with latte art
1. The bare minimum
As soon as you receive a gift from a trust or foundation, plan out your reporting schedule in advance, ideally with the donor - via email or a quick phone call. Some donors may be happy to receive short project updates from time to time, but you’ll never know if you don’t ask!
Best to be led by them and to establish a collaborative approach from the off.
As a bare minimum, you should aim to send a written report of how you’ve spent their money and how’s it’s made a difference, within 12 months.
Don’t forget to be honest about the challenges you’ve faced. We’re often too quick to omit these (because, power dynamics…). But it’s unrealistic to expect everything to go perfectly all the time.
View your funder like an equal partner and be transparent with them.
Some trusts will have a specific form they’d like you to fill in, or questions they’d like answered within a report. Some will require reporting before the 12 months is up, others will require multiple reports in that period.
I know you know this. But it’s still a fact that a huge number of charities fail to meet even the most basic of reporting requirements, which is why we’re spelling it out. A capitalist would tell you that this is how you stand out / edge your way in front of the competition. We’re just saying that keeping supporters in the loop and building the relationship with your donor is a win win for everyone.
Task: Understand what your donor wants as soon as a gift is made and plan ample time into your annual calendar to deliver this
2. The thank you call
Few people do this and yet it is SO appreciated by donors. Especially, those who have made relatively small donations and especially where the recipient is a large charity.
As soon as you receive a gift from a charitable trust, pick up the phone immediately and say something along the following lines:
“We received your gift today, of course I’ll pop a thank you letter in the post but I wanted to let you know straight away of its safe arrival.
Thank you so much, it really will make a difference to X.
I’ve told the team and they’re thrilled, you’ve really made their day.
I look forward to sending a report to let you know how we’ve spent your money.”
I (Caroline) did this a lot when I worked at the National Trust. Despite being a large national charity, there were teams within the organisation, usually based in small, rural locations with limited opportunities for commercial income or membership sales.
For these teams working in these places, small gifts of three or four figures were often the difference between a project happening and not happening.
During these thank you calls, funders would sound routinely surprised and gratified to know that their gift really was going to make a difference. They didn’t expect to hear from me and definitely had pre-conceived notions of how much a charity like the National Trust would appreciate a gift of c. £500.
A short video message is another way of relaying your immediate thanks, especially given that it is so much harder to get hold of people on the phone than it used to be.
If the grant is for a specific project, try and see if you could get someone from that team to send a short message of thanks.
Task: Before you do anything, phone every single trust on receiving their gift to say thank you
3. Overdeliver
You’ve received the gift and have set up a reminder in 9 months’ time to start working on the report.
Great.
Now think about one small way you can overdeliver on your promise.
Small acts of stewardship, alongside the official reporting process will probably lead to more and bigger donations in the future.
These small acts could include:
A short, informal progress report (a paragraph or two via email or relayed over the phone) just a couple of months into the project, with a renewed thank you
A quick video from a member of delivery staff to the funder to give a specific case study of how the money has already made a difference, again between 3 – 6 months into the funding period
An article or piece of content on your website about the project that the funder has supported. You can thank you funder in the article (if they’ve given you consent to do so), then email them the link.
A phone call to let them know that someone else has made a gift to the same project and because of this, you’ll now be able to achieve so much more.
This needn’t take up too much additional time. Think of it as ‘getting ahead’ or making a head start on your end of year report.
Use what’s at your disposal – send them the annual report when it’s published with a handwritten note, forward relevant news stories that other teams may have posted.
Whether you’re in a large charity that publishes multiple donor facing comms a year, or a small charity where you could share something small and anecdotal you heard from a colleague, there’s always something you can do.
There are lots of low effort things that can be used as helpful touchpoints.
Task: how can you layer one additional act of stewardship onto your bare minimum reporting schedule for each supporter.
4. Get personal
Remember that most trusts and foundations are individuals making emotion and values led decisions.
Your job is to support their philanthropic ambitions.
Working within this mindset, you’ll recognise the importance of trying to strike up a relationship with the people behind each trust, understanding the motivation of the settlor and how they (or their chosen successors) are working to make positive changes in their areas of interest.
If you ever meet with someone from a trust, make sure to spend a bit of time asking them about themselves – how their weekend was, what they like etc – this will help you learn what things are special to them and inform those personal little touchpoints.
Keep your eyes and ears to the ground for mini moments to connect.
Share articles, podcast episodes and research papers which you know might be of interest to them.
Interest in peripheral conversation and random tangents your discussions have taken shows that you care about them as a whole person, not just as someone who gives you money.
Think they’ve never heard the term ‘cash cow’? Think again…
Other examples include:
A link to some new research on miscarriage for a donor supporting counselling services for couples who have experienced stillbirth
A second hand copy of a book you loved about re-wilding for a donor sceptical (but interested) in the re-introduction of wolves and beavers into the UK countryside
Podcast interviews with people you know they admire or with individuals discussing a topic you know to be of interest
Concert dates for a rare Handel opera for a donor who you know loves early English Chamber music
Remember that for most philanthropists, the act of giving is a joy, it is something which happens outside of the workspace and is supposed to be fun!
Be led by the donor. Authentic stewardship is not a menu of pick and choose ideas for connecting. It’s as simple as getting to know someone, listening and giving a shit (and yet we do like to complicate fundraising so often!).
Don’t be afraid to bring a bit of personality into your stewardship in order to enhance the donor’s experience and make you memorable.
Task: Make a list of the personal things you’ve gleaned about the individuals who sit behind each of the trusts who support you.
Think about any interesting content you could share on these topics right now.
Remember not to record any special category data – GDPR and all that…
5. Above and beyond
Once you’ve sent your final monitoring report, don’t just assume that your job is done and that you’re now free to apply again.
Before you bowl on in with another ask, follow it up properly with one additional, unexpected action. At the very least, you could call and check the report has been received and reiterate your gratitude for the part they’ve played in enabling positive change over the past 12 months.
Try also one of the following:
Invite the donor to a Q&A Zoom call with one of the operational team responsible for delivering the project.
Ask your CEO or a trustee to send a handwritten card, thanking the trust for their support during the past year and emphasising the difference that their gift has made
Send a(nother) video thank you from some of the delivery team and / or those whom the gift has directly benefitted
Send cards to celebrate religious holidays and / or birthdays!
You could also send update reports to donors 12 – 24 months (or even longer) after the end of their funding period to let them know the longer-term impact of their gifts.
Also, don’t forget to mark special moments. For example, a partner in my (Olivia’s) portfolio hit 20 years of giving this year, and I sent them a printed photo alongside a donation certificate which I pinched from the individual giving team and tweaked to make it personal.
Another charity recognised that a donor had been giving for ten years so put together a written report of achievements across the past decade so that the donor could see the cumulative impact of their commitment.
Most importantly, don’t neglect stewardship
With a full daily to do list of application writing, stewardship can sometimes feel like ‘the thing which gets in the way of sending more applications.’
There’s a real danger in thinking like this, and yet when we look at the effort charities place on recruiting new supporters over retaining those that are already on board, it reflects an unhealthy cultural reality that many of us are stuck in, despite knowing that its wrong.
Short termism never helped anyone.
If you lead a fundraising team or have any kind of leadership role, ensure that stewardship is instilled as important part of the job and not just an add on that gets left behind.
Encourage your teams to plan their stewardship activities
For me (Olivia), building on our partnerships is 40% of my role. I am measured on this and during my 1:1 meetings and progress reviews, I need to update my manager on how I’m stewarding partners.
Additionally, I have to say whether the goal is just to keep them warm, to get the relationship to a place where we want uplift, to get them to introduce us to other funders etc. And this helps inform my stewardship plan.
Including a goal can be a helpful justification for spending time on the activities that build the relationship long term and that don’t necessarily lead to income in the short term.
You won’t be able to do all of the steps for every single one of your funders so be intentional about what you will do for each funder and why.
In summary – here are your stewardship planning tasks in one handy list:
Commit to following up ALL of your end of grant reports with a phone call.
Select your top three / five / ten donors and decide on one extra follow up action to happen after your final report.
Select one or two previous donors and send a long-term impact report to thank them for a historical gift.
Recognise anniversaries or other special moments (e.g. when someone’s total giving had exceeded a threshold).
Feel free to use our stewardship planning template to help.
Exceptional stewardship is not optional in 2025. But you’ve got this.