Guest Writer | Gena Rotstein

"No practice is more important in the development process than stewardship, the continued involvement, cultivation and care of those who give.” 

_{Kay Sprinkel Grace, Beyond Fundraising}

The way that one manages donors, is similar to the way one would manage volunteers, board members and even staff; regular communication and an “open-door” policy are a must.

In today’s ever-changing economic world, non-profit organizations not only need funding, but they need strong partnerships they can leverage and turn to in times of crisis.  Stewardship is about creating and strengthening those relationships.

Peter Block, author of Stewardship, defines stewardship as the connection to the market place thereby answering the concern about funding.  Stewardship is the set of principles and practices which have the potential to make dramatic changes in our organizations.  “It is concerned with creating a way of governing ourselves … focusing on quality service and participation.”

What are the motivators for giving?  Philanthropy establishes a bond between donor and recipient thereby creating a partnership.  This partnership is governed by the following:

• Exchange of purpose (donor provides funds, recipient provides service)
• Each party has the right to say NO
•  There is joint accountability
• Both parties commit to absolute honesty
• Once a partnership is created there is no abdication of roles and responsibilities

Human nature is such that if a donor is satisfied they will engage others in the cause.  However, a disgruntled donor will be very vocal.  Their dissatisfaction could potentially endanger funds raised from other donors as well as the very fabric of your organization.  An effective Stewardship program will enable you to proactively address upset donors.

Philanthropy magazine recently published an article about donor giving patterns.  What the article said was that donors are increasingly educated in how and to whom they give.  Their increased knowledge has driven them to become more focused and active in the giving process.  As such, an organization that has no stewardship program or one that is inconsistent, will be noticed by these philanthropists and could result in a drop in their involvement.

Philanthropy is a voluntary action for the public good.  It is values based and can be either: giving of time or money, asking others to get involved, joining an organization (fulfilling a sense of needing to belong), become actively involved on the frontlines or as a guide through the Board of Directors.  Stewardship is much the same – a value-based relationship building strategy. 

“[Stewardship] has come to mean the essential function which organizations develop lasting relationships with their donors/investors.  This includes the ethical management and care of all human and financial resources.  Stewardship promotes donor/organization relationships based on mutual respect for both the source and impact of gifts.”

_{Kay Sprinkel Grace, Beyond Fundraising}

Effective stewardship is just as key as securing that first gift.  Creating this plan might seem like a daunting task, but by investing in staff and volunteer resources initially - the payoff will be exponential.  This is a “long-term investment” and once a well planned program is created and integrated into the fabric of a fund development strategy the effort will become minimal.

Grace highlights 11 principles of effective stewardship:

1. Start with the first gift – Engage the donor from the beginning.  That initial $25 donation might be worth $1000 the next year
2. Alternate messages to your donors – DO NOT ALWAYS ASK FOR MONEY.  For every one ask, have two non-asks
3. Have a budget for stewardship – Includes but not limited to: taking a donor for lunch, postage for mailing, printing thank you cards, buying small gifts, donor-focused special event
4. Stewardship practice should be inline with budget, image of agency and amount of gift
5. Determine what kind of involvement your top donors want outside of making the donation (some might not want close contact while others might want regular updates)
6. Use current donors to convey message to potential donors – Nothing speaks more volumes than a satisfied donor
7. Tie stewardship program to the mission
8. Focus on intangible rather than tangible benefits – make donors into investors
9. Maintain stewardship with long-term and major donors even if they decrease or stop giving
10. Keep all donors part of your database unless they tell you otherwise
11. Establish relationships between donors and program staff

_{Hank Rosso, Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising}

Stewardship can be visualized as a series of concentric circles where the innermost circle houses the most important donors and volunteers (i.e. major donors, founding funders and board of directors) and the outermost circle are those one-off donations (i.e. gift made in memory of someone, former participants, etc.).  There can be any number of layers, as shown in Rosso’s Concentric Circles below.  Within each sphere are your various giving levels (this is discussed further in this chapter).  This model is called a “donor-focused development plan”

An effective stewardship program starts with the first donation and is systematic and on-going.  The following is a model for a stewardship program.  This model was adopted from Grace’s nine-point plan and this guest writer’s own personal experience.  This program consists of setting simple guidelines, like who signs the thank you letter (Executive Director, Board Chair, Staff Person) to writing a quarterly donor-focused newsletter to planning a donor appreciation event (much more complex).  In all these cases, some basic steps need to be incorporated.

1.      Board buy-in.

• Adopt a stewardship policy – this is a commitment to the philosophy of stewardship, not the means to achieve it (high-level).

2.      Have a Stewardship Sub-Committee of your Fund Development Committee.

• This committee should be comprised of a major donor, a member of the fund development committee and a staff person.  Their primary responsibility is to create a Stewardship Plan that will be presented to the Board of Directors for approval.

3.      Donor analysis

• How many donors do you have?
• What levels do they give at?
• How frequently do they donate?
• Who are they?

4.      Create giving levels.

• I suggest three or four distinct categories.  One example is the theatre categories: Orchestra, Dress Circle, Founder, Corporate – each one having a different value
• Each level has its own benefits – Identify those benefits and publish them.  The array of benefits increases with value of gift.  Focus on connecting donor to mission through benefits (i.e. picture of kids at camp with letter from recipient for a donation that provided camp scholarships)

5.      Donor Outreach through marketing and promotional materials:  mailings, phone calls, personal solicitations, interim reports, corporate and foundation proposals.

6.      Reporting.

• This is critical for all corporate donations and foundation grants.  A formal process that is typically outlined by the funder.  Most reports require actual financials, planned and unplanned outcomes, implementation process and qualitative and quantitative data on the project.  Some funders will also request an interim report.  These specific reporting requests will be outlined during the granting process (and each granting body has different requirements).

7.      Monitoring and adjust the stewardship program as donor demographics shift and donor base grows.

• Benchmarks to record: Number of repeat donors, number and value of increased gifts, event attendance, new people engaged to the organization through donors.

_{Terry Axelrod, Raising More Money}

In conclusion, as you set up your fund development strategy, stewardship should be a critical component.  Statistics Canada released the following data in 2002: Calgary is the 3^rd most philanthropic city in Canada.  Alberta has more individual donors per capita than any other province and we give the largest percentage of our take-home income.  The more non-profits start recognizing and honouring their funding partners on all levels, the stronger the individual charity becomes thereby strengthening the entire sector.

Suggested Reading:

• Axelrod, Terry; "Raising More Money"
• Block, Peter; "Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self Interest"
• Grace, Kay Sprinkel; Beyond Fundraising: New Strategies for Nonprofit Innovation and Investment
• Temple, Eugene, R.; Hank Rosso's Achieving Excellence in Fund Raising

Suggested Periodicals:

•  Non-Profit Quarterly

•  Philanthropy Magazine

•  Business in Calgary

Suggest Websites:

• www.afpcalgary.com

• www.afpnet.org

Guest Writer

_{Gena Rotstein received her Masters in Non-Profit Management and Jewish Communal Service from Brandeis University.  For over a decade she has been providing fundraising and programming services to the Jewish community and non-profit sector at large across North America.  Gena has been a guest lecturer at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business as well as in the Continuing Education MBA program.} 

_{While Calgary is home, Gena has spent time living and studying working in Boston, Providence, Dayton, New Jersey/New York area, Toronto and Israel.  Currently she is the Director of Fund Development at the CentrePoint Advancing Non-Profit Management .}