What is a donor stewardship? Why is it important and how do you create a donor stewardship plan? Learn more here: https://www.customerinsightgroup.com/loyaltyblog/nonprofit/donorstewardship

2. Donor Stewardship Best Practices
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Many non-profit organizations have
excellent donor prospect programs. They
know how to convince donors to give a
gift. After that first gift, however, many
nonprofits don’t know what their next
move should be. Other than thanking the
donor and keeping in touch with them in
the hope that they might give another gift,
they never make concrete plans as far as
donor stewardship is concerned.

3. What is Donor Stewardship?
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Donor stewardship refers to systems and methods aimed at demonstrating fiscal
accountability, expressing appreciation and reporting on the impact of philanthropic efforts
to donors. The process is geared toward building a relationship and fostering
communication between the donor and the organization.
Donor stewardship occurs just
after a donor gives a gift to an
organization. It updates donors on
the progress and impact of their
donations. But the ultimate goal of
the stewardship is to forge a
lasting relationship with the donor
in the hope that they will give
more gifts.

4. Why Donor Retention Matters
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Some important donor retention trends are creating
the urgency for nonprofits to focus on donor
stewardship.
•In 2106, donor retention hit a 9 year low of 46
percent. That means, that for every 1000 donors a
nonprofit had 540 donors did NOT make a
donation in 2017. That’s a big loss in funds to
support programs.
•Only 19% of first-time donors will donate to the
same charity the following year. A lot of money
was spent to attract new donors, but many of these
donors did not form a long-term connection or
relationship with the nonprofit.
•Recurring donors give an average of 42% more
than one time donors.

5. What is a Donor Stewardship Program?
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
It is a series of events and processes that focus on communicating and building
relationships with donors. Each organization should create a strategic donor
stewardship plan with very clear goals in mind. Donor acquisition is expensive and
resources are limited. Nonprofit organizations need to focus on retaining the donors
they already have and fostering
donor loyalty. In addition, they
should consider implementing
strategies that create recurring
donations (monthly or
quarterly).

6. Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
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You need to know everything you can
about your donors.
•Having a clean database will make
things easier. Ensure that their contact
information is up-to-date and identify
how they wish to be contacted.
•Keep track of recency of donation, the
frequency of donation, the value of the
recent donation and total amount they
have donated to date.
1. Update Your Donor’s Database

7. Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
What does your nonprofit consider to be
excellent care and service? It could be annual
reports, customized thank you notes, phone
calls, newsletters and/or social media shout-
outs. How you choose to communicate to
donors matters. Remember your donors will
have different preferences. One may prefer
one phone call in a month while another may
like two emails every week. Some like to
attend events, while others like to donate their
time and money. The key to donor
stewardship is to understand the makeup of
your donors and their preferences and then
create a strategic plan to foster the
relationship.
2. Define Stewardship for Your Organization

8. Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Your donor stewardship
program starts with goal setting.
What do you want the program
to do for your organization. Your
goals should be SMART:
specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and
timely. SMART goal setting
brings structure and track ability
to your donor stewardship
program.
3. Develop SMART Goals
Donor Stewardship Goals

9. Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Specific: What do you hope to accomplish? Be clear about your financial
goal and how achieving it will impact your organization.
Example of goals:
• Get 15% of first-time donors in 2018 to donate a second time to raise
$15,000
• Next year increase the average donation amount of our mid-tier
donors from $100 to $115 to raise $10,000
Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Develop SMART Goals

10. Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Measurable: Determine how you will know
when the goal is accomplished. You need
to identify key performance metrics that can
be measured. You want to know how
successful you were in your efforts and be
able to refine your strategy going forward.
For example, if you are focusing on getting
one time donors to be repeat donors, you
would track the number of first-time donors,
number of first-time donors that donated a
second time, amount of their donation and
donation channel (mail, website, mobile
app, event, etc.)
Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Develop SMART Goals

11. Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Achievable: How can the goal be achieved?
What steps need to be taken and do you have
the resources to accomplish the goals. Do
you need to spend less on acquiring new
donors and allocate resources toward donor
stewardship and retention? What do you want
your budget ratio for acquisition and donor
stewardship to be? For example 75%
acquisition and 25% donor stewardship? Or
can you get more bang for your buck if you
spend more money on keeping the donors
you have and nurturing the relationship?
Perhaps 66% acquisition and 40% donor
stewardship are more appropriate for your
organization. How you allocate your budget all
goes back to your nonprofits’ goals and the
potential return on investment.
Develop SMART Goals

12. Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
Relevant: Is the goal of your stewardship program in line with the
long-term goals of the nonprofit? Is their buy-in across the organization
to support the effort? Is this the right time, or are there higher priorities?
Time-Bound: Your stewardship program will include short-term
campaigns with start dates and end dates. In addition, it should include
benchmark KPI of where you started and milestones along the way.
Donor stewardship is an integral part of fundraising. Apart from thanking
and recognizing donors, it promotes donor retention, encourages them to
give larger gifts and can help bring new donors into the organization
through referrals.
Steps for Creating a Donor Stewardship
Program
Develop SMART Goals

13. Nonprofit Marketing Resources
LinkedIn for Nonprofits: https://nonprofit.linkedin.com/
Facebook for Nonprofits: https://nonprofits.fb.com/learn-the-basics/
Social Media Blog: http://www.customerinsightgroup.com/marketinglibrary/
Retention and Loyalty Blog: http://www.customerinsightgroup.com/loyaltyblog/
Customer Connection Newsletter: http://bit.ly/2g5e0aw
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.

14. Sallie Burnett
President, Customer Insight Group, Inc.
ph: 303.422.9758
e: sallie@customerinsightgroup.com
w: http://www.customerinsightgroup.com
Copyright © 2018 Customer Insight Group, Inc.
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