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 committee 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 mission, transitioning them from supporters to integral members of your organization.

Post-Give 250 Connecticut Donor Stewardship Tips

Donor Stewardship begins before you receive your first donations on Give 250 Connecticut! When you are first building out your Give 250 Connecticut 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!

2) Involve committee members in your stewardship efforts

If you are already working to engage your committee in your Give 250 Connecticut efforts, then you should also utilize them in your stewardship goals! If you have rallied your committee members to be peer-to-peer fundraisers for Give 250 Connecticut, they should also be engaged in thanking those donors who contributed to their individual campaigns!

3) Send out personal thank you cards to your donors and consider making post-event thank you calls

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 Give 250 Connecticut should be your standard practices. On your Give 250 Connecticut profile editor, you will be able to create a custom “Thank You” message during your Give 250 Connecticut 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 Give 250 Connecticut.

This email should include your donor’s name and other personalized features. Tell them how their gift will be used by your committee. 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 Give 250 Connecticut. Rather, it is about starting a dialogue with your donors that makes them feel as though they are a concrete part of your 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 Give 250 Connecticut 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!