Effective Donor Stewardship

1. Effective Donor Stewardship Calgary Compass 2012 May 16, 2012 Sally Flintoft, CEO Calgary Health Trust

2. What is meaningful and impactful stewardship? • Personalized • Carefully managed • Tells a story • Further engages the donor • Authentic • Timely Most important: Be Creative and Unique Donors want to see and feel the impact of their contributions and know they’ve made a difference.

3. Why is it important? • Makes the organization accountable – donors need to know that their gifts are being used as intended • Engages the donor and builds a relationship of trust • Motivates donors • Meaningful stewardship leads to the next (and often) bigger gift • Good stewardship is cultivation! • Stewardship = decreased attrition = increased fundraising revenue It costs less to keep your current donors than acquiring new ones.

4. Creating a Culture • Good donor stewardship is the responsibility of everyone in the organization. • The stewardship team will coordinate and provide tools, but it must be engrained in the culture of the organization. • Multiple touches – CEO, development officer, volunteer, beneficiary • Involve all staff in making thank-you phone calls • Involve all staff in signing thank you cards for certain donors or occasions • Research how other charities respond to a donation and share these results with your staff to build awareness • Social Media Stewardship is an organizational priority.

5. Donor Matrix • Donor matrix – simply a guide. • Every donor is different and will want or expect their gift to be recognized differently. Ask them? How they would like their gift to be recognized?

6. Examples • Donor Walls • Naming Opportunities • Clubs and Societies – cumulative giving • New donor packages • Loyal donor lecture series • Phone calls • Thank you letters from recipients of staff education funding • Video / DVD • Personal meetings • Birthday / Holiday cards • Bound copy of research for long-term endowment donors • Private dinners – include their family and close contacts What does your donor want?

7. Individualized Stewardship Reports • Used for major donors or programs who have received a large volume of donations

8. Hand Delivery of Receipts and Reports • Planned Giving Officer • Major Gift Officers • CEO • Coordination of task • Feedback received

9. Tracking • Weekly reports run by Donor Relations on major gifts received and open actions • Ensure that processes are in place so that smaller donations do not fall through the cracks, then focus attention on being creative with larger donations • Follow-up with the relationship manager or gift solicitor to assist in gift recognition and to create a stewardship plan for that donor

10. Using Your Imagination • Once the processes are in place to ensure that no donor “falls through the cracks” then you are free to use your imagination when stewarding major gift donors • Encourage staff to think outside the box, present unique ideas that are meaningful to their individual donors, make it creative! Meaningful and creative stewardship does NOT have to cost a lot of money!

11. Difficulties • ensure funds are spent as intended in a timely manner by the appropriate programs • ensure stewardship programs can be maintained through staff turnover and transition

12. Other Thoughts • Do you survey your donors? • Can you link your donor to the beneficiary?