Stewardship Basics & Advanced Setup

Stewardship Basics Setup ensures that you are doing an exceptional job of thanking and stewarding your donors. The #1 reason donors don’t make a second gift is because they don’t remember making the first gift. Our first job is to make sure that donors never forget that they gave to your organization. Then we need to make sure they know just how important their gift is to your mission. 

When a donor makes a first gift they are taking a risk. They are starting a relationship with you, and relationships are risky. What happens once the gift is made says a lot about the value your organization places on that relationship. We are here to help you start the relationship off right. 

What we do in the first 45 days after an initial donation is arguably the most important communications that you can have with your donors. In general, organizations fail to convert about 60% of new donors. This means that only 40% of new donors will ever make a second gift! 

Because of this, we need to be intentional and build series of emails that cultivate, engage, and activate our donors. This will increase your email engagement, improve your donor retention, and meet the expectations and desires that your donors have in their relationship with you. Subscribers who receive a welcome series show 33% more long-term engagement (Next After research).

We need to do more than send a receipt, we need to tell them how their gift makes a difference, why they are important to our organizational success, and solicit their feedback about what they care about and why they give.  

Implementing our Stewardship Basics will help you:

  • Retain more donors-A huge win in itself!
  • See 2nd, 3rd and 4th gifts without asking
  • See marginal increases in current donor giving
  • Over time see exponential increases in giving

In addition to these very measurable benefits, there are others as well:

  • Stop operating from a relational deficit- not wanting to make a call or ask for a gift because thank you’s haven’t gone out, or there hasn’t been proper stewardship. 
  • Remove the stress of constantly feeling behind on thank you’s.

Donors need more than just a screen with a confirmation code or a generic gift receipt from your accounting department,  we need to make sure they know just how important their gifts are, and how much their money is accomplishing. That is what this system is all about. If you will do well in this area, you will:

  • Retain more donors. You will stop losing donors. This alone would be a victory!
  • You will begin to see marginal increases in giving from existing donors.
  • Automatically identify new major donor prospects.

During the Stewardship Basics setup, we will create and implement systems for each of these distinct donor types;

  • first-time donors
  • second and subsequent donors
  • the ever neglected-monthly donors.


We will also define and automate your background thank you systems.

We will provide the following services if needed:

  • Setting up and populating a donor management system
  • Setup of auto-triggers, drafting and reviewing of automated email thank-yous
  • Drafting and reviewing of letters and other assets that will be needed to set up a stewardship program for your donors.
  • Integrations with your website, Facebook, email provider and other online programs.

Contact Us to Help With Your Stewardship Processes

If this sounds like something you need for your organization, click to schedule a free discovery call to see how we can help.

How are your stewardship basics?

Use our free Stewardship Basics Scorecard to see exactly where you stand a and where you can make improvements. 

Download Stewardship Basics Scorecard