Have you ever had the time to steward a donor? I mean REALLY steward a donor? The kind of stewardship that’s in it for the long game and the big ask. The kind of stewardship that comes with lists and requests, coffee, lunch, dinner and strategic planning invitations. The kind of stewardship where the donor is so actively engaged in your mission that they are your primary champion in the community and encourage their friend to give, and they even have their OWN pitch? This is that deep deep that gets into your head and makes you rethink every engagement you’ve ever had. No? Well let me take you on an adventure…
This type of engagement starts innocent enough, a newspaper article that jumps out to the right person at the right time. It has a specific ask, “please help us make our facility secure” and has a phone number. Now be prepared because you never know where this is going to take you. It’s like one of those choose your own adventure books…it can go really good and you win all the prizes and solve the mystery or really bad and you can wind up locked outside of your house for days. Make sure you’ve read the article and know what it is you need, and ask, “how do you think we can serve our community better?” Now here’s the key, listen to hear what they say, and put your pitch in your pocket for now. Chances are, if they’ve come into see you, they have some ideas.
Donor stewardship can be as simple as that, having a conversation where you aren’t asking for anything, but giving your donor (or potential donor) a real opportunity to be part of your mission. It’s creating opportunities for them to feel like champions and creating free, feel good moments for them to listen, learn and share. Behind the scenes though, that’s where the real work is. It’s putting together your donor profile, learning what you can about them from the Google machine, remembering birthdays, kids names, important dates. It’s about celebrating them as they celebrate you. It’s about creating an understanding that you will commit the time they require as long as you both know there is an ask, a need being fulfilled, and that you are both driven by the mission.