STEWARDSHIP ISN’T IMPORTANT. IT’S EVERYTHING!

I received a letter the other day from Cathy. I’m not giving her last name because she said she prefers not being identified for fear of creating friction at her institution. She is at a major university. Here’s what she writes.

I feel stewardship is everyone’s job in a sophisticated Development office. As the major gift officer, I actively steward the donors I have received major gifts from over the past three years I’ve worked here. I send them personalized news from the university, call them on the phone, plan visits, etc.

We are gearing up for the public phase of the biggest campaign this university has ever undertaken. Now that I am entering my fourth year here and have a growing list of major gift donors, (and pressure to be out of the office raising lots of money), I am becoming concerned about my ability to continue to drive the process of creating individualized stewardship plans for my major donors, which I’m doing now.

We have two full time stewardship staff members. They do most of the requisite stewardship activities one would expect (three large events a year with a full-time events planner who handles all the details, annual endowment reports, thank you letters, coordinate with the Financial Aid office in the awarding of endowed scholarships).

It doesn’t seem that the stewardship staff feels responsible to be a part of the process of helping to create and carry out slightly more personalized stewardship activities for major donors, even for VIP donors who are in pure stewardship mode. They feel that is solely the gift officer’s responsibility.

This is the only development office I’ve ever worked in, so I could really use some advice on what is fair for me to expect from the stewardship function—not only in the way of understanding division of labor, but also ideas on creative, personalized stewardship activities.

It seems to me that two full time stewardship people with no other management responsibility could be taking more of an active role with this important aspect of the process, especially as we enter full-on campaign mode and my time is becoming more and more pressed with securing new gifts and pledges.

I welcome your advice, even if it is to tell me that it is entirely my responsibility to do these things. If that is the case, I would love to read a few examples (or to receive a recommendation on a book or article that gives examples) of stewardship plans for major donors—i.e. what kinds of things were done outside of the normal cycle of events, how many stewardship ‘touches’ in a calendar year, that sort of thing.

The books I’ve considered purchasing talk a lot about theory. But I haven’t found one yet that provides case study-type examples, which are very helpful to a gift officer relatively new to the field.

This is my response to Cathy.

To begin with, I am delighted you understand the concept of stewardship. I wish more leadership gift officers realized that securing the gift is only the first step in getting the next one, and at a larger amount.

I don’t believe the two full time staff members you describe in your letter (who carry the responsibility for ‘stewardship’) are going to be able to do the kind of job you have in mind. In a way, their title is probably a misnomer.

They can do the special events for major donors. And they can certainly be helpful in connecting scholarship students to the appropriate donor.

But in terms of making regular, structured, and organized calls on a donor for the specific objective of keeping them ‘in your hug’— that’s a responsibility I feel only you can carry. And you have to allow sufficient time to do that.

The kind of activity I describe can take as much as 20% of your time. And it’s worth it.

I have two books I can recommend. They both focus directly on the issue you raise. Here are the titles:

Finders Keepers
The Artful Journey

I wrote Finders Keepers (forgive the self-serving suggestion). The Artful Journey was written by William T. Sturtevant. It is an absolutely superb book which provides a step-by-step process for stewardship and securing the gift.

Also, I have an instrument that measures the effectiveness and quality of your stewardship. E-mail me if you would like copy.

I finish by telling Cathy that I would like to know a good bit more about how many probable donors she carries in her portfolio. “That would give me a much better clue about how you should be using your time. But for now... I hope this information gives you a working clue. In essence—it’s your job to make certain your donors have the joy and fulfillment of making the gift. This can be assured by providing proper stewardship.”

Jerold Panas