Thanking, recognizing, and celebrating our donors is an essential part of stewardship for our institution. As private support increasingly becomes important to supporting what we do, here are a few baseline stewardship samples and policies to get you started.
Best Practices
- Donor Experience Matrix
- Donor Relations and Stewardship 101
- Easier, Faster Thank Yous – L&S
- Stewardship Matters – Guide for Staff and Faculty
- UW–Madison Stewardship Best Practices
Keep these principles in mind as you start:
- Please coordinate stewardship activities in collaboration with your Dean/Director’s office and your WFAA colleagues. Make sure to coordinate any conversations or communications to donors with all involved stakeholders.
- Stewardship should be personalized and thoughtful
- Make sure it remains true to the donor’s intent
- Balance the time you spend recognizing the gift with the time you spend asking for and accepting the gift.
- Stewardship should include opportunities for the donor and beneficiary to interact
- Recognize that donors want early access to information and to be in-the-know. Share information with donors that is related to the impact of their gifts (i.e., if they endow a center, be sure to inform the donor when new personnel are hired within the center)
- Include families in the recognition whenever appropriate
Processes
- Donor Acknowledgement Report – Job Aid (Quick Reference)
- Legal Questions Around Stewardship
- What is an Endowed Fund?
- What is a Callable Fund?
Tools
- Stewardship Template Overview
- Cheat Sheet
- Impact Report – Bar Chart Template
- Impact Report – Image Template
- Impact Report – Pie Chart Template
- Impact Report – Recipient Template
- Impact Report – Text Template
- Letter Template
- Template – Second Page