THE BASICS: CULTIVATION & STEWARDSHIP
Isn’t this always the way? The week you push your blog across multiple platforms, harangue your family and colleagues into reading it and manage to gain a handful of new subscribers - is the same week you have writer’s block.
Well, as we say in the writing-a-free- blog-that-gets-200-page-views-a month game…the show MUST go on.
Last week I wrote about “lybunts/sybunts”. This week I promised to explain stewardship and cultivation. This is a topic I usually love talking about. It also happens to be something that requires a fundraiser to be a skilled, engaging and concise writer. Which is why I am so emo about this week’s writer’s block. So, I will take a crack at it but I may revisit the topic with more glee and clarity at a later date.
What is “cultivation” and what is “stewardship”? Well, they are sisters. The Geminis of Fundraising if we are sticking with the blog’s celestial theme. Cultivation is ensuring donors understand the organization appreciates their support. Stewardship is taking the cultivation further, ensuring donors continue to give and increase their giving over time.
As I started this post, I googled “stewardship and cultivation”. I am humble enough to know although I have something to say, I am probably not the first person to say it. The first result was a nonprofit marketing company “telling a story” to better explain the concept. Fun! In this tale a gift officer…brings “a gift basket of things that were personal and made by children” to a major donor they are cultivating. The gift officer GOES TO THE DONOR’S HOUSE and speaks to the donor ON THEIR DOORSTEP. The happy ending is the donor ends up doubling their gift by year three.
Well, that little yarn was certainly enough to inspire some writing this week.
Caveat as always, this blog is from my perspective which skews smaller and scrappier. I am sure in the highest echelons of fundraising things like this still happen. But I feel (strongly) that going to a wealthy person’s house with a…basket of gifts made by children…is cringe. And should not be the first suggestion a curious young fundraiser stumbles upon.
The basis of cultivation and stewardship is communication. And that does not include showing up on someone’s porch with a homemade basket from the tiny hands of children.
There are all types of donor psychology suggesting different cadences for donor communication. There is the “seven touches to a gift” – the idea you need to have seven contact points with a donor before you ask for a donation. But I have heard up to 10 or just something once a quarter. I have never seen one that absolutely works.
I am inclined to follow more of a golden rule approach, treat donors the way you would want to be treated.
A nice email with interesting updates goes a long way. In the lybunts/sybunts post I introduced the concept of knowing your donors to better forecast gifts in a given time period. To know a donor, you have to talk to them, to talk to them you need a reason. Whether that is on the 3rd Wednesday of every month for 9 months, or when you source something that would be of interest to them, well I skew towards the later.
Now, I understand the donor/fundraiser union can feel inherently awkward when you first start. The transactional nature of the relationship feels foggy and can hang over you. This is where the “donor golden rule” can help clear the air.
It is easy to put donors on a pedestal and think they are totally different from us. That you need to do something like rock up to their house with a basket of handmade gifts. But step back and think who REALLY wants that? Like ever?
When you are passionate about something how would you want to learn more about it? Wouldn’t it be thrilling if someone knew you were interested in a cause and started telling you more about it? If they were nice and were also interested in learning more about you that would feel pretty good too.
This may feel like an oversimplification, but as I have said before, fundraising is not inherently complicated. When you are starting your cultivation journey begin small and put yourself on both sides of the relationship. Send emails. Make phone calls. Center the messaging on the mission work you are representing and then take it a step further to ask these donors about themselves. This will not only open up a line of information sharing but it’s how you get to know people.
If this person is already a donor and you are just starting your role, the same rules apply. Time to get to know them and keep the conversation going. If you have cultivated the relationship and the first gift comes in 1. You probably feel amazing 2. Not much needs to change.
I want to end with - there are a lot of opinions on how close you should keep a donor. I have had fights break out around the words “love”, “friends” etc. when writing about donors previously. When you steward a relationship with a donor, you do need to be clear it is not a friendship. That line will eventually appear, trust me.
But you can foster the vibe of being “a cool acquaintance” to your donors. You don’t talk everyday but when you do, you always have something interesting to say. You know enough about them that it does not feel transactional but you don’t need all the details. When you know enough and say enough the relationship deepens.
So, now you’re cool. But where is the cash? Where do the waters of cultivation/stewardship and “making the ask” meet? Well, I think that’s…another post.
