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When You Wear Your Donor Relations & Stewardship Hat...Only Sometimes

Updated: Dec 3, 2024

Kerri M. Stancil

Published Monday, December 02, 2024

Most donor relations and stewardship professionals only wear this hat less than half of their full time job, after falling into the role out of need. There are a lot of organizations in both the nonprofit and private sector that put forth piecemeal strategies to successfully engage their donors and customers. While the person who is tasked with managing these processes may be well intentioned and a seasoned professional, this can be a point of contention in your daily routine. I’m hoping to impart a few tips and tricks to help you along the way to position yourself and the relationships you’re managing to a place where they shine a bit brighter, ultimately making your organization a bit shinier as well.


Task Rabbit


One of the best (and simplest) tools that works wonders is becoming a task rabbit. I am a fan of lists, and I get great satisfaction out of crossing things out. I had other colleagues who really loved new tech and a digital/phone list management, and the physical crossing off of items never did much for them, that can work too. Figure out what works best for you and make it a daily habit. Taking it down to basic building blocks, arrive at your desk and write down the first three things you do when you sit down, and one of those is creating a list of items to get done or get started on that day. Know this list is liable to change over the course of the week, and remember it is a good reminder to revisit your list periodically to make sure you are on track.


  • For long term projects with a deadline farther off, those fall as low priority items on my daily list.

  • Putting out fires or unexpected projects with a 24hr turnaround, take priority and land higher on my daily list.


This sounds simple, but in reality, when you are in the donor relations field and more than half your time is focused on acknowledgments or managing a portfolio of relationships, stewardship/tracking/copy creation tend to always land on the back burner, so it deserves the top spot on my tips for success.



Then set out to get stuff done! Don’t be afraid to adjust your list or tasks as needed, and don’t be caught off guard when there are weeks or even months when you’ve crumpled that list of tasks up multiple times. It happens to everyone, and a nonprofit is known to have busy seasons.


Figure out your Strengths


I know I know…this seems like a gimme, but in actuality (for many folks), once you land that great big job, you can begin to forget your strengths. Many professionals in mid-level management positions have a good sense of the talents they bring to the table, but what if those talents are brought into question? What if you make a mistake? It serves you well to understand and fully explore the things at which you are really good.


How to wrap this into your daily list is to prioritize the things that take you the longest (or things that you need help with or are just learning) for the portion of your day when you can dedicate the most time to them. A lot of things play into this, it could be when the office is the quietest, or maybe you can make the most progress on the days you are working remotely. Start looking at your daily and weekly calendar and cross-reference it with projects you are responsible for and create a map for your week when you can make the biggest dent in them in the most efficient way.



When I was strictly managing donor relations and stewardship 100% of my day here is how I played to my strengths:


  • Project – I have an impact report with a deadline of Friday:

  • My Strength – writing and my command of the subject matter that we report on.


    • Setting a Timeline – I know how long it will take me to produce a 30-page report, so I structure my week with that in mind.

    • The beginning of the week – I am planning my week out with blocks of time to do some dedicated writing; I am setting meetings with the relationship managers to understand what they want to say in this report, and setting time aside to strategize a distribution plan.

      • The most time-consuming things – will be wrangling the relationships managers, so prioritizing scheduling those meetings/emails.

      • One of the easiest pieces in this plan – a distribution strategy – save that for right before the stakeholder meeting. If you are not as familiar with the organizations processes, this may be the item that takes you the most time.


Find a community


This is one of the most important tips – to take from this blog – FIND YOUR COMMUNITY! This is not the same for everyone, sometimes your work environment is so enriching these are colleagues, other times this may be your faith-based family even if you are looking for support in your profession. I was blessed enough to (at one time) have a manager who was an active member in a donor relations professional network and created the space for me to both explore and grow within that community. Fast forward from my first position as a donor relations professional in earnest, and I have a wonderful mentor and friend who has been a motivator and my main cheerleader, and I have a valuable community where I am constantly learning and expanding through volunteering, attending the yearly conference, and online community chats and webinars.


Within your found community, never stop seeking information that will get you to the next step in your career. Do this over and over again until you feel you have amassed the tools you need to be successful in your current position, and to position yourself for your next professional step. And then keep at it. For me this was attending webinars on how to best deliver digital engagements during the pandemic, this was meeting with colleagues who I wanted to develop a story with a few months down the road, or early in my career it was taking rudimentary training in Microsoft products.


The key to this tip is – no matter what you are doing now – if you know your strength is communication, do not let an organization or a manager ever keep you from learning more about it and building that skill to serve both your current position and future dream job.


Embrace Transparency


Transparency is your friend as a donor relations professional. Use transparency as you learn a new position and being honest with your manager on the things you are still uploading to your daily toolkit. Use transparency to help others on your team or in your organization to glimpse into the production of a forward-facing product/report, so that there is grace and respect around the many moving parts we manage when producing collateral for our audience.


Even more importantly, use transparency to approach your work and projects you’re managing from a place of confidence, including holding yourself accountable when mistakes are made.


How it All Comes Together


With these simple tips, you can start to build out the tools and skills needed to be a rockstar in your donor relations profession. Whether you fell into development or you grew up thinking about how to pitch a case statement for support to a funder, you are here, make it count. Focus on getting things done efficiently and accurately, always with the donor or customer at the forefront of all of your efforts. It will support the work you manage and begin to rub off on your colleagues too. Start focusing on the strengths you bring to the table and how to best leverage those to create a working environment where the donors lead the intention of your communications. Make it easy to see the benefit of creating a culture of stewardship among your colleagues, and it will begin to emit light through any collateral you share with donors through reports to an informal email message.



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