Creative Ways to Incorporate your Board into Donor Stewardship

Your board of directors can be an incredible asset to your overall fundraising strategy. While they are often our first port of call for major donor acquisition, there are so many opportunities to leverage their connections, position, and gravitas in creative ways. One key area where your board members can add value is in your integrated donor stewardship strategy. Here are 3 ways to get your board involved:

Follow-up thank you video

Every donor should feel that their donation has made an impact. A simple and effective way to make that happen is to have a board member make a short thank you video that can be embedded in your follow-up email campaign. Video makes for substantially more engaging and memorable email content, setting your email apart in a donor’s inbox. By using video, you are also adding a face and a voice to your organization, personalizing your mission, and giving your donors an additional connection to your organization. 

Personalized postcards

Fundraising Direct has been tracking the effectiveness of simple stewardship postcards for the past several years. Postcards are most effectively implemented at key points in each donor’s lifecycle and should focus on sharing organizational impact. If you are implementing a series of postcards, by having one signed from a board member not only are you providing a high level of service you are adding personality to your organization’s brand.

Donor stewardship calls

While this is often a little trickier to get buy-in on, having a board member call your high-value donors is a tried and true method of donor stewardship. One variation we would suggest you test is rather than have your board members call immediately after a gift, have them call at risk or major donor prospects.

Donor stewardship and retention will always be more cost-effective to your organization than donor acquisition. If you would like a free consultation on your current donor stewardship strategy reach out to graemeb@fundraisingdirect.ca.