A guide to donor stewardship plans

Stewarding your donors is more than a best practice; it’s a strategic responsibility shared by both staff and board members. A stewardship plan provides the structure for how an organization thanks, recognizes, and engages donors in a consistent, mission-aligned way.

Whether your organization is refining an existing plan or starting from scratch, a thoughtful approach to stewardship is key to strengthening donor relationships, building long-term trust, and supporting the sustainability of your mission.

This guide provides practical guidance for nonprofit professionals who are ready to develop or audit a donor stewardship plan. While every organization should tailor these practices to reflect its unique size, culture, and capacity, the principles outlined here offer a strong foundation for any stewardship strategy.

What is a stewardship plan?

A donor stewardship plan is a strategic framework that nonprofit organizations use to formalize the process of thanking, acknowledging, and engaging philanthropic supporters after they make a gift. Stewardship plans ensure that the organization expresses gratitude for the gift as well as its impact. These, in turn, reinforce a donor’s decision to give, communicate the value of their support, and foster a deeper connection to the organization.

In simple terms, stewardship plans answer two questions:

1. Was I appreciated?
2. Did my contribution make a difference?

When donors receive timely, meaningful recognition and understand the outcomes their gifts help achieve, they are far more likely to continue supporting your work in the future.

Stewardship plans codify a culture of appreciation and transparency within the organization, ensuring that all donors are acknowledged with care and consistency. For smaller gifts, the plan may serve as a straightforward checklist to show the organization’s gratitude. For major contributions, it offers a structured foundation upon which fundraisers and stewardship officers can build long-term, relationship-driven engagement.

At every level, a well-executed stewardship plan helps organizations build trust, strengthen donor loyalty, and encourage continued giving.

To learn more about stewardship as a practice before you build a stewardship plan for your organization, read our blog, Donor stewardship guide for nonprofits.

Stewardship is a shared responsibility

A successful stewardship plan includes clear roles for both staff and board members. These roles should be tailored based on your organization’s size and resources, but some of the most common practices include:

• The Executive Director or CEO may personally thank donors at a leadership level or those with longstanding ties to the organization.
• The Development Director may coordinate donor communications, maintain gift records, and manage the stewardship calendar for donors.
• Board members can play an active role by calling or writing to thank specific donors with whom they have personal relationships—and by writing thank you notes or making general calls as assigned.

This shared stewardship effort builds a culture of stewardship at all levels, reinforcing the idea that philanthropy is central to your organization’s success.

How to build a stewardship plan for your organization

A well-crafted stewardship plan ensures consistent, meaningful engagement that strengthens donor relationships and supports your mission over time. It also must be practical and tailored to your nonprofit’s unique needs and resources. The following steps offer a straightforward approach to developing a stewardship plan that fits your organization’s size, culture, and capacity.

1. Clarify roles and responsibilities

Start by identifying who will be responsible for each aspect of stewardship, including thank you communications and receipts, impact reporting, event invitations, donor recognition, and data tracking. These responsibilities may be shared among development staff, executive leadership, program managers, and board members.

Assigning and documenting responsibilities for each component of your stewardship plan promotes clarity and accountability in its execution. Thoughtfully aligning stewardship with available capacity also helps maintain consistency, preventing important actions from being overlooked.

2. Segment your donor base

Not every donor requires the same type or level of stewardship. Segmenting your donor base allows you to offer recognition and follow-up that is appropriate to the donor and to the gift. Start with categories such as:

• First-time donors
• Monthly or recurring donors
• Major gift donors (define based on your budget and donor base)
• Lapsed or re-engaged donors
• Board and former board members
• Institutional funders (corporations, foundations)

For each segment, outline expectations for thank you communications, updates, invitations, and recognition opportunities. Many organizations compile these lists into a donor stewardship matrix, which allows staff and board members to clearly understand the key elements of an individual donor’s stewardship plan.

3. Establish timelines and touchpoints

Timelines establish how and when each donor segment will receive particular stewardship touchpoints throughout the year. These timelines should include what happens:

• Immediately after a gift
• 30–60 days post-gift
• Quarterly or biannually throughout the year
• At year-end

4. Define recognition and communication standards

Recognition and communication standards are key to guiding how donors are acknowledged across channels and campaigns. These might include:

• Timeframes for sending thank you notes (e.g., within 3 business days)
• Personalization guidelines for messages
• Signature policies for leadership and board acknowledgments
• Language for public recognition (e.g., in annual reports, newsletters, signage)

Standardizing these practices helps maintain the quality and integrity of your stewardship efforts, even as your donor base grows.

5. Incorporate flexibility for high-level stewardship

While consistency is key, your plan should also allow room for relationship-based stewardship, especially for major donors or long-term supporters. Empower staff and board members to respond to individual donor interests and communication styles with:

• Personal check-in calls or texts
• Handwritten cards tied to milestones or anniversaries
• Invitations to visit a program site or meet with a project lead

These personal touches can be the most memorable—and most effective—elements of stewardship.

6. Document and share the plan

Once drafted, your stewardship plan should be documented, shared internally, and reviewed regularly. Include:

• Stewardship protocols by donor segment
• Assigned responsibilities by role
• Sample thank you messages and templates
• Naming and recognition policies (if applicable)
• A timeline of expected touchpoints

Board approval may be needed for sections of the plan that carry long-term obligations, such as named gift recognition or public acknowledgments related to campaigns.

7. Review, evaluate, and adjust

Donor expectations change, and so should your plan. For a new stewardship plan, you’ll want to review its effectiveness quarterly, gathering input from fundraisers, board members, and even some of your trusted donors.

Once your stewardship plan is established, you can also use key stewardship metrics to evaluate its success. These metrics include:

• Donor retention and renewal rates
• Response rates to updates and invitations
• Satisfaction feedback from donor surveys
• Major donor engagement across multiple years

Key elements of a donor stewardship plan

A donor stewardship plan begins with the basics: how your organization thanks and acknowledges gifts. These steps should be consistent, timely, and aligned with donor expectations, organizational capacity, and IRS requirements.

1. Gift acknowledgement letters

A formal gift acknowledgment letter fulfills IRS requirements and provides donors with documentation for tax purposes.

At minimum, your acknowledgment should include:

• Date and amount of the gift
• Whether the donor received any goods or services in return
• A statement of the tax-deductibility of the gift
  

Here is an example of gift acknowledgement language that you can use: “Thank you for your generous contribution of $250 received on July 1, 2025. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this gift. Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.”

Additional language should be included for:

• Multi-year pledges: Typically, only the received amount should be acknowledged, but you might outline payment schedules and send an additional year-end summary.
• Recurring monthly or quarterly gifts: It’s a good practice to acknowledge the initial pledge and follow up with an annual gift summary.
• Gifts with benefits: Benefits reduce the deductible amount of the gift, so include the fair market value of any goods or services received.

2. Thank you notes

A thank you note is more than a formality; it’s your first opportunity to affirm the donor’s decision and begin or deepen a relationship.

Best practices include:

• Timeliness: Send thank you letters within three business days of receiving a gift.
• Authenticity: Match the thank you medium to the donation method (e.g., electronic gifts receive an immediate email response, followed by a mailed letter as appropriate).
• Personalization: Include the donor’s name, refer to the specific program or fund they supported, and add a personal note whenever possible.
  

Your stewardship plan should also outline who gets a personalized letter—anything more than a mail merge—and who will write it. The CEO might write to donors of $10,000 or more, while all donors of $50 or more get a handwritten thank-you card from staff, the board, or even some of your organization’s beneficiaries.

3. Donor recognition levels

Not all donors expect—or require—the same follow-up. Segmenting your donor base by giving level and relationship type helps ensure donors receive thoughtful recognition that is proportionate to their gift. It also protects your team’s resources, allowing them to steward high-impact relationships with care.

Common segmentation categories include:

• First-time vs. recurring donors
• Major donors
• Monthly or payroll-giving donors
• In-kind or planned gift donors
• Institutional funders
  

Your stewardship plan should indicate how each segment will be thanked, updated, and invited to engage.

4. Stewardship touchpoints

For each donor segment, define a series of stewardship activities that will occur over a set period of time (usually a year). These activities may include:

• Personalized thank you letters
• Impact reports
• Program updates
• Invitations to events
• Calls or handwritten notes
• Recognition in printed or digital materials
  

Use a matrix or annual calendar to map out expected stewardship activities by segment. For some donors, such as major gift or principal-level donors, these touchpoints may be tweaked as appropriate to the relationship.

5. Policies for multi-year gift agreements

For large or restricted gifts, gift agreements outline how and when the total amount will be paid. Many donors will pledge a long-term gift over many years; how you steward those gifts is key to maintaining the donor relationship through and beyond the lifetime of that agreement. Consider developing and documenting policies that specifically outline how to steward donors with multi-year and complex gift agreements.

Recognition opportunities for donors

Recognition is a key element of any stewardship plan. While preferences vary by donor, clear and equitable recognition policies ensure consistency and transparency. Your plan should include both private and public recognition as appropriate to the donor and to the level of their giving.

Recognizing annual donors

As a best practice, you should include the names of all donors in your annual report, whether they gave one dollar or a million. Many organizations also include an annual donor roll on their website, listing donors in categories based on gift level, tenure, or frequency.

It is important to give donors the ability to define how they want their name listed (which can be incorporated in your donation form) or to opt out completely if they prefer anonymity. 

Campaign and major gift recognition

For capital, endowment, or multi-year campaigns, recognition opportunities are often much more complex. Recognizing these special gifts may include donor walls or permanent signage, recognition societies or giving circles, and naming rights for buildings, spaces, programs, and endowment funds.

Your stewardship plan should outline general policies for recognition and naming opportunities. Each campaign may have its own stewardship recognition policies as well. In both cases, your plan should outline minimum gift amounts for naming opportunities, any time limitations, and whether ongoing maintenance or endowment support is required.

Stewardship activities that go beyond the plan

Donor stewardship doesn’t end with a thank you note, and the most effective stewardship efforts even go beyond the outline of the plan. The most successful organizations build stewardship into their everyday operations. 

There are many opportunities to connect with donors beyond the formal steps of the stewardship plan. In a stewardship-minded organization, fundraisers and stewardship officers use the plan as a baseline for engagement. They might also:

• Send short email or mailed updates about specific programs or projects
• Text a photo or quote from someone impacted by the donor’s support
• Include donors in invitations to program launches, volunteer days, or town halls
• Encourage program staff or leadership to share informal updates or thank you notes
• Create simple surveys to gather donor feedback on recognition preferences

These small gestures build goodwill, increase donor satisfaction, and support long-term retention by keeping donors meaningfully engaged. At times, stewardship may be less formal than these steps suggest—a thoughtful text or quick check-in is often just as important to show a donor they are remembered and valued. The relationships your fundraisers built and nurtured before the gift should inform the personalized, authentic interactions that deepen and sustain the donor’s relationship after the gift.

Engaging the board in your donor stewardship plans

Your organization’s board of directors is essential in establishing stewardship policies and approving recognition opportunities. In a stewardship-minded organization, they should also take an active role in donor engagement.

The board responsibilities outlined in your stewardship plan may include:

• Approving gift acceptance and naming policies
• Participating in thank-you efforts, such as calling donors or writing thank-you notes
• Supporting stewardship through personal giving and engagement
• Providing oversight to ensure compliance with ethical standards and donor intent
  

A culture of philanthropy starts at the top. Your board leadership and staff-board collaboration is essential to building an effective stewardship program within your organization.

Using technology to successfully execute your stewardship plans

Today’s nonprofit technology makes it easier than ever to thank and recognize your donors appropriately. A robust donor CRM allows you to record donor giving, assign and track stewardship plans, and provide accountability for what has—or hasn’t—been completed after the gift was received.

Even more, AI-powered tools take the guesswork out of donor communications, helping you to craft thoughtful stewardship letters and emails in just minutes. Plus, donor portal and constituent tools help your donors to connect with the organization on their own terms, with access that allows them to manage their contact data, view impact reports and other organizational information, and even make additional gifts.

Make stewardship part of your organizational culture

An effective donor stewardship plan is not just a checklist of post-gift activities; it’s a reflection of your organization’s values and the importance of your donor relationships. It shows donors that their support is not only needed, but also deeply appreciated. It further demonstrates that you are trustworthy stewards of both resources and relationships.

Whether you’re managing gifts of $25 or $250,000, the same principles apply:

• Be timely.
• Be authentic.
• Be consistent.
• Be guided by policy 
• Be driven by mission.

And above all, remember, thoughtful stewardship begins with strong relationships.

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