Stewardship is a State of Mind

In talking with a client about launching a legacy society, I remarked that having an annual event is wonderful, but stewardship is more than that. I was trying to describe how one "instills" stewardship. In my experience it seems that stewardship is a natural extension of the development officer's personality.

The next day, I was driving to the office, still thinking about our conversation and how to illustrate stewardship, when I spotted a person waiting to cross a very busy street in the frigid cold. I had two choices - I could stop and let him cross, or I could continue to drive and make him wait. I decided to stop and at that moment I realized that he was running across the street to catch the bus on the other side. If I hadn't stopped, he would have missed the bus, and it would have made his commute miserable. My 30-second delay probably saved him a morning of distress and didn’t cost me anything.  

This immediately brought to mind something a gift officer I know had done for a donor. The officer was at the post office buying stamps for herself when she saw a set of commemorative stamps featuring contemporary art.  One of the stamps happened to be a favorite artist of her donor so she purchased a book and dropped it in the mail with a note saying she was thinking of her.

The donor called the officer to thank her for her thoughtfulness. Of all the things that this organization has done for this donor, it's the stamps that have been the most memorable. This thoughtful gesture is the kind of thing I was trying to convey to my client. We have opportunities all the time to steward our donors. It's really about being in the mindset to do so.

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