How to Build a Stewardship Matrix for Your Nonprofit

Read any nonprofit fundraising guide, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: Personalization is the key to truly connecting with donors and securing their long-term support. However, trying to build personal relationships with hundreds or even thousands of donors can easily overwhelm your fundraising team.

A stewardship matrix is like your nonprofit’s cheat sheet for delivering the right touchpoints to the right donors at the right times. Instead of blindly choosing an event to host or sending donors a birthday eCard and hoping for the best, your team can use a stewardship matrix to make informed fundraising moves that align your team, donors, and mission.

Let’s review the basics of a stewardship matrix and how to create one that inspires deeper donor engagement and more major gifts over time.

What Is a Stewardship Matrix (And Why Does It Matter)?

To understand a stewardship matrix, it’s best to first revisit the bigger picture: What’s the end goal of your donor stewardship efforts? Insightful Philanthropy offers a helpful visual of stewardship as the last step in the giving cycle. During this phase, your nonprofit recognizes donors and shows them the impact of their gifts to retain their support and ultimately loop them back into future giving cycles.

This leaves your nonprofit with the task of recognizing each gift and uniquely stewarding every donor, which is where a tool like a stewardship matrix becomes useful.

A stewardship matrix is a structured visual tool that helps nonprofits categorize donors and plan personalized engagement strategies for each group. Think of it as a map for your donor interactions: It tells you where each donor is in their journey and how to keep them moving forward.

A stewardship matrix significantly improves your nonprofit’s relationship-building efforts by:

• Aligning communications and engagement tactics. Stewardship activities require effort from your organization’s various teams, such as the fundraising team’s coordination for an appreciation event and the marketing team’s help drafting donor newsletters. A stewardship matrix outlines a consistent approach to align activities across different teams.
• Preventing donor neglect or fatigue. A structured approach to stewardship ensures that every donor segment feels appropriately valued and that your messages are perfectly timed. This means your major donors won’t grow tired of endless messages from your organization, and donors who gave smaller amounts won’t feel forgotten.
• Boosting donor retention and lifetime value. Donors who are nurtured appropriately and consistently are more likely to stick around and even increase their giving. A stewardship matrix organizes donor retention efforts, especially for smaller nonprofits that need to brainstorm and prioritize low-cost touchpoints.

By mapping out stewardship activities with intention, your nonprofit lays the groundwork for deeper donor engagement. 

How to Create a Donor Stewardship Matrix in 4 Steps

1. Categorize Your Donors

The first step in creating a donor stewardship matrix is to evaluate your donor base. Think about how donors have different giving behaviors and engagement preferences, then group them into segments accordingly.

You could segment supporters by:

• Giving level, such as major donors, mid-level donors, and grassroots donors.
• Engagement type, such as attending an event, completing your online donation form, and other forms of engagement.
• Giving frequency, such as weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual donors.

Additionally, general giving patterns may also influence your segments. For example, CharityEngine’s recurring giving statistics report that 26% of all online revenue comes from December giving alone. With this context, you might evaluate the timing of donors’ contributions, creating segments for those who give in December, July, and October.

2. Plan Stewardship Tactics

With your donor segments clearly defined, it’s time to decide how you’ll steward deeper relationships with each type of supporter. These activities can range from simple text messages to elaborate appreciation events, but ultimately depend on the groups you’re targeting and those donors’ specific preferences.

For example, here are a few touchpoints you may assign to the hypothetical segments from above:

• Giving level: Host an appreciation event for mid-level donors and invite major donors to an exclusive tour of your nonprofit’s facilities.
• Engagement type: Send a thank-you email to donors who complete your online donation form and give branded merchandise to event attendees upon registration.
• Giving frequency: Provide annual donors with special impact updates and give monthly donors special spotlights across your marketing channels.

Tailoring your approach to each segment also improves your team’s efficiency by standardizing stewardship tactics based on donor behaviors. Perhaps you’ll start to host an appreciation event for mid-level donors each year, and your nonprofit’s team will master their timeline for planning the event and inviting attendees. 

3. Match Touchpoints to Donor Segments

Next, consider where donors are in the donor lifecycle and decide which touchpoints would be timely and relevant. 

Take major donors, for example. They start as prospective donors, become major donors after successfully giving, may repeat their major gifts, and can lapse when not engaged. Prospects may need information about your nonprofit’s upcoming projects, while lapsed donors should be reminded about the impact of their past giving.

It’s up to you to decide which touchpoints make sense for donors at each stage.

4. Monitor Engagement Over Time

While structure is a major benefit provided by the stewardship matrix, flexibility is also critical in fostering genuine relationships with your nonprofit’s supporters. Donors’ lives and behaviors will inevitably change in ways that data can’t capture, and your nonprofit must monitor this context to keep its engagement efforts meaningful.

Monitor news and information sources, social media, and other resources to receive timely updates on your donors’ lives outside of their interactions with your nonprofit.

For example, media monitoring tools (e.g., software that scours news sources for information about donors) may flag obituary data when a donor’s loved one passes away. Upon receiving the alert, your team can respond with a sincere condolence message. Or, if a donor receives an award, you might send a congratulatory message. These are small gestures, but they show that your nonprofit sees the donor as a person, not just a source of revenue.

With the right tools, your nonprofit can deliver highly personalized experiences that resonate with every supporter. Yes, marketing automation can streamline your processes, but it’s intentional stewardship that deepens relationships and drives long-term loyalty.

With a little upfront planning, your nonprofit can deliver gratitude and connection at every step of the donor journey. Over time, you’ll watch your donor relationships (and revenue) grow.

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