Donor Follow-Up: The Fundraising Step Most Nonprofits Skip

Transacting vs. Stewarding

Brittany Morrison runs Bespoke Advisory, a philanthropic advisory firm in Austin that works with generous people trying to give more effectively. Her diagnosis of where most nonprofits lose donors starts with a definition. "I googled, what's the definition of donor?" she says. "It was very clinical. Very cold and sterile. And then I said, what is how would you define philanthropy? And the word stewardship was really all that was coming up. So you're either transacting or you're stewarding."

Most organizations don't get to choose which one they are on purpose. They default into transacting because it's what happens when nobody plans for anything else. "You have to teach donors how to be stewards sometimes," Morrison says. "They don't often know exactly, so you have to lead them into the pages of that story with you and help them feel a part of it, not like they just showed up at a party."

Mini takeaway: If your donor relationship stops at the receipt, you built a transaction, not a partnership. That's a choice, even when it doesn't feel like one.

Invitation, Not Obligation

Morrison's approach to any ask starts with reframing what's actually being requested. "You're not asking for you, you're asking for the organization and for the people you serve," she says, "but also you're extending them an invitation, not an obligation. You want them to feel that they are a part of what you're doing, a part of your work."

She thinks of fundraising as a storytelling exercise where the organization is the narrator, not the main character. "You're the protagonist in your story, so you're an advocate or champion of a particular idea or cause. What we're wanting to do is inspire people to act by connecting with them and jump in the pages with us. Help us co-author the rest of this story." The donor isn't a wallet being approached. They're a co-author being invited in — and that requires curiosity and real listening before it requires an ask.

The Cracked Door Nobody Walks Back Through

Morrison's sharpest image for what happens after an event is a door left cracked open. "They become a cracked door that you can then open," she says. "There's a lot of cracked doors out there. People who have kind of opened the door, they've given at an event, they're interested in your mission, and you never go and push the door open and steward that donor or that attendee."

The habit she sees constantly: organizations sprint to the finish line of the event itself and then collapse. "I think there's a giant sprint to the end of these events," she says. "It's not it's absolutely critical that it doesn't stop just night of. I think it's vital to your future as a matter of fact." She's blunt about what actually happens most of the time: a single blast email the Monday after, thanking everyone for the total raised, and nothing else. "That's it. That's often times all that happens."

Mini takeaway: A donor who gave once at your event and never heard from you again isn't a lost cause. They're an unopened door. Go back and push it open.

The Thank-You Note That Never Got Sent

Morrison tells a story on an entire organization, not just one donor. At a large Austin gala, she sat with the presenting sponsor — a man with three tables who ended up donating two of them back and sitting with five people at his table instead. After the event, she asked the advisory board chair a simple question: had anyone sent him a thank-you note? "We haven't. We haven't sent him a thank you note," was the answer. Had anyone contacted him since? "No, we sure haven't."

"I happen to know this man loves a thank you note," Morrison says. "He's old school." The fix wasn't complicated: reach out, thank him properly, and — just as important — stop assuming he wanted three tables to fill in the first place. "He doesn't need three tables. He doesn't want to spend his time filling three tables," she says. "It's a burden for them." The better move was a direct conversation: how can we curate a partnership that actually fits what you want to give, instead of what our sponsor kit assumes you want?

Ditch the Sponsor Kit, Have a Conversation

That instinct — build the offer around the person instead of the packet — is one of Morrison's core beliefs about sponsorship and major gifts alike. "Think beyond the pages of your sponsor kit," she says. Instead of presenting a menu of fixed tiers, she recommends getting curious first: what types of events are they interested in? What are their goals for this partnership? What are their employees passionate about?

"It shouldn't be like pushing the sponsor kit across the table," she says. "It's listening. It's asking questions... This has been a really wonderful conversation, great getting to know you. I'd love to follow up with a customized proposal." The sponsor kit isn't wrong to have — it's wrong to lead with. Used right, it's a conversational tool you bring back out after you already know what they actually want.

Mini takeaway: A rigid sponsorship tier is a missed follow-up waiting to happen. Ask before you offer.

Differentiation Is Stronger Than Competition

Donors aren't going to just one event. Morrison and her podcast co-host agree on this point completely: standing out matters more than competing on the same terms as every other gala on the calendar. "Differentiation is stronger than competition," is how it's put — and it applies directly to follow-up. If every organization sends the same templated Monday-morning thank-you email, the one that doesn't feels the same as all the others. The one that does — a phone call, a handwritten note, a genuine question about what drew them there — is the one that gets remembered before the next invitation goes out.

Ask for More, Every Year

Morrison pushes back hard on the instinct to keep sponsorship pricing flat out of fear of upsetting long-time donors. She describes retooling an entire benefits matrix for a gala that hadn't raised sponsorship prices in over a decade, over her own development director's objections. "Not a single ounce of disdain or feedback, negative feedback, from a single donor," she says. Same principle applied to a long-time grant funder: she told the client to ask for twice their usual amount. They got it.

"Yes, always, because the worst thing they can say is no," she says. "It's not greedy... this is deepening our partnership. That's the objective. How can we deepen and grow this partnership? We want to be more aligned with you. Not, we just want more of your money."

They're Already In Your Phone

Morrison's closing point is the one most directly about follow-up as a system, not a single gesture. "Every year you should touch every donor in some capacity," she says. "If a year goes by where you haven't spoken to a donor, you need to reevaluate your system." She tells the story of a founder who hadn't spoken to the family foundation that wrote the organization's very first check in over two years. "They're right there in front of you," she says. "It's just poor funnel management at the end of the day."

Her fix isn't a new acquisition strategy. It's picking up the phone to people already in it. "You don't need to add more people to the most powerful fundraising tool that you have," she says. "They're in there."

Insights in this article are drawn from the Hey Nonprofits! podcast episode “Stop Losing Donors. Start Following Up.”, featuring host Trevor Nelson and guest Brittany Morrison, founder of Bespoke Advisory.