This White Paper sets out to clarify some of the confusions around the term stewardship, exploring:

• Different notions of stewardship.
• The differences between stewardship, donor care and relationship fundraising.
• US notions of stewardship as they relate to planned giving.
• Different types of fundraising stewardship – including the idea of ‘Third Level Stewardship’ which sits above and encompasses relationship fundraising and is a notion of stewardship that is not yet practised or aspired to by British fundraisers.

The White Paper then identifies nine barriers to the adoption and take-up of stewardship among UK charities:

• What does stewardship actually mean?
• British, or American-style stewardship?
• There is no common understanding of stewardship in a fundraising context.
• Bandwagon jumping.
• Low standards of donor care could undermine stewardship.
• Measurement – KPIs (key performance indicators) and benchmarks are needed to assess the impact of stewardship.
• Is stewardship a means or an end?
• Training/CPD issues.
• Lack of will for stewardship to succeed.

Finally, this White Paper concludes by calling on the Institute of Fundraising to set up a working party to develop a code of practice on fundraising stewardship that will introduce a definition of stewardship that can be used as a benchmark for all fundraisers.

To read the full white paper download the PDF.