The value of relationship and communication management in fundraising: Comparing donors’ and practitioners’ views of stewardship

The organisation-public relationship paradigm has frequently referenced Kelly’s (2001) stewardship strategies as possible methods for strengthening relationships with stakeholders; however, there have been no attempts to measure stewardship. A mailed survey of individual donors (n = 1,706) and fundraising team members (n = 124) at three non-profit hospitals asked participants to evaluate their views toward the four stewardship strategies as well as estimate how the other side would evaluate them. By using the coorientation methodology, this study found that although both sides valued the four stewardship strategies, their attitudes differed in magnitude. These findings provide growing support for future examination of stewardship in other public relations settings, and specifically they add to the growing literature on the importance of donor cultivation.