The start of any relationship is special and exciting—but it’s only the beginning. While first milestones are worth celebrating, everything that follows is what truly sustains the connection.
There’s a common metaphor that fundraising is like dating. First, you identify someone compatible. Then comes courtship—taking time to build trust and understand one another’s values. Even after accepting the first date or proposal, the work isn’t over. The same is true when a nonprofit wins a grant. The award letter may feel like the major milestone, but the real opportunity comes through stewardship: the ongoing process of showing genuine appreciation, communicating impact, and building relationships that last. Like any healthy relationship, it takes intention, consistency, and care over time.
We know that building relationships with funders matters, but how do you get started? Where do you go after you’ve received the grant? Here are some tips for integrating more stewardship into your work:
1. Stewardship Starts on Day One
Though our focus is post-award appreciation, ignoring stewardship until you’ve been awarded the grant is a poor strategy for long-term success.
Instead, keep the end goal (building a relationship) in mind from the beginning. That means taking the time to truly get to know potential funders: thoroughly researching their priorities, identifying where your missions align, and learning what motivates their giving. It can also mean picking up the phone or sending an email to a program officer to learn more about kinds of projects excite them this grant cycle.
When you show funders that their work resonates with you, and that your goals are compatible, you strengthen your case for future partnership. Funders invest in relationships with people, not line items.
If you feel intimidated at the prospect of making a cold call, check out our tips for fostering warm contacts with funders.
2. Tell a Compelling Impact Story
The most effective communications with funders strike a balance between professionalism and approachability. Rather than simply going through the motions or forwarding metrics without a narrative, successful grant updates read like a thoughtful conversation grounded in shared goals. That means:
- Sharing a specific success story, not just a summary of activities.
- Highlighting an individual whose life changed because of the grant.
- Connecting the dots between the funder’s intention and your impact.
When a funder reads your update and both sees and feels their vital role in your work, that warm connection is what inspires continued conversation. Every communication is an opportunity to show who makes the work possible and acknowledge that support in ways that feel genuine, appropriate, and sustainable for your team.
3. Personalize, Personalize, Personalize
In today’s competitive grants landscape, personalization matters more than ever. A program officer may want outcomes and lessons learned. A family foundation may care more about the people behind the numbers. A corporate partner may be looking for community visibility or an update that will resonate with their brand. When nonprofits take the time to slightly tailor language, examples, or framing, it signals respect and attention.
If personalization feels like a huge task, remember that it’s often far less work than starting from scratch after a relationship goes cold. Even small touches—using the funder’s stated priorities, referencing a past conversation, highlighting impact they care about—show funders they’re not just one name on a mailing list. Over time, that effort pays off in stronger relationships, clearer communication, and funders who are more likely to stay engaged.
4. Build Habits, Not One-Off Gestures
It’s easy to think of stewardship as something you do when there’s time. But as every nonprofit professional knows, there’s never enough time to accomplish everything on your plate, let alone the things that don’t feel urgent.
One-off gestures can feel meaningful in the moment, but habits are what funders remember. When communication is steady and reliable, it builds confidence. Funders know what to expect from you—and that predictability is a form of trust.
Building stewardship habits doesn’t require a big team or new software. It starts with simple, sustainable practices, such as:
- Sending thank-you messages within a set timeframe after an award is received
- Scheduling impact updates at regular intervals, not just at reporting deadlines
- Creating a standard process for sharing program milestones or challenges
- Assigning clear responsibility for funder communication, even on small teams
These habits reduce stress because they eliminate last-minute scrambling. Instead of wondering when or how to follow up, your team already knows what comes next.
Just as importantly, habits allow stewardship to survive staff transitions and busy seasons. When appreciation and communication are built into your systems—rather than relying on one person’s memory or enthusiasm—relationships remain strong even when capacity shifts.
5. Stewardship Doesn’t Just Maintain—It Opens Doors
When you make gratitude visible in your language, your processes, and your culture, funders notice. Consistent stewardship signals that your nonprofit is thoughtful, reliable, and intentional about relationships, not just results.
Over time, that trust transforms the nature of the relationship from people who write checks to people who are advocates and partners in your mission. These kinds of funders are more likely to invite you to apply for future funding opportunities, introduce your organization to peer funders, and offer flexibility when challenges arise.
Trust rarely comes from a single strong proposal, but rather from how your organization communicates, follows through, and reflects on its work. And in the end, that’s the real win: long-term relationships that meaningfully support your mission.
A Little Love Goes a Long Way
At Three Notch’d Nonprofit Solutions, we often talk about storytelling as the common thread that strengthens grants, evaluation, and communications. Stewardship is just another chapter of that same story—the part where you honor what’s been given and build toward what’s next.
It’s not flashy. It’s not complicated. But like all good relationships, it’s rooted in respect, reciprocity, and real connection.
Three Notch’d Nonprofit Solutions, LLC 