Donor cultivation and stewardship are the core pillars of a nonprofit's fundraising strategy. In the modern Nonprofit Cloud (NPC), Salesforce provides a unified platform to manage the entire donor lifecycle—from the initial "prospect" phase to long-term "stewardship."
The Stewardship Framework in NPC:
Tracking Interactions: Salesforce allows development officers to log every "touchpoint" with a donor. Using the Interaction and Interaction Summary objects, staff can record detailed notes from discovery calls, coffee meetings, or site visits. This historical record ensures that as staff change, the relationship with the donor remains consistent and informed.
Campaign Management: Cultivation often begins with targeted outreach. NPC uses the Campaign object and Outreach Source Codes to segment donors based on their interests (tracked via Interest Tags) and engage them with specific appeals. By tracking which campaigns a donor responds to, the organization can tailor future communications to the donor's proven interests.
Gift Logging and Recognition: Stewardship relies on timely and accurate acknowledgment. When a gift is logged via Gift Entry, the system immediately updates the Donor Gift Summary. This allows staff to see the donor's impact at a glance. Features like OmniStudio Document Generation then automate the creation of personalized thank-you letters, which are a vital part of stewardship.
Moves Management: Using Action Plans, a consultant can build standardized "stewardship tracks." For example, after a major gift is received, the system can automatically assign tasks for the Executive Director to make a thank-you call and for the Program Director to send a 6-month impact report.
While Grantmaking (Option B) and Accounting Subledger (Option C) are important operational features, they do not define the relational strategy of "cultivation and stewardship." Option A correctly identifies the tools used by fundraisers to build and maintain the emotional and financial connection between the donor and the mission.
