An Excellent Major Donor Stewardship Letter

An Excellent Major Donor Stewardship Letter

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

One of the great joys of the philanthropic fundraising profession is getting to work with dedicated volunteers who give their time, their money, and their passion to a nonprofit cause.

One of my volunteer fundraising heroes is Dave Karr, leader of the Stayton Public Library Foundation (Oregon). I met Dave a number of years ago when he hired my team to raise money for a library building expansion.

He needed to raise $1.95 million. We told him this would be a challenge, but he agreed to chair the campaign and make a significant personal gift. The campaign reached its goal and then surpassed it to raise $2.8 million to cover increased building costs and to create an operating endowment.

This achievement for the town of Stayton with 7,000 people would be extraordinary for any volunteer fundraiser. For Dave Karr, who has macular degeneration and therefore can’t drive, can’t read papers, can only see his computer screen with a giant magnifying glass, his dedication and energy to “see” the campaign to success was exceptional.

Dave Karr chaired meetings at his home, had people drive him to fundraising calls, hold his arm to get into meetings, and led with energy and dogged persistence to ensure the campaign was a success.

But now, the rest of the story.

A great stewardship letter

I just got a year-end, gift-request letter from Dave in the mail. Here’s what he told me about the impact of the library building expansion project.

• Library visits have increased from 46,050 to 94,657
• Circulation has gone from 108,964 to 133,295
• Internet usage from 9,826 to 22,045

Ongoing donors gifts this past year paid for:

• 4 new library user computers, a microfilm reader / printer
• a defibrillator for the Library
• helped the City of Stayton replace deteriorated windows in the older section of the library
• continued to add funds to the permanent endowment
• helped fund the new Outreach Storyteller Program to promote literacy through visits to local preschools, daycare centers, and Head Start programs – the program provides book boxes for teachers to use in their classrooms and gives up to 4 books a year for each child to keep

“Thanks for your support !”

Of course, Dave included a return envelope and donor card to let people make another investment.

Way to go Dave. I’m proud of you and the entire Board of Stayton Public Library Foundation. I’ve invested before and I’ll invest again.

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