{"id":10807,"date":"2026-04-23T06:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T10:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daviesis.io\/postalgia\/?page_id=10807"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:50:48","slug":"using-stewardship-to-increase-donations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/daviesis.io\/postalgia\/using-stewardship-to-increase-donations\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Stewardship to Increase Donations"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Using Stewardship to Increase Donations<\/span> <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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There\u2019s an old saying in sales that \u201cpeople buy from people.\u201d Even in the digital age, where more and more interactions happen with the click of a button from behind a screen, the majority of transactions \u2013 especially large, luxury transactions \u2013 still happen between a customer and a representative of the company or organization that they\u2019re buying from; in fact, the larger the purchase, the more human interaction is typically involved to make the prospective buyer feel at-ease and well-taken care of.<\/p>

This is just as true in the nonprofit sector. As much as people want to support organizations and causes that they care about, they also want to feel that the people that make up the organization care about them in return. Such sentiments make them feel a part of the mission, and therefore more invested in its success.<\/p>

The idea is that making donors feel included, appreciated, and considered \u2013 often called \u201cdonor stewardship\u201d \u2013 leads to those donors feeling more invested in the organization\u2019s success, and donating more in turn, and it\u2019s not just a gut feeling shared by fundraisers from organizations large and small across the board; it\u2019s backed up by data.<\/p>

We wanted to show that these human interactions could be scaled effectively by using handwritten letters in stewardship communications. To that end, we undertook a two-phased A\/B test with Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP)<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Customer<\/span> <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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CJP is a nearly 130-year old umbrella organization providing for the many programs and organizations serving the Jewish community of Greater Boston. They are one of the country\u2019s largest nonprofit organizations, and have a robust fundraising effort.<\/p>

Their campaigns are managed by an immensely professional cadre of fundraisers, and other Postalgia clients have reported that they take a lot of their cues for what to try next from CJP, because the tactics that they test out are so innovative and creative.<\/p>

In that innovative spirit, CJP and their agency \u2013 the truly amazing and cutting-edge Jigsaw Analytics Group<\/a> \u2013 approached us to run a stewardship test during Thanksgiving.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Challenge<\/span> <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Working off of the theory that donors to their annual campaign were lapsing instead of donating to the End-of-Year appeal, CJP and Jigsaw sought to address the possibility that a little bit of extra donor stewardship in the lead up to the annual campaign would encourage those who give to give more, and those who sometimes lapse in their annual giving to give towards the end-of-year appeal.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the involvement of Jigsaw Analytics Group, we were able to run a test and collect robust data on the results. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Test<\/span> <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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CJP is a nearly 130-year old umbrella organization providing for the many programs and organizations serving the Jewish community of Greater Boston. They are one of the country\u2019s largest nonprofit organizations, and have a robust fundraising effort.<\/p>

Their campaigns are managed by an immensely professional cadre of fundraisers, and other Postalgia clients have reported that they take a lot of their cues for what to try next from CJP, because the tactics that they test out are so innovative and creative.<\/p>

In that innovative spirit, CJP and their agency \u2013 the truly amazing and cutting-edge Jigsaw Analytics Group<\/a> \u2013 approached us to run a stewardship test during Thanksgiving.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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The Results<\/span> <\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The total population received identical end of year appeals 5 weeks later, and the results slowly began to trickle in. We measured all donations received from the total population within one month of the mailers arriving, and compared the two groups \u2013 one who had received the Thanksgiving postcard, and one which had not.<\/p>\n

We expected to see a marked difference between the two groups, but the results surprised us and far exceeded our expectations. <\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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HIGHLIGHT ONE<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The half that received a holiday card gave $97,129 USD ($130,928.44 CAD) more.
A 29.55%<\/strong> increase.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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HIGHLIGHT TWO<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The average gift size was 20.2%<\/strong> larger when the giver received the holiday card.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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HIGHLIGHT THREE<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Donors were 37.9%<\/strong> more likely to give above the ask if they received the holiday card, and twice as likely to give above $5,000.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Despite the two groups being randomly selected and having received identical treatment except for this one intervention, donors were 9% more likely to give<\/b> in response to the end of year appeal if they received the Thanksgiving handwritten postcard<\/a>.<\/p>

The campaign\u2019s ROI \u2013 measured by comparing the total spent on mailing the group that did receive the postcard to the difference in total donations between that group and the control group \u2013 was 816%!<\/b><\/p>

Donors who received the handwritten postcard gave 29.55%<\/b> more in total than donors who did not.<\/p>

The average gift size was 20.2%<\/b> larger amongst the group that received the handwritten card<\/a> than it was amongst the control group, with the former group being 37.9%<\/b> more likely to give above the amount they were asked to give, and more than 50%<\/b> more likely to give above $5,000.<\/p>

These stunning results just go to prove, yet again, that a little bit of stewardship goes a long way!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Using Stewardship to Increase Donations There\u2019s an old saying in sales that \u201cpeople buy from people.\u201d Even in the digital age, where more and more interactions happen with the click…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_header_footer","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10807","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nUsing Stewardship to Increase Donations - Postalgia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using Stewardship to Increase Donations - Postalgia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Using Stewardship to Increase Donations There\u2019s an old saying in sales that \u201cpeople buy from people.\u201d Even in the digital age, where more and more interactions happen with the click…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/daviesis.io\/postalgia\/using-stewardship-to-increase-donations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Postalgia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-23T14:50:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/daviesis.io\/postalgia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CJP-Logo.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/daviesis.io\\\/postalgia\\\/using-stewardship-to-increase-donations\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/daviesis.io\\\/postalgia\\\/using-stewardship-to-increase-donations\\\/\",\"name\":\"Using Stewardship to Increase Donations - 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