Sistava

Donor Communication and Stewardship

AI for Nonprofits and Charities

Thank people properly and tell them what happened

Donor retention in small charities is poor for an unglamorous reason: people are thanked late, generically, or not at all, and then never told what their money did.,Your assistant handles stewardship: prompt personal thanks, updates showing impact, and contact with lapsed donors before they are gone for good.,A donor who hears what their gift achieved gives again. One who hears nothing assumes it did not matter.

Benefits

How It Works

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At a Glance

Days
Not weeks, to thank
Concrete
What the money actually did
Surfaced
Lapsing donors, early
Acknowledged
Regular givers, periodically

Donors Leave Because Nobody Told Them Anything

Charity donor retention is frequently poor, and the sector research consistently points at the same cause: donors who receive no meaningful acknowledgement or feedback assume their contribution was marginal. It is rarely dissatisfaction with the cause. Someone who gives and then hears nothing for a year has no reason to think their gift mattered, and no reason to repeat it. Prompt thanks and a concrete report on impact are the two cheapest interventions available and they are the two most likely to be skipped by an organisation stretched across delivery.

Impact Claims Have to Be Honest

There is real pressure in fundraising to make impact sound as large as possible, and it is a dangerous pressure in a sector that runs entirely on trust. A figure that overstates what a donation achieved, or attributes a broad outcome to a specific gift, is the kind of claim that damages an organisation permanently when examined. The correct discipline is to report what your data actually supports, flag what you cannot evidence, and accept the less impressive but defensible version.

FAQ

Does it send donor communications automatically?

Acknowledgements can go directly where you allow it, since speed matters and they are transactional. Anything substantive, and anything to a major donor, is drafted for a person, because those relationships are the organisation.

How specific can impact reporting be?

As specific as your data honestly supports, and no further. Overstating what a gift achieved is a serious integrity problem in this sector, so figures trace to what you actually recorded and gaps are flagged rather than filled.

What about donor data protection?

Donor records stay inside your workspace and are not used to train anything. Charities carry real obligations here, including around consent and marketing preferences, and those preferences are respected rather than overridden.

Is contacting lapsed donors worth it?

Usually more than acquiring new ones. A lapsed donor already believed in the work, and the most common reason they stopped is that they drifted rather than decided. That said, respect their preferences: someone who asked not to be contacted stays uncontacted.