The concept of stewardship within fund raising literature stems from the public relations theories of relationship management, which involve maintaining mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and its publics. With the current economic crisis, non-profit organizations see the need to focus more time and attention on maintaining and fostering relationships with existing donors, and therefore, the idea of stewardship stands an area of great interest to scholars and fund-raising practitioners alike. This study seeks to evaluate the role and formalization of stewardship in the fund-raising process, the current tactics practitioners use to practice stewardship, and better understand the limitations to the implementation of stewardship.
Using a case study approach, which includes document analysis and in-depth interviews, the researcher gives a detailed description of Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge, Louisianas current stewardship practices, as well as the practices of 15 other fund raisers in healthcare institutions throughout the United States, measures those practices against the theoretical standards, and constructs a stewardship program that allows MPBCC to effectively steward its donors. The results of this study indicate the widespread practice of all four stewardship elements, but also reveal a focus on reporting. The institutions in this study show formalization of the stewardship elements reciprocity, reporting, and responsible gift; however, use a more personal and individual approach to practicing the element of relationship nurturing. Although budget may seem the most common reason for a lack of stewardship, practitioners see the limitations of staffing and time as greater limitations. These findings show the need to further research the practice of stewardship and its varying levels among organizations of different functions and size.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-04062010-221559 |
| Date | 12 April 2010 |
| Creators | Moses, Megan Lee |
| Contributors | Broussard, Jinx, Shipka, Danny, Dahmen, Nicole |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04062010-221559/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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