Over the years, as I have implemented prospect management systems at various organizations, there is one common point of resistance - which is over the term "Permanent Stewardship". We can all agree that there needs to be a way to segment out those donors who have been generous to your organization in the past, but who are not going to give another major outright gift in their lifetime - because you need to steward these donors differently. And yes, we all realize that these people may very well make a large gift in the way of a bequest or other planned giving vehicle, but they are no longer donors that need to be cultivated towards a major gift using the traditional cultivation cycle. Inevitably I find that the resistance is always over the terminology, and never about the definition.
While other organizations may use a different term: Perpetual Stewardship, Lifetime Stewardship, Ongoing Stewardship, etc., you could call them Zebras or Kumquats or Unicorns - because the term is simply a code that you use internally to identify who belongs in a particular segment of your total pool of donors. At the end of the day, it is less important what you call this segment of donors and far more important that you have a plan for how you want to engage them and steward them for the generosity that they have shown your organization. Equally important is that you have a point person to oversee this segment so that they can make sure these donors are being stewarded appropriately.
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