This article is based on an AFP Golden Gate webinar presented in July 2026 by Liz Davis, MA, CFRE, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County.
If you’ve ever felt like your fundraising is stuck sending the same generic thank-you letters year after year, you’re not alone — and it’s costing you donors. That was the core message from a recent AFP Golden Gate webinar on navigating stewardship and sustainable philanthropy, led by Liz Davis, Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County.
Davis brings more than 20 years of experience in executive management and fundraising, much of it in the faith-based, unhoused-services space. Her session focused on a simple but often overlooked idea: donors aren’t transactions. They’re mission partners, and the way you treat them determines whether they give once or give for a decade.
The Transactional Trap
Davis opened by naming the problem a lot of fundraisers fall into without realizing it: generic communication and short-term thinking. It’s easy to default to form letters, blast emails, and asks that only show up when you need money. The result is donors who feel used rather than valued — and who quietly stop giving.
The alternative she calls transformational fundraising: building the relationship before you ask for the gift, not after.
Listen More Than You Speak
The single practice Davis returned to again and again was listening. Not passive listening — active, note-taking, follow-up-driving listening.
Her donor base at St. Vincent de Paul skews older (about 70% are 65+), and she’s found that many donors want to talk — about their lives, their history, what they’ve seen. That’s not a distraction from fundraising; it is fundraising. A donor mentioning they’re too sick to attend an event is a cue to send a get-well card. A passing comment about a nephew’s wedding is something worth remembering and asking about months later.
She recommends logging these details in your donor database so the relationship survives staff turnover — not just living in one fundraiser’s memory.
To get donors talking, she suggests a short set of open-ended questions:
- Why do you give?
- What inspires you?
- What impact matters most to you?
- Who influenced your generosity?
- What legacy do you hope to leave?
These aren’t just relationship-building — they’re diagnostic. Answers here can point you toward restricted-gift opportunities and help you match a donor’s specific passions (housing, food insecurity, animals, the arts) to the right ask.
Immerse Donors in the Mission
Davis is a strong advocate for getting donors physically closer to the work. At St. Vincent de Paul, that means tours of the shelter, the meal program, and Kitchen of Champions — their culinary workforce development program. Donors get to see exactly where their dollars go, meet frontline staff (not just fundraisers), and — most powerfully — hear directly from the people the organization serves.
Her advice: don’t limit fundraising engagement to your development team. Bring in program staff and, where appropriate, the people who’ve directly benefited. Nothing communicates impact like a firsthand story.
Building Trust: The Practical Habits
Beyond the big-picture philosophy, Davis outlined concrete habits that build donor trust over time:
- Keep commitments. If a donor sets aside time for a meeting, show up — or make sure someone from your team does.
- Respond promptly. Aim for same-day, or within 24 hours at the latest. Use an out-of-office reply when you’re unavailable.
- Be honest. Ethical fundraising, per AFP and CFRE standards, means transparency — always.
- Report outcomes with real numbers. Don’t just tell donors where their money went; show the quantitative impact.
- Go beyond the thank-you letter. The legally required acknowledgment letter is the floor, not the ceiling. Consider video messages from your ED or board chair.
- Share success stories and program updates. Regularly, not just in an annual report.
- Send photos. Davis shared a small but telling anecdote: a donor she’d grown close with once texted her while she was on a cruise, just asking to see photos. People want the personal connection, not just the mission update.
Case Study: The $25 Donor
One of the most useful parts of the session was Davis’s walkthrough of a real scenario — the donor who gives $25 a year.
It’s tempting to write off small, recurring gifts as not worth the stewardship effort. Davis argues the opposite. A $25 donor is telling you they care about your mission. Her recommended approach:
- Personal outreach — a phone call, not just an automated receipt
- Personalized cards or emails
- An in-person invitation — a tour, a chance to meet staff
- Coffee or lunch off-site, giving them space to ask questions
In the scenario she described, that $25 donor became a volunteer — and eventually a major donor. The lesson: you don’t know someone’s giving capacity until you actually build a relationship with them.
She drew out a few broader principles from this:
- Every donor counts, regardless of gift size.
- Relationships reveal passions — and passions drive bigger gifts.
- Small gifts can grow, but only if someone invests in the relationship.
- Retention drives growth. A donor giving $25 a year for ten straight years may ultimately be more valuable than a single $1,000 gift from someone you never hear from again.
Meet Donors Where They Are
Davis closed with a reminder that stewardship isn’t confined to the office. Community events, church gatherings, volunteer days — St. Vincent de Paul’s upcoming back-to-school event, serving over 1,000 children with roughly 120–130 volunteers, many of whom are also donors, is a good example of how service and stewardship overlap.
She also emphasized showing up for donors during life’s milestones — weddings, funerals, celebrations — with authenticity, not obligation. “Your relationship with your donor is going to deepen over time,” she said, “as long as your authenticity is brought to every meeting and conversation.”
The Takeaway
None of this requires a bigger budget — it requires a shift in mindset from transactional to relational. Listen more than you speak. Take notes. Show donors where their money goes. Don’t discount small gifts. And follow through, every time.
As Davis put it, the goal isn’t just a donation. It’s a donor who trusts you enough to stay for the long haul — and eventually, to leave a legacy.
Liz Davis, MA, CFRE, is the Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County. Liz Davis brings more than 20 years of experience in executive management, nonprofit development, fundraising strategy, budget forecasting, team leadership, and board engagement. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a strong ability to build relationships, develop sustainable fundraising programs, and guide organizations toward achieving ambitious mission driven goals.
In April 2025, Liz earned the Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) credential, a globally recognized certification that demonstrates a high level of knowledge, performance, and ethical standards in the fundraising profession. She also serves as a CFRE Ambassador, supporting and encouraging continued professional development within the philanthropic community.
Beyond her professional work, Liz remains deeply committed to her faith and community. She is an active member of St. Columba Parish in Oakland, where she serves as a Eucharistic minister and contributes to the parish health cabinet. Through this service, she supports initiatives that foster spiritual growth, community connection, and holistic well being within the parish community. Liz’s dedication to service reflects her lifelong commitment to helping strengthen communities and improve the lives of others.