Stewardship teams are being asked to do more than ever. They are expected to deliver timely, accurate, donor-friendly reports while managing increasing complexity behind the scenes. Donors expect clarity, transparency, and proof of impact, yet many organizations still rely on fragmented systems and manual processes to meet those expectations.
FundMiner’s 2025 benchmarking survey shows that stewardship teams average just 3.6 staff members, yet are responsible for managing more than 1,000 funds and donor relationships per team. The same survey found that fund management teams typically consist of just two people overseeing nearly 1,000 funds. When reporting relies on spreadsheets, shared drives, and email follow-ups, even strong teams struggle to keep pace.
Leading fundraising organizations are responding by rethinking how donor information is managed, shared, and reported.
Most stewardship challenges do not come from lack of expertise. They stem from disconnected systems and limited team bandwidth.
Fund balances live in finance systems. Gift agreements are stored as PDFs. Impact updates arrive through email or shared documents. Without a centralized source of truth, reporting becomes a manual reconciliation process repeated every reporting cycle, often handled by small teams.
This challenge is widespread. FundMiner’s survey found that 96% of stewardship teams report manual workflows as a challenge, with more than two-thirds rating them as significant or major barriers. Manual processes consume time and limit teams’ ability to focus on donor relationships.
Internal partners often want to support stewardship but lack visibility into current fund data. The result is delayed reporting, inconsistent messaging, and missed opportunities to build donor trust. This is a systems issue, not a staffing failure.
When donor data, fund balances, and documentation live in one centralized system, stewardship workflows change.
With a platform like FundMiner, teams can access real-time fund activity, spending details, and gift restrictions without relying on exports or repeated requests to finance. Gift agreements are immediately accessible, helping ensure reports consistently reflect donor intent.
This matters because 66% of organizations remain in ad hoc or basic stewardship maturity stages, according to the 2025 survey. Centralizing donor information is often the first step toward moving from reactive reporting to scalable, confident stewardship.
Stewardship does not improve by working harder. It improves when teams have the systems and visibility needed to deliver accurate, timely reporting.
By centralizing donor information and using purpose-built tools like FundMiner, fundraising teams can reduce turnaround times, improve consistency, strengthen cross-department collaboration, and deliver reporting experiences that build long-term donor trust.
A stronger year of stewardship is within reach, and it starts with the systems supporting your team every day.