Applying Stewardship Theory to Higher Education Donors
Open Access
- Author:
- Harrison, Virginia Susan
- Graduate Program:
- Media Studies
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- January 27, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Denise Sevick Bortree, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
- Keywords:
- stewardship
fundraising
higher education
relationship management theory
involvement
fundraising - Abstract:
- Stewardship is the critical last step in the fundraising process, consisting of activities that help institutions to retain donors and increase their giving to higher education institutions. This study examined how stewardship strategies impact organization-public relationship outcomes for higher education donors and how the concept of involvement moderates this relationship. This study found that stewardship strategies positively predict OPR outcomes, and that annual donors, donors with one endowment, and donors with two or more endowments experience stewardship strategies and OPR outcomes differently. Particularly, the more endowments a donor has, the higher they rate these strategies and outcomes. This study also suggests that higher education donors may require a different set of stewardship strategies. Instead of the four used in previous studies, this study found only three stewardship strategies of respect, responsibility, and reciprocity. This study also found that involvement only slightly moderates the relationship between stewardship and OPR outcomes. The findings have important implications for higher education stewardship activities and theory.