Each year, our donor relations team leads an effort to steward our nearly 700 donor households that generously support student scholarships at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Traditionally, this has entailed asking students to write personalized thank you letters to the specific donors of the scholarship(s) they received. Over time, student responsibilities have increased and best practices for involving students in stewardship have evolved, so the donor relations team partnered with the communications team to reimagine how we could continue to thank donors while asking less of our busy students and staying as budget-neutral as possible. Together, donor relations and communications pivoted from a packet of letters to each donor household—a time-consuming and logistically difficult effort—to a high-quality publication that showcased four students in their own words, supplemented by data and lots of photos of medical students' journeys. Sent in a custom envelope with a cover letter from the dean of the UW School of Medicine, this publication received high praise and appreciation from donors. We believe this approach and process is replicable by other schools and hope to be an example of how collaboration, thoughtful goal-setting and a commitment to putting students first can result in a powerful and meaningful stewardship piece.
From the Judges
An attractive and well-written publication that provides readers with distinct voices throughout. Additionally, we agreed this piece achieved what it set out to do in creating a new way of demonstrating donor impact on students.
