Read time: 7 minutes

This one’s for anyone who’s ever sent a funding report 48 hours late and pretended it was a “draft.”

Receiving a donation is like being handed a tiny kitten – delightful, fragile, and absolutely your responsibility.

For some reason, many charities treat a gift as a trophy cabinet moment. They grab the cheque, polish it off, and declare victory. But they’re wrong. A donation isn’t the grand finale; it’s the first chapter of a new contract. That gift can lead directly to the next one and secure the one after that. Fail to properly manage this first step, and the relationship will vanish long before the next funding round even opens.

A donation isn’t the end of a long, arduous process; it’s the slightly awkward start of a relationship that needs careful tending. If you want to stop this lovely person (or Trust) from deciding you’re a flighty, unprofessional mess, you need a plan. And it starts with a phone call.