Best Practices in Managing and Stewarding Donor Funds-Best Practices in Managing and Stewarding Donor Funds

Video Transcription

Video Summary

This video is a webinar presented by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education on best practices in managing and stewarding donor funds. The speaker, Aaron Rouse, is the director of Fund Stewardship and Management at the University of Nebraska Foundation. He discusses his role in managing and stewarding the foundation's 10,000+ active funds and the importance of establishing fund coding guidelines, providing reporting services, and maintaining communication with campus partners and donors.<br /><br />Rouse emphasizes the need for partnerships and collaboration with campus partners to address underutilized funds effectively. He shares examples of challenges they faced, such as outdated language in donor agreements and a lack of understanding about fund management, and the solutions they implemented, including educating campus partners about online donor fund portals, creating a policy to resolve nominal fund balances, and opening lines of communication about usage plans for underutilized funds.<br /><br />Rouse highlights the importance of data in telling a story and the ongoing process of analyzing and evolving fund management efforts to achieve desired impact. He also discusses the progress they have made in reducing the underutilized fund rate from 36% to 29% and their future plans to overhaul their funds stewardship and management processes.<br /><br />Overall, the webinar provides insights into best practices and strategies for effectively managing and stewarding donor funds, with a focus on collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement.

Keywords

donor funds

fund stewardship

fund management

campus partnerships

donor agreements

underutilized funds

reporting services

data analysis