Last week I attended an excellent free training workshop on Stewardship, organised by the fsi (Foundation for Social Improvement).

I knew little about the fsi or stewardship before the workshop, but left much the wiser at the end of the day. The fsi  is a small charity focused on supporting small charities. Stewardship is the practice of building and maintaining relationships with donors.

As a small charity, keeping engaged our donors is a challenge for SURF. I recognise that we are fortunate, as many of our donors have remained committed to our cause of supporting survivors of the Rwandan genocide despite the lack of stewardship that we offer.

Over the past year we have made some efforts to improve our communication to donors, with our monthly electronic newsletter and this blog. Our new annual report, which will be published next month, will extend this drive to ensure that we are even more transparent in reporting on our work.

My first year in post as SURF Director was very much focused on stabilising our finances, in a very challenging economic climate for us, which the annual report will document. Thankfully, that has been achieved.

This second year is focused on developing our relationships with our partner organisations and our donors. Thus, good stewardship will be of the essence.

However, so is growing our donor base as well, to ensure that we have anyone to steward. So please do consider joining our cause, and contributing at whatever level you can afford. Just click here:

And in so doing, I will look forward to being in touch with you soon!