Stewardli.ai

Donor retention for Canadian nonprofits

Keep the donors you already have.

Stewardli runs gratitude-first stewardship for your donors across email, SMS, and voice, then hands your team the signals that show who is ready to give again.

Retention, not solicitation. Technology that strengthens connection, not replaces it.

See how it works
  • 30-minute intro call
  • No long-term commitment
  • Built in Canada, CASL-aware

One donor, one journey

Gratitude-first sequence

Live
  1. 1

    Thank-you email

    Delivered

    Personal, mission-led, no ask.

  2. 2

    SMS check-in

    Replied

    Short impact update, opt-out honoured.

  3. 3

    Nora voice call

    Positive sentiment

    Thanks the donor, updates preferences, offers a callback.

  4. 4

    Your team follows up

    Ready

    Callback booked for a human conversation.

Every message is approved by your team before it goes out. Nora never takes payment details.

The retention gap

4 in 5

first-time donors never make a second gift.

Acquiring a new donor costs many times more than keeping one. Yet most donor engagement is still reactive: a receipt, a year-end appeal, and silence in between.

Source: Fundraising Effectiveness Project, 2025. Only about 19% of first-time donors gave a second gift.

Retention is everyone’s job. That is exactly why it slips.

  • Development teams are stretched thin

    Major gifts, the annual fund, events. Personal follow-up with every donor is the first thing to slip, and every missed touchpoint is a relationship at risk.

  • Communications run on campaign calendars

    Appeals compete with stewardship for the same inbox. Donors end up feeling like transactions instead of partners in your mission.

  • Leadership and boards want predictable revenue

    Retention is the foundation of predictable growth, but most organizations cannot say which donors are drifting until the gift does not arrive.

Retention is not a messaging problem. It is about how donors experience your mission over time.

How it works

From donor list to second gift, in four steps.

Stewardli sits alongside your development and communications teams. We handle the consistency; your mission leads every interaction.

  1. 01

    Share a donor list

    Start with about 100 donors. A simple export from your CRM or a spreadsheet is enough. No integration project required.

  2. 02

    We design the touchpoints

    Gratitude-first email, SMS, and voice sequences written in your organization’s voice. Your team approves every message before anything is sent.

  3. 03

    Donors hear from you

    Personal thank-yous and impact check-ins across channels. Nora, our voice assistant, thanks donors, updates their preferences, and offers a callback with your team.

  4. 04

    Your team gets the signals

    Sentiment, preference changes, callback requests, and readiness indicators flow back to you, with a clear pilot report and recommended next steps.

Works with any CRM you already use. Raiser’s Edge, Salesforce, DonorPerfect, Keela, or a spreadsheet.

The 100-Donor Pilot

See what intentional stewardship does for your retention, without a long-term contract.

A focused, low-risk engagement on a slice of your donor base. Enough to measure, small enough to start this quarter.

During the pilot, we will

  1. 1Review engagement history for 100 of your donors
  2. 2Design intentional, mission-aligned touchpoints your team approves
  3. 3Deploy personalized outreach across email, SMS, and voice
  4. 4Track engagement and sentiment throughout the pilot

Your team receives

  • Touchpoint engagement summary
  • Positive and negative sentiment overview
  • Donor response and interaction trends
  • Early retention and donation-lift indicators
  • Strategic recommendations for next steps

What we need from you

  • A list of ~100 donors

    CSV export from any CRM

  • One 30-minute kickoff

    To align on voice and goals

  • A point of contact

    To approve messages and receive callbacks

No long-term commitment. Just clarity, learning, and measurable insight.

Our approach

A donor retention partner for your entire organization.

Stewardli brings structure, consistency, and intention to donor engagement. This is not automation for automation’s sake. It is disciplined stewardship supported by insight.

Retention strategy

  • Donor journey mapping
  • Touchpoint planning across channels
  • Engagement cadence design
  • Alignment across development and communications

Thoughtful touchpoints

  • Personalized email journeys
  • SMS and voice outreach
  • Gratitude-first messaging
  • Direct mail and milestone moments

Engagement insight

  • Touchpoint performance trends
  • Positive and negative sentiment signals
  • Donor response and interaction patterns
  • Qualitative engagement observations

Ongoing refinement

  • Iterative testing of messages and timing
  • Adjustments based on donor response
  • Strategic recommendations for improvement

Every touchpoint designed with intention

  • Re-engagement

    Reduced-ask, gratitude-first reconnection with lapsed donors.

  • Ongoing engagement

    Impact stories, action-triggered thank-yous, milestone recognition.

  • Growth and loyalty

    Signals of readiness for recurring giving and deeper conversations.

  • Retention defense

    Early signs of disengagement, adjusted cadence, win-back outreach.

We use data to listen. Your mission leads every interaction.

Impact

What stronger retention looks like in practice.

Faith-based organization

~18% increase in repeat donations

  • Improved engagement with gratitude-first messaging
  • Stronger response to reduced-ask campaigns

Healthcare charity

~22% of inactive donors re-engaged

  • Increased average gift size through timely thank-you touchpoints
  • Better alignment between development and communications

Research institute

More recurring-gift conversations within 60 days

  • Higher response rates to impact storytelling emails
  • Clearer visibility into donor sentiment and readiness to engage

“Retention is not just about messaging. It is about how donors experience your mission over time.”

The principle behind every Stewardli sequence

Results vary by organization. Case studies reflect early pilots and directional impact.

Chris Nithiananthan, Founder, Stewardli
Chris Nithiananthan · Founder, Stewardli

Meet the founder

Built by someone who has lived the donor-retention problem.

Chris Nithiananthan has spent close to two decades inside Canadian nonprofits and charitable organizations, running the donor databases, giving platforms, and reporting that fundraising teams depend on. From that seat he watched the same pattern repeat: organizations pour effort into acquiring donors, then lose most of them before a second gift.

Stewardli is his answer. Stewardship that is consistent, personal, and measurable. Supported by AI, led by your mission, and never used to replace the human relationships that make giving meaningful.

“Technology that strengthens connection, not replaces it. If a tool makes a donor feel like a transaction, it has failed.”

Chris Nithiananthan
Connect with Chris on LinkedIn

The team

A small team, close to every donor conversation.

  • Chris Nithiananthan

    Chris Nithiananthan

    Founder

    Founder of Stewardli, with more than 18 years running donor data and fundraising systems for Canadian nonprofits and charitable organizations.

    LinkedIn
  • Fred Nithiananthan

    Fred Nithiananthan

    Revenue & Growth Advisor

    Fred is a senior sales leader with more than 10 years of experience in revenue growth, lead generation, client retention, and building high-performing sales teams. Across leadership roles at Indeed, Leyton and Peninsula, he has helped oversee more than $50M in revenue while developing scalable go-to-market strategies. His experience also includes helping Canadian companies access government funding to help scale and grow.

    LinkedIn
  • Tan Husnani

    Tan Husnani

    Technical Advisor

    Tan is a systems builder with more than 15 years across enterprise technology, automation, and digital product delivery. He is the founder of Tan & Fam Inc., a Canadian digital studio shipping AI-driven platforms, data infrastructure, and workflow automation for clients and its own ventures. At Stewardli he owns the technical backbone: the automation pipelines, integrations, and reporting that keep every donor touchpoint running reliably at scale.

    LinkedIn

Who we work with

Organizations that depend on donors coming back.

Stewardli partners with Canadian nonprofits typically raising $1M to $50M+ a year, where a small lift in retention changes the budget.

Smaller organization? The 100-donor pilot is sized to work for lean teams too.

  • Health and research institutes
  • Faith-based and religious nonprofits
  • Social service and community organizations
  • Education and academic institutions
  • National and regional charities

Questions

The things development directors ask us first.

Something else on your mind? Bring it to the intro call, or email hello@stewardli.ai.

Is Stewardli replacing our development team?
No. Stewardli works alongside your development and communications teams. We handle the consistency of thank-yous, check-ins, and preference updates so your people can spend their time on the conversations that need a human.
Does Stewardli ask donors for money?
No. Stewardli is built for retention, not solicitation. Nora, our voice assistant, never takes payment details. If a donor expresses a wish to give, we record their intent and your team follows up personally.
Who is Nora, and how does she introduce herself?
Nora is Stewardli's voice assistant. On every call she identifies herself and the organization she is calling on behalf of, thanks the donor, confirms contact preferences, and can book a callback with your team. Every script is approved by you before it is used, and donors can opt out of any channel at any time.
What do we need to provide for the pilot?
A list of roughly 100 donors exported from your CRM or a spreadsheet, one 30-minute kickoff call to align on voice and goals, and a point of contact who approves messages and receives callback requests.
Which CRMs and tools do you work with?
Any of them. We start from a simple export, so Raiser's Edge, Salesforce, DonorPerfect, Keela, Bloomerang, or a spreadsheet all work. No integration project is needed to run a pilot.
Is this compliant with Canadian privacy and anti-spam rules?
Stewardli is built in Canada with CASL and Canadian privacy expectations in mind: consent-based contact, opt-out on every channel, preferences honoured immediately, and donor data used only for your organization's stewardship. Our privacy notice has the details.
What does the pilot cost?
Pilot terms are set on the intro call based on your donor list and the channels you want to use. There is no long-term contract. The goal of the pilot is to give you measurable evidence before you commit to anything larger.

Ready to keep more of the donors you worked so hard to earn?

Book a 30-minute call with our founder. We will look at your donor base together and map out what a 100-donor pilot would look like for you.

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