Creating and stewarding relationships of various types with a diverse group of stakeholders is a complex endeavor but a balanced strategy of relationship building with three different types of supporters will pay off in a sustainable contributed revenue base.

The core/annual supporters are primarily individual donors who have a deep connection with the work, the organization’s mission, beliefs, and values and the leadership. They regularly support the work of the organization, even without details around specific productions or projects because they believe in the vision and the leadership. Because of their loyalty and relatively low-maintenance, an organization sometimes neglects these core supporters while ‘fishing’ for a bigger bang elsewhere (events, sponsorships, grants). It is however, critical to a healthy resource balance to maintain these relationships as the organization’s first priority.

Project/program supporters are individuals and institutions who respond to particular appeals or fund specific projects. These funders (primarily foundations but also government and some issue-based philanthropists) are focused on outcomes and may connect with parts of the organizational mission or activities but need details in order to commit. Securing support from these funders requires considerably more effort in preparing grant applications and reports and gathering and analyzing impact data.  These relationships and the support they provide is an important part of the mix for most arts entities because they generally deliver concentrated funding for projects and initiatives and because the support of many of these institutions and individuals acts as leverage for building relationships and securing support from others.

Transactional/reciprocal supporters, are individuals and institutions for whom the funding relationship is not related to a connection with the work or mission but rather is focused around some kind of transaction (the supporter buys a ticket to a attend an event, the sponsor gets promotional opportunities, the capital donor gets a name on a building). This kind of fundraising requires a considerable investment of time and resources as something is always expected in exchange for the funds received. In spite of the amount of work required to steward them and the low level of loyalty these supporters represent a resource that could not be secured through other earned or contributed revenue streams and they can be engaged more quickly since no in-depth relationship is built with them over time.