Why it matters
Affinity predicts whether someone will give, and capacity predicts how much they could. A volunteer who has served for six years, a parent whose child went through your program and a donor who has given every year for a decade all have high affinity, whatever their means.
Knowing what a donor cares about also tells you what to ask for. A donor who has always given to the scholarship fund will hear a scholarship ask far more readily than a general one. Note the programs each donor supports and the reasons they give.
How Steward shows it
A donor's Funds tab shows what they support: their gifts grouped by fund, restricted against unrestricted, with suggested asks. Their engagement score counts meetings, events, calls, replies and volunteer shifts, so closeness shows up alongside giving.
Related terms
- Capacity Capacity is an estimate of how much a donor could give if they chose to, usually over several years, based on their wealth and income rather than on what they have given so far.
- Engagement score Engagement score means a number that sums up how involved a person is with your organization, based on actions such as meetings, event attendance, volunteering, calls and email replies, with recent actions usually counting more.
- Cultivation Cultivation is the work of building a relationship with a donor or prospect before you ask for a gift: visits, tours, updates and conversations that deepen their interest in your mission.
The free Lost & Found audit reads a giving export in your browser and shows your lapsing donors and what they used to give. Nothing is uploaded. Then bring the same file to a 20-minute demo.