Finding #1 from the 2026 AwardSpring Donor Stewardship Benchmark: 46% of higher education foundations are running their entire stewardship operation on one full-time person or less.

That number, on its own, reads as a staffing observation. Put it next to the rest of the data, and it becomes a root-cause explanation for nearly everything else we found.

The capacity-quality connection is direct

When we asked 125 foundations to rate the quality of their own stewardship materials on a 1–5 scale, the average came back at 2.66. Fewer than 20% said they felt genuinely confident in what they were producing.

A single FTE managing dozens or hundreds of donor relationships — annual reports to produce, fund statuses to track, student letters to coordinate, compliance reviews to complete — cannot do all of it to a high standard. Something has to give. Usually it’s quality. And when quality slips, so does donor confidence. And when donor confidence slips, renewal rates follow. The 2.66 average isn’t a motivation problem. It’s a math problem that shows up in the materials.

The staffing breakdown by institution type

One of the more surprising findings: community colleges came in as the best-staffed for stewardship. Private foundations, despite their focus on donor relationships, frequently operate solo. Stewardship capacity doesn’t follow the prestige gradient we might expect.

The role perception gap

Advancement respondents rated their own stewardship materials at 2.38 out of 5. Donor Relations respondents rated the same work at 2.94. The people who depend on those materials for fundraising are significantly less satisfied than the people producing them.

What high-performing programs are doing differently

The foundations in our survey that outperformed on quality weren’t necessarily the best-staffed. They had systems that handled volume work — report templates, fund status alerts, structured workflows — so staff capacity went toward relationships that require a human touch. And they measured what they sent: not just whether the report went out, but whether the donor read it and responded. Foundations that track even basic engagement signals have something to improve against. Foundations that don’t have no feedback loop.

What the data means for the field

46% of programs running on one FTE or less isn’t a fact about those institutions. It’s a fact about the field. This is one of five findings from the 2026 AwardSpring Donor Stewardship Benchmark. The full report releases at NASFAA on June 29. Watch the on-demand webinar to get on the waitlist and receive the report the day it releases.

The 2026 AwardSpring Donor Stewardship Benchmark surveyed 125 active stewardship professionals across higher education foundations, colleges, and universities.