Elizabeth Gray
Philanthropy and Campaign Officer, Tri Sigma Foundation
My recent ADRP webinar titled Exploring the Power Dynamics Between Donors and Scholarship Recipients emerged from a critical question we rarely ask in donor relations: What do scholarship recipients actually experience when we facilitate donor connections? Fellow donor relations professionals learned of research that directly supports ADRP's mission by challenging us to expand our definition of relationship management beyond the donor-organization dynamic to include the often-overlooked voices of recipients themselves.
Through interviews with 10 University of West Florida scholarship recipients, I discovered something both reassuring and actionable: students don't feel tokenized by donor interactions — they actively want these connections and see them as mutually beneficial.
The key takeaway? When we apply Relationship Management Theory to the donor-recipient relationship with the same intentionality as we do to donor stewardship, we create authentic engagement that benefits everyone involved. Attendees gained practical strategies for reimagining traditional scholarship events, implementing recipient biography forms, and building communication frameworks that meet students where they are rather than putting them in uncomfortable formal settings.
What made this session unique was centering student voices in a field that typically prioritizes donor preferences. By sharing direct quotes and demographic diversity from my research participants, I offered concrete evidence that our recipients are sophisticated stakeholders who deserve thoughtful relationship design.
Attendee feedback revealed hunger for this recipient-centered approach. This research opens the door for future studies examining donor expectations and communication preferences — creating a complete picture of how we can build transformative relationships across the philanthropic cycle.
Watch the Webinar
Please Note: Access to past webinar materials is only available to
ADRP Members and Webinar Attendees.
