The Long Game: Rethinking Donor Stewardship as a Priority for Sustainable Philanthropy

Too often, donor stewardship is treated as an afterthought, a thank-you note, a plaque, a line item squeezed in after the “real” work of the ask is done. Dr. Halima Leak Francis argues the opposite, that stewardship is the strategy, not the epilogue to it. Drawing on more than two decades of experience across major gifts, annual funds, and philanthropy and higher education leadership, Dr. Leak Francis will unpack what it actually takes to build a stewardship practice that sustains giving over decades, not just fiscal quarters. The session will pay particular attention to stewardship practices that move donors from sporadic, transactional giving toward sustained, committed, and ultimately transformational investment. Informed by her research and work engaging donors across diverse communities, it will offer attendees a practical roadmap for moving stewardship from an afterthought to an organizational discipline.

We are honored to welcome Dr. Halima Leak Francis as our featured speaker. She is a nationally recognized educator, practitioner, and scholar with more than 20 years of experience strengthening organizational capacity and sustainability across nonprofits, philanthropy, and higher education. She joined Tulane University’s School of Professional Advancement in 2019 as founding Director and Professor of Practice of its Public Administration program. Under her leadership, the program was named in honor of the late U.S. Congressman John Lewis, reinforcing its role as a contemporary voice for advancing inclusive public service and transformative community leadership. Her teaching and research center on systems-level, multi-sector approaches to complex societal challenges facing nonprofits, philanthropy, and higher education.

Leak Francis holds a B.A. in English from Hampton University and an M.A. in Sociology of Education and Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from NYU Steinhardt. She holds the Carnegie Corporation of New York Professorship in Social Entrepreneurship at Tulane’s Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking and serves as a Tulane History Project co-chair, Foundation for Louisiana board member, and co-founder of HERitage Giving Fund. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., and lives in the New Orleans area with her family.