If you are in the midst of planning a fundraising campaign and are looking for a way to honor generous donors, a donor recognition display shows donors your appreciation and serves as an incentive for future donors to contribute.
Recognition displays can incorporate a variety of styles, materials, and interactive elements and often serve as a major aesthetic feature of a building’s lobby area or main hallway. Since there is much more to think about than the donor names to include, we compiled a list of questions to help you start the brainstorming process.
Here are 11 questions to ask when creating initial plans for your donor recognition display:
1. What is the title for the overall display? Donor recognition displays often include the organization’s logo and mission statement as well.
2. Will there be multiple levels of donors? If so, what is your breakdown for each contribution level? Options include stating the values of donations or making categories such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze. You may also want to consider a minimum cutoff for including donors to contain the size of the display.
3. How many donors would you like to initially recognize? This helps designers plan how much space to include for each donor.
4. Will you be updating the display with additional donors in the future? If so, how frequently do you plan on making updates? The answer, which can be anything from several times a year to once every 5 years, may affect how the display is built. Many organizations we work with have an Annual Appeal. We update their displays each year to coincide with their campaign.
5. Would you like names of donors (or organizations) listed in a certain order? Options include ordering names by amount donated, date donation was made, alphabetical listing, or a random order. Certain options, like alphabetical order, may require replacing all donor panels in the future to add a name.
6. What type of information will be included about each donor? Some donor recognition displays only have names of individuals and organization logos, while others include photos and biographies.
7. Are there any materials that should be used to match the existing environment? Each of our donor recognition displays is custom designed and built to enhance your environment. Our consultants and designers often make site visits to ensure they are familiar with the area that will surround the display.
8. How much space do you have for the display? This question will also help determine where the display will be located.
9. Would you like to include a brochure holder or other type of literature? Features like these can be built into the structure of the display.
10. Do you want to include any interactive elements? This could be any number of multimedia presentations on plasma displays, touch-screen kiosks, or LCD screens. Multimedia presentations can include stories about donors, with statements about why they contribute to your organization.
11. What is the budget for your donor recognition display? Since donor recognition displays greatly vary in style, size, materials, and features it is important to start with at least a ballpark number. If a budget has not been set, decide on a “do not exceed” cost to start.