Recognizing Donors – A Lost Art

Indeed “A Lost Art.  Something that we all learned in fundraising school either by the classroom or through the school of experience is how important it is to recognize your donors.  An important part of any fundraising campaign is how you plan to recognize your donors at different giving levels, understanding that different things motivate different donors.  But for many organizations, they seem to have missed that day in school when it was being taught.

Why is it so important?  While not all donors are motivated by donor recognition opportunities, the fact is many are, even the ones that say they are not!  And, you need to be prepared to offer this valuable tool to inspire the sights of your donors who are motivated by public forms of recognition.  So, always begin by knowing your donor.

Public recognition inspires all donors from big to small and for all kinds of fundraising campaigns, not just capital ones.  Here are some ideas for creating donor recognition opportunities that will inspire your donors to set their sights higher.

There are several important guidelines one should consider first before actually coming up with the recognition opportunities.

First, it is important that you have several recognition opportunities available for your donors to select.

Second, the top-level gift should be larger than the largest gift projected during the fundraising campaign.  For example, if you need a top-level gift of $100,000, your named gift opportunity could be offered at $150,000.  Doing so will raise the sites of your donor.

Third, the cumulative values of the donor recognition opportunities should add up to significantly greater than the overall fundraising goal.  For example, if you have a $5 million campaign goal, you may have donor recognition opportunities that cumulatively add up to over $7 million.

Fourth, I prefer to have the donor recognition opportunity be two to three times the costs of construction, equipment, technology, furnishings, or overall costs of the project.  For example, if a “conference room” in your new headquarters is going to cost $200,000, you do not necessarily have to allocate a $200,000 named giving opportunity precisely, depending upon the “appeal” of the named gift opportunity, you may make this a $500,000 named gift opportunity.

Using these guidelines ideas, here is how you can establish your donor recognition opportunities step-by-step.  Invite key staff and volunteers to a donor recognition planning meeting and review your building plans or fundraising campaign case.

1. Brainstorm all possible named gift opportunity “places” or “things,” e.g., main lobby, flag pole, endowed department, scholarships, staff positions, etc. Think expansively and creatively, remembering that nothing is off-limits.
2. Write each possible naming opportunity on a sticky note and put them on the wall in random order.
3. Look at your campaign gift range chart and determine how many gifts are needed at each level to reach your goal.
4. Determine the “high status” gifts. These gifts are those that provide value for the opportunity and are not necessarily just based on gift size. For instance, a lobby or conference center will hold more “status” than say a kitchen or employee center located in the back of the facility hardly ever seen by the general public.
5. Take your sticky notes and match the top “high status” gift with a naming opportunity that is the largest on the list, etc.
6. Be sure to present these donor recognition plans to your board and campaign steering committee to ensure that they approve and agree with your assessments. Ensure that the board votes to approve this plan. This is very important!  Board support is essential.

There are other ways that you can recognize your donors too. For instance, you can recognize mid-level to lower-level donors in on honor roll engraved on a plaque, in print, or on your organization’s website or annual report.  You may also choose to create a donor wall in the main lobby of your organization or used the “old” gold brick wall or tiles outside in patio or entryway to your organization.  You should always recognize all of your donors at a post-campaign celebratory event once the fundraising is complete and you are moving forward with your project.

One thing that we must remember is that different reasons motivate different donors. Some donor motivations include:

• Participate in something worthwhile
• Become involved with something in which one believes
• Increase connection to something cared about
• Be a part of something positive
• Support shared beliefs, values, priorities
• Respond to a colleague’s request
• Gain access to a particular group of people
• Recognition of a successful effort
• Give back
• Make possible a cure or solve a problem
• Learn something
• Support the desired change
• Get a tax deduction

It is important, very important, that donor recognition policies are consistent with how you recognize your donors.  Everyone giving the same gift amount needs to be treated equally, regarding what his or her gift will afford in a named gift opportunity.  For example, you cannot offer a $100,000 donor the main lobby and then another $100,000 donor the staff break room located in an unseen location. While the same gift amount, one gift holds more appeal than the other.  This is an opportunity to develop policies to ensure donor recognition consistency.

Recognition is not hard or really time-consuming but it is something that many nonprofits seem to have forgotten and loosing donors in the process.  I learned a long time ago in my career that it was a lot easier getting a second, third, and fourth gift from the same donor than going out and finding new donors.  Recognition is just another tool to keep your donors informed, involved, and respected.  You don’t want to be the organization that your donors say the following:  “You know I never hear from this group unless they are asking for money”

Remember to say thank you to every one of your donors no matter how large or small the gift.  How do say thank you?

Within 48 hours:

Handwritten note on every letter

Salutation

Change letter text every few months

Phone call – begins and end your day

Invite for tour

Visit

The best thank you gifts cost little or nothing

Ask the donor how they want to be thanked

A thank you is a thank you, not another opportunity to ask

Well, now your organization is ready to begin asking for gifts, using different named gift opportunities as a way to motivate donors to step up their giving to your various fundraising campaigns.

Good luck,

The Huddleston Group is a full-service management, consulting and training firm specializing in philanthropy (i.e., campaign counsel, audits, feasibility studies, and creating a culture of philanthropy), opinion research (i.e., donor satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and marketing research), and organizational management (i.e., board transformation, strategic planning, and capacity building).

Visit us at www.thehuddlestongroup.com for free newsletters, a blog post, and videos.

Good Luck

Ron Huddleston, FAHP, CFRE
President