Celebrating donors is a practice nearly as old as recorded
history. Traditional ways of identifying people in public, like carving names
into stone, wood, metal, etc., have stayed mostly the same for hundreds of
years. The digital age has given us better and more interesting ways to show
donors how much you appreciate the money they've given.
This article talks about the best ways to thank donors, as
well as different ideas for digital donor walls
of different sizes and some helpful ways to get new donors and encourage
recurring donations.
Success Stories
Putting your foundation's impact on display is a terrific
approach to proving its worth. If you want donors to fully understand how their
support is making a difference, you need to tell them the stories of how their
donations have had an effect. By getting the word out about the results, you
can better take care of your current supporters and bring in new ones.
Campaign Updates
Your fundraising pitch's backstory is a key component.
People who are thinking about giving a large contribution need to know what it
is, what it will help accomplish, and how it will be accomplished. Donors may
be engaged, and your cause can be validated using interactive or
non-interactive campaign updates and movies on digital signage. Creating a
narrative about your campaign is a great way to share the background and plans
for your initiative with supporters and potential donors.
Catalogs of Donors
Be sure to highlight your contributors in a manner that gets
people talking about how much you value their support. Donor names will stand
out against the bright, engaging backdrop of digital signs, which can also be
easily updated.
To encourage potential contributors to contribute at a given
level or to simply acknowledge and publicly appreciate current supporters,
establish breakpoints to distinguish distinct contribution tiers, such as
Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Donor Recognition Display Choices
You need to thank your donors in a manner that makes them
feel like they've made a significant contribution to your cause. The donor must
see that his or her gift is being put to good use. After all, donors deserve an
explanation for what happened to their money.
It's also important to choose carefully how you show your
gratitude, whether it's through traditional metal memorial plaques, mosaic tile
donor walls, or digital donor walls.
Campaign thermometers, live streams of donations, showing
donors' names, and telling interactive or non-interactive stories about donors
and/or the campaign are all ways you can use digital technology to show your
gratitude to people who have already donated and to get people who might not
have before to do so.
Digital Donor Plaque
Traditional donor plaques are fine, but they lack energy. If
you can modify your donor plaques, you can personalize them for the holidays,
design unique decorations for a donor's birthday, add or delete names, include
a video tribute, and much more.
Traditionally, memorial plaques made of metal have been used
to express gratitude via the visual arts. These pieces of art might be stunning
to look at, but they are not well-considered. In modern times, it's important
to have donor plaques that do more than merely list names.
Digital Donor Recognition Board
The whole donor board's display may be converted to digital
using only one LCD. Display campaign thermometers and contributor lists, and
present interactive or non-interactive tales about the effect of your campaign using
any and all of the tools at your disposal. It's like electronic donor plaques,
except bigger, and naturally, more information can be shown on a bigger screen.
Digital Donor Recognition Wall
One of the most impressive ways to show gratitude to contributors
is with a Digital Donor Wall, especially if
you go for the "larger is better" approach. In terms of design, a
donor wall offers a wide range of options.
A digital screen, or a series of displays, may serve as the
focal point of a donor wall or serve to augment and enrich an already existing
wall. The photo plaques or metal memorial plaques you currently have may stay
there, and the digital signs will provide a whole new level of engagement and
interest to the display.
There are a wide variety of options for donor walls, but
making the most of your fundraising and donor appreciation efforts requires
harnessing the power of modern technology.
