Non-Traditional Donor Recognition Outlets

December 8th, 2009

Monday I had the good fortune to participate in a session at the Association of Donor Relations Professionals annual conference in Baltimore.  I sat on a panel discussing “tricks from the experts”.  My portion of the presentation focused on ways to recognize donors beyond traditional plaques and printed lists.  Specifically, we considered avenues available to those who either have no physical space for traditional donor recognition or are interested in exploring new methods for engaging donors and potential donors alike. Continue reading »

Nonprofits: Link your Thanks to your Brand

October 19th, 2009

Communicate with your public that philanthropy is a core value to your organization. It is imperative to do so in today’s competitive fundraising environment. Link those branding messages through the use of traditional marketing approaches of content continuity and unity when you thank. Continue reading »

The Future: Online Donor Recognition

September 17th, 2009

There is a shift in modern philanthropy away from foundation giving toward a new philanthropic model that includes highly organized means for a much larger number of individual donors to participate in the growing global philanthropy industry.  What should donor recognition be when there is no opportunity to gather the donors in one place, when there are no walls for plaques and when the individual gifts are smaller but the impact of the giving is huge? Why is it so important that we find new ways to achieve meaningful donor recognition online?

Fundraisers today are challenged with shifting the delivery method for donor recognition and telling a more complicated, larger story. Continue reading »

Electronic Media and Donor Recognition: Is Anyone Using it?

July 28th, 2009

It’s a very competitive philanthropic marketplace these days for community hospitals. I was reminded of this last week while at the Georgia Association of Development Professionals’ conference (GADP), a segment of the Georgia Hospital Association.  Most of their members are located in small communities and represent the primary health provider for their county or region. I live in Atlanta. Fundraising events and success here in this city are now daily news items. We are home to 100s of non-profits and maybe more Foundations. Not so, currently, in the rest of the state. In those small communities, medical center fundraisers face tremendous challenges even when the economy is more stable than it is today. CEOs enjoy the income that their Foundations provide, yet they often offer little in the way of day-to-day support or, in many cases, any real understanding of the CEO’s role in acquiring and stewarding donors. Many of these organizations are considered “small shops” and the titles bestowed on  many of the chief fundraisers by the CEO and/or Boards, i.e. Development Officer, Development Coordinator, and the like, are less than confidence-building and may be counter-productive, as they strive to solicit corporate CEOs, Marketing VPs, major Foundations and major donors. I wonder if they know that.

Continue reading »