Learn about planning a donor recognition display with Helen Arnold, a veteran in consulting for non-profit organization planning and fundraising. From budgeting and placement, to donor display design ideas, Helen is a wealth of information. She shares her knowledge to help make your next donor recognition display more unique and meaningful.
Each donor recognition display should be designed and planned with the unique space and donor base in mind. As an example, learn about the process of the creation of the donor wall for the Boys and Girls Club and Child Resource and Referral of Rochester Minnesota.
Early discussions included space allocation and custom wall colors to confirm that donor recognition was not an afterthought, but a part of the building project. The result is a display that represents the client branding, greets visitor and honors the many donations. The 8 foot donor wall is a custom design to visually combine the goal of both places. In fact it is reflected in the amazing photos and changeable naming panels. With the bright, vibrant colors and happy children it is a visual reflection of the mission and vision of the new facility. Different giving levels are arranged by the size of the names on different panels. The panels can be changed in the Rail Wall, making it easy for donor panel updates and the addition of many new donations.
This wall created for the Boys and Girls Club of Rochester MN is one of countless options for the design of a donor recognition wall. As mentioned in the video, each display takes lots of planning. Make sure to think about the display fitting into your space, be sure that it will fit your budget, and don’t make the donor wall look like an afterthought. Donor displays are meant to help recognize those that have helped your community so deeply, and be a resource to help generate more donations. Do not rush the process, make sure it is done right.
Watch the video above to learn about how to plan a donor wall. Visit our YouTube channel to watch more of our project videos, or contact us today to discuss your own custom donor wall project.
The new donor display is the perfect solution for “The Place for Everyone” the Boys and Girls Club outreach center.
As part of the Boys and Girls Club and Child Resource and Referral of Rochester Minnesota. In celebration of the generous donors, Presentations designed and fabricated a special recognition donor display from Presentations exclusive Rail Wall. Meeting all the needs for the client to easily add new donors, vibrant and branded for the entrance of the new space.
Early discussions included space allocation and custom wall colors to confirm that donor recognition was not an afterthought, but a part of the building project. The result is a display that represents the client branding, greets visitor and honors the many donations. The 8 foot donor wall is a custom design to visually combine the goal of both places. In fact it is reflected in the amazing photos and changeable naming panels. With the bright, vibrant colors and happy children it is a visual reflection of the mission and vision of the new facility. Different giving levels are arranged by the size of the names on different panels. The panels can be changed in the Rail Wall, making it easy for donor panel updates and the addition of many new donations.
The Ark, a Jewish outreach center in Chicago, greets visitors with a digital donor wall for recognition. The staff at the center easily accesses the digital content through the Arreya Digital Signage software service and makes daily updates to events, schedules and their donor listings. The perfect solution to a combination donor wall that contains both updateable donor naming panels and an interactive digital donor wall. Located immediately inside the front door and next to the cafeteria, the new donor wall brightens the space and easily directs visitors to the ongoing activities of The Ark.
Presentations‘ custom design and fabrication brings together all the display requirements, including the digital signage software, Arreya. Which is developed by Presentations. The result is no outsourcing to third party vendors.
For optimum security and durability the commercial ELO touchscreen and the necessary hardware for the digital donor wall are enclosed in a custom surround. Removable for maintenance, but completely enclosed for security. Panels with donor names are on either side of the monitor with panels that are easily and cost effective to update. To complete the design aluminum trim was added to the sides and corners of each section for a clean and modern look.
For fun, a dimensional wordle was created in the shape of The Ark logo and attached to the front of the display. The completed project is a beautiful, durable donor display that greets visitors with daily events and celebrates the many, generous donors.
An interactive digital donor wall was the way to go when combining many different campaigns into one central donor display.With decades of donor participation and giving campaigns the original St. Luke’s Hospital marble donor wall became a challenge to update and was not relevant to the needs of today’s different types of donations. St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation wanted a donor wall that was easy to update and incorporated all of the different campaigns into one visual display.
To begin, a new location by an entrance was chosen to catch the attention of more visitors. Second, a custom Presentations design that incorporates all of the different campaigns and is easy to update, and allows for marketing information and more in depth donor stories. The final design is a spectacular 25 foot wall with 30000 color changing LED lights, full color prints that glow as the colors change, and a digital touchscreen.
The client can easily update the interactive digital donor wall digital signage through Arreya Digital Signage software created by Presentations through a secure administration login. Arreya allows for daily updates to the 55″ ELO touchscreen. Special events, promotions, scholarships and donor stories are a major part of the interactive display. Along with annual donor lists populated using List-eez widget in Arreya. List-eez automatically arranges large donor lists into columns and pages within the digital signage.
Seeing is believing, check out the online YouTube Video of the wall changing colors and the digital interactive signage. The St. Luke’s donor wall and Presentations are featured in the June 2012 issue of Healthcare AV Magazine.
The custom donor tree is a special rendition on the traditional donor trees of past. No brass plates, but bright acrylic leaves each with a donor name fly across the custom wallpaper print. Our challenge was to create a donor recognition wall to fit the design of this new building and to showcase the church’s message.
Choosing the location for the donor wall was easy – a large front wall just as you enter the church with great lighting from the windows. Because the church has a new modern feel and very open floor design we didn’t want to just showcase traditional catholic symbolism on this donor wall. So we researched Pope John XXIII, who he was and what he did. The spark to our design for this donor wall came from his quote “throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through”. So our concept was to use this quote and to create a sense of the spirit blowing into the church – a perfect message allowing for multiple interpretations and a great tie into John XXIII Catholic Church.
With all the while walls in the church the donor wall needed to have some contrast, so we brought the outside in. We designed a custom background of a fresh blue sky with wispy clouds and printed this to wall paper and installed it over the entire wall. We chose the leaf as the shape for the recognition name plates since it is the natural object to blow in the wind and it’s a common donor recognition symbol. The custom acrylic cut leaves were whimsically arranged to show the motion of wind, as if the fresh air of the Spirit was blowing in. The fall colors complement the blue sky and bring some warmth into the white space. Each leaf is individually applied to the wall paper. A legend was included to identify the three campaigns by the leaf color. The structure of the content was that two campaigns were already complete but the building campaign would continue for years to come. The design included 900 leaves and initially only 300 named. This donor recognition wall is routinely updated by adding names to the leaves that were intentionally left blank.
Now when entering John XXII Catholic Church the donor wall is an impactful first impression and while it grabs attention it also celebrates involvement and it really gives people the feeling that they donated to something special.
Early discussions included space allocation and custom wall colors to confirm that donor recognition was not an afterthought, but a part of the building project. The result is a display that represents the client branding, greets visitor and honors the many donations. The 8 foot donor wall is a custom design to visually combine the goal of both places. In fact it is reflected in the amazing photos and changeable naming panels. With the bright, vibrant colors and happy children it is a visual reflection of the mission and vision of the new facility. Different giving levels are arranged by the size of the names on different panels. The panels can be changed in the Rail Wall, making it easy for donor panel updates and the addition of many new donations.
Because the church has a new modern feel and very open floor design we didn’t want to just showcase traditional catholic symbolism on this donor wall. So we researched Pope John XXIII, who he was and
what he did. The spark to our design for this donor wall came from his quote “throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through”. So our concept was to use this quote and to create a sense of the spirit blowing into the church – a perfect message allowing for multiple interpretations and a great tie into John XXIII Catholic Church.