The Anatomy of a Donor

Relations System
Lynne Becker
American Red Cross

Annual Advancement Academy

 Introduction
• New standard in relationship building
• Revolutionizing the way we do business
• Redefining what ‘value added’ means
• Turning around the traditional thinking
about who works for whom
• New organization chart
 A New Conceptual Framework
Pub Coord Writer Market/g/Comm Coord

Events Coord Admin Asst Stewardship Coord

Program Coordinator Acknowledgment Writer

Figure 1
 A Prototype Donor Relations
Program
• Realignment occurs when the next project
comes on line
• Cross-functional teams
• Challenge to change our fundamental approach
and beliefs about how we do our jobs
• With heightened emphasis on relationship
building, DR is moving us toward the org
structure of the 21st century
• A new age for relationship building – the core of
the advancement enterprise
 Components and Characteristics
• Heightened emphasis on relationship
building and stewardship
• Combined with employee empowerment
and cross training
• Creates a dynamic, five-pointed star
program
• Some examples of activities in each of
these areas that logically come together
follow
 Acknowledgements
• Receipts (IRS compliant)
• Thank you’s (highly personalized)
 Stewardship
• Service laden communication with our donors and
friends
• Endowment performance reporting
• Tracking scholarship agreements, assignments and
thank you’s
• Holding recognition events for recipients, mentors, and
families with scholarship donors
• Linking to a prospect tracking system that talks about
stewardship components (cultivation, follow-up after
asks, next moves, population of data fields crucial to
the successful execution of the tracking program
 Stewardship cont.
• Database management for constituency
codes (affiliations of our donors with various
initiatives to raise funds, demonstrated
interests in various funds)
• Attendance codes at all events (visiting day
for advisory and volunteer committees,
special events for donor giving level
societies, donor conference calls)
• Donor recognition wall ceremonies and
upkeep
 Events
• Opportunities to keep donors connected through
recognition, education and entertainment
• Examples: $1m donor recognition receptions,
high donor receptions, friends of the discretionary
fund for the CEO events, gift planning donor
recognition events, giving level events, invitations
to attend cultural events and open houses,
governing board invitations and receptions,
young leaders, junior leaders, and major gift
events, volunteer events, luncheons and
receptions, ground breaking events
 Publications
• Communicating the messages about priorities and
providing recognition in colleges, schools,
programs, gift planning, alumni relations, and
central advancement collateral materials
• Other institutional magazines
• Advertisements in various commercial journals
and newspapers
• Radio and TV public service announcements
• Collaborative messages with other organizations
promoting the value of diversity, education, and
life-long learning, donating blood, volunteering,
giving back
 Marketing and Communications
Strategies
• Coordination throughout the institution about
our values, priorities, and messages for
philanthropic programs
• Creation of strategies for market research
• Product brand development
• Population of database fields with added
value information from various research
mechanisms
• Collaboration about themes and messages
via electronic media, especially Web pages
and push emails
 A Donor Relations Plan
• The heart of the matter – to enhance
relationships between the organization and the
donors, encouraging a lifetime commitment for
support
• Purpose of the plan is to recognize and engage
donors throughout their lives
• Responsive to annually changing needs of the
organization by creating tailored recognition for
donors who support endowment, scholarship,
capital needs, unrestricted funds, relief efforts
 Major Goals
• Comprehensive tracking across
organization of all activities
• Provide and coordinate organization-wide
donor recognition and stewardship
• Accomplished through events,
publications, special projects, and other
forms of recognition
• Giving society memberships, athletic
privileges, donor plaques, honorary walls,
premiums, Web pages
 Major Goals cont.
• Standardized and baseline donor
recognition and stewardship to all
• Systematic, annual recognition that
demonstrates how gifts are used
• Advantage of existing resources, such as
lectures and events, to provide a venue for
cost-effective recognition, donor-recipient
matches, and donor access to leadership
 Major Goals cont.
• Provide uninterrupted contact with donors
despite staff turnover
• Take advantage of special opportunities to
focus on particular groups of donors such
as specific cause-giving donors
• Create consistent message strategies
which encompass many, diverse
operations within the organization
• Provide a presence on the organization’s
Web page(s) in order to advance the
mission of donor relations
 Benefits
• Encouraging participation in private
voluntary support
• Contributes to the positive experience and
energy a donor feels
• Increases familiarity with the donor’s area
of interest
• Prepares donors and prospects to consider
giving to priorities
• Provides stewardship by providing donors
to meet recipients of their support
 Benefits cont.
• Supports key development strategies
• Supplements cultivation and solicitation
strategies undertaken by satellite entities
• Inspires increased giving over a lifetime
• Honors donors who make bequest and
other types of planned gifts
 Annual Recognition
• Several giving societies recognize annual
gifts above a certain level to any area
• Some members receive gifts such as
personalized ID cards, auto window
decals, reduced rates for parking and
library borrowing privileges
• A packet of materials and a letter signed
by advancement leadership
• An annual event is organized
 Revocable and Irrevocable Gift
Recognition
• Recognize individuals who have made
deferred gift commitments in the form of
bequests, life insurance, or trusts
• Tailored for the age group, gift level, and
giving interests events include annual
reception, individualized outreach efforts,
stewardship, and gift planning publications
such as a family of topical brochures
describing the many deferred giving
vehicles
• Choice between several gift memorabilia
 Major Gift Recognition
• Increase familiarity and deepen their
loyalty in their lifelong donor path
• Strategic attention to endowment,
unrestricted funds and ad hoc priorities
• Particular topics or fund-raising priorities
Highest Giving Society Recognition
• Individuals who have achieved a
cumulative giving level within a designated
amount of time
• Deferred gifts with a present value of this
cutoff amount
• Confirmed pledge of this amount
• Special gift in recognition of their support
• Value declared for tax purposes
Highest Giving Society Recognition
cont.
• Maintain and publish the definitive list of
these donors (living, deceased and
anonymous)
• Personal proclamations distributed by the
governing body
• Tailored events
 Strategic Stewardship
• Production and distribution of an annual
consolidated endowment fund unit report
and stewardship letter
• Directed toward current endowment
donors
• Financial management partners with a
report on the earnings of the particular
endowment with a detailed, growth
summary
 Publications and Marketing
• Coordination of the recognition and
stewardship publications
• Annual report
• Family brochures on gift planning
• Themed annual fund advertisement in
alumni magazine and other publications
• Other advancement publications
• Cost-effective ways to reach targeted
audiences
 Publications and Marketing cont.
• Coordinates marketing for advancement
• Alumni magazine
• Local business journals
• Alumni-targeted, annual giving newsletter
• Articles about the achievement of students
and faculty, heroes of the organization,
volunteer stories
 Events
• Plans and delivers regular and ad hoc events
• Giving society recognition receptions
• Unique events such as ground-breaking
ceremonies
• Artful execution of an event with timeline and
flawless execution
• Teamwork coordination paramount
• Cross training of team members
• Integration of tasks
• Project management knowledge requirements
 Other Forms of Recognition
• Naming a room, building, facility or
physical object
• Institution policy development
• Naming committee
• Board of Governors review
• Coordinating nomination and approval
process of donor walls and permanent
recognition devices
• Ensure organization-wide standards are
met
 How the Donor Recognition Plan
Works
• Why the proposed type of recognition?
• Is it permanent?
• Who will be honored?
• What wording with be used?
• When will it be installed and announced?
• Where is it installed?
• How will it be funded and maintained?
• Who is paying?
 How the Donor Recognition Plan
Works cont.
• Coordinating interaction between the
advancement office, facilities manager,
names committee, and donor relations
designated personnel
• Special forms of recognition include
engraved pens, personalized jackets,
framed institutional photographs,
calendars, special coffee table books
 Characteristics of Report Plan
• Gift processing and records management
generate and send receipts
• Keeping up-to-date the type of
communication shared with the donor
such as level of giving, society
membership, name of solicitor and
department, number of donors by
household, description of group of donors,
associated vehicle used for recognition
 Conclusion
• Comprehensive and exacting activity
• Dedicated staff
• Opportunity for revolutionary changes in
the way we do business
 The Five-Pointed Star Donor
Relations System
• Stewardship efforts
• Events management
• Publications
• Other forms of marketing and
communications
• Cross-trained employees working on
project teams
• Donor recognition events, publications,
other forms of recognition, market research
and product development
 The Five-Pointed Star Donor
Relations System cont.
• Marketing and communications strategies
for advancement are created in concert
with the organization’s integrated
marketing plan and communications goals
• Appropriate advisory committees are
appointed, convened and facilitated by
donor relations
 The Five-Pointed Star Donor
Relations System cont.
• Designing and implementing a donor
relations system of this nature is a stellar
opportunity to bring under one umbrella the
varied and extensive ways we
communicate with our donors
• Developing those life-long relationships, a
successful philanthropy program is so
dependent upon, donor relations becomes
the very essence of an effective
advancement plan
 Questions?
Thank you!

Lynne Becker
American Red Cross National Headquarters
ldbecker1@earthlink.net

Annual Advancement Academy