Renovations & Donor Recognition Plaque/Wall Dilemma

Janet Laroche

Our organization is in the process of renovating an area where several donor recognition plaques (floor standing plaques) are located. When the renovation is complete, there will not be room for them to be kept in this area. Has anyone had experience with this dilemma? Are there best practices available for recognition plaque etiquette? Thank you in advance for any insight that can be shared.

JoAnn Strommen

@Janet Laroche laughing a bit because this topic came up in a discussion yesterday regarding my former org.

At one point, we had a hallway full of plaques and an very nice glass display case with ceramic tiles naming heritage club members. When they did some changes to walls/foyer all came down. My task was to make sure all the names (as listed on the plaques) were recorded on records in RE (many plaques predated us using RE). Plan was that all these donor lists would be published on the website. Really nice idea, so I went thru hundreds and hundreds of names and created lists in RE. But, unfortunately the lists were never added to the website.

That was the plan to recognize all these great, generous, wonderful donors. I think it is a good substitute when carried through and physical display is not an option.

Janet Laroche

@JoAnn Strommen thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Sounds like you had a huge task to complete, wow! Placing the names on the website sounds like a nice alternative if we cannot come up with a solution for the plaques. Thanks again for the insight and the idea.

Barbara Kunkel

@Janet Laroche - our old plaques came back to our department at my former organization, and we placed them in a closet and eventually threw them out. No one wanted the old plaques, and what do you do with them?

Faith Murray

@Janet Laroche website is a great option. I also knew another nonprofit that had a digital projection display that scrolled through plaque names. Because the projector could scroll through lists, it allowed a huge number of names to be displayed on a very small wall area. Some nonprofits use miniature display kiosks as well, if they have a guest/visitor entryway.

In terms of “donor etiquette”, I remember reading a wonderful article on major donor recognition dealing with something similar. Some donors had buildings or rooms named after them, but then decades later the buildings needed renovated or torn down. The nonprofits needed to be able to solicit new major donors for their new campaign costs but couldn't rename the building. The consensus was that 20 years is about the length of time a plaque or building name should reasonably be maintained, and the article even recommended including that “escape clause” time limitation on any donor proposals or contracts that mention recognition rights.

Janet Laroche

@Faith Murray I'll share this information with others involved. Thanks for sharing. I really appreciate it.

Janet Laroche

@Barbara Kunkel yes, we currently have a storage area where old plaques are kept, and I think we'll be adding to it with this new renovation. It's a dilemma for sure.