March 2014 | Custom Donor Walls & Donor Recognition Walls

10 Donor Wall Project Planning Tips

1. Plan Early

The time to think about donor recognition isn’t when you’re planning the celebration party. Include a recognition wall display cost in your total fundraising effort and be sure to integrate the design into your architectural and signage program.

2. Don’t make promises you can’t keep

In the throes of raising funds, different promises are often made to different people – some impossible to keep. Begin by setting guidelines on how gifts will be recognized on the donor wall.

3. Head off anomalies, but design for variables

Hospitals, churches and care facilities often receive “in loving memory of” gifts. To control the variability of these listings, provide criteria for how such gifts can be stated on the recognition display. At the same time, plan typography for the longest and shortest naming scenarios.

4. Decide between a finite campaign or living donor wall

Designers need to know the maximum number of donor names that will likely appear before beginning concept development. If the wall is for a single capital campaign, set a ﬁrm deadline for inclusion, so names can be alphabetized and placed into donation categories. Design living walls to remain aesthetically pleasing at any stage and be sure to place them in locations that will allow for growth.

5. Allocate a percentage of the budget

Set aside a percentage of the total building budget for the donor wall construction. Avoid the appearance of overspending, but keep in mind that attractive walls make donors feel appreciated and encourage others to give in the future.

6. Complement the architecture

Even when a donor wall is treated as stand-alone art, designers need to work closely with the architect, lighting engineer and signage designers. The ﬁnished piece should feel integral to the environment and complement the proportions, materials, ﬁnishes and colors of the space.

7. Maintain type consistency

Don’t try to list names in type sizes equivalent to the size of the donations. Color-coding is a common way of protecting typographic consistency.

8. Consider future fabrication

Make sure that materials and craftsmanship are available and can be matched ﬁve, 10, 15 years hence.

9. Consider daily upkeep of the donor wall

Take weather resistance, vandalism and maintenance into account before approving the design and location.

10. Proofread, then proofread again.

Imagine etching 1000 names on a single sheet of glass and ﬁnding a typo that will remain into perpetuity. Check with donors about unusual name spellings, then assign several people to proofread at every stage of the process.

Creating Digital Donor Wall Content

Congratulations! You made the decision to enter the world of digital signage. You purchased the necessary hardware and got it installed. You plug it in, turn it on and nothing…where is the content? Unlike television, digital signage doesn’t come with preprogrammed channels full of content, this needs to be designed and then formatted to work with your hardware and updated frequently.

The first step to creating engaging content is to focus on two questions:

What do you want it to do?

Who is your audience?

The second step is to hire a graphic designer that has experience creating digital content templates in the correct formats. The templates will give you the layout of your pages and the flow of your information, including the correct placement of interactive buttons and widgets to meet ADA requirements all with branding that identifies with your organization and your audience. Once you have these original templates you can make changes to different areas of the templates.

Some of the digital signage media players come with editors, ready to create your own content, and are based on their own proprietary software. The editors are varied and the learning curve can be more than you are willing to tackle. Because of our own experience with third party players, we have created ARREYA, a digital signage software complete with user-friendly editor that doesn’t rely on hardware and is completely cloud-based. Whatever you decide, do your research and pick one that allows you to create the content you want and is easy for the people that will be doing the updates.

You can buy the most expensive hardware, but without engaging and well-designed content, you just wasted your money.

For more information about ARREYA Digital Signage Suite or to try the FREE trial, go to www.ARREYA.com or call 319-294-6671