Girl Scouts of the Gulf Coast Engraved Corian Main Display by RecognitionArt

With origins in the early 20th century, a donor recognition wall (also known as a donor wall or donor display) is typically a wall-mounted display found in a centralized location of a hospital, university, museum, library, worship facility, or other

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

institution. It consists of a listing of names of persons or companies that contributed funds to a capital campaign or other major

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

effort of the organization. The fundamental purposes of a donor recognition wall are to honor the major financial contributors of an organization, and to serve as an incentive for potential donors to contribute. Traditionally, donor recognition walls consisted of header (title) lettering with the names of benefactors listed below on engraved

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wi ...

panels or plaques. Today, however, donor recognition walls can incorporate a variety of styles, materials, artistic media and interactive multimedia presentations that appear on plasma displays, touch-screen kiosks and LCD screens. Often in

contemporary architecture Contemporary architecture is the architecture of the 21st century. No single style is dominant. Contemporary architects work in several different styles, from postmodernism, high-tech architecture and new interpretations of traditional architec ...

, a donor recognition wall will constitute a major

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

feature of a building's lobby area or main hallway. It will frequently incorporate a prominent display of the organization's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wo ...

and

mission statement A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operatio ...

. Many institutions consider a “donor wall” or some kind of comprehensive recognition piece to be the period at the end of the campaign sentence.

References

{{Reflist Donation Philanthropy

See also

References