Art for the People

Using Philanthrosphere®, Heurista worked with the fresco planning committee to provide a a virtual tour with media rich stories, multiple displays, and interconnected content. Now anyone can explore the fresco themes, models, artists, and donors in context with the larger Haywood congregation mission and ministry. The presentation is available online and is presented in the welcome center, providing interpretation for visitors. In addition to explaining the fresco, the portal provides recognition for those who have provided support for the project and encourages additional giving. The platform will grow with the project, serving as an archive of the design, creation, and evolution of the Haywood Street Fresco.

Digital Donor Recognition, StorytellingAnne Manner-McLartyApril 19, 2022philanthrosphere, digital donor wallComment

Digital Storytelling Platform Gives Hospital Foundation New Donor Communication Tools

Phoebe Health is familiar with the creative donor recognition displays and tailored philanthropic placemaking experiences Heurista provides. Through various iterations, we’ve been working with the Phoebe Foundation since 1996 and have had the joy of working on several Phoebe campuses. New leadership, a growing service area, and the need to engage audiences remotely during the pandemic paved the way for an experiment – truly virtual donor recognition.

Digital Donor Recognition: 6 Considerations Before Going Digital

Nonprofits must engage and inspire their audiences through virtual technology, too. Virtual experiences are the go-to solution for sustaining the philanthropic relationships that nonprofits rely on to meet their missions. Technology is more than a response to this emergency. It should be seen as an opportunity to put new tools to use, to innovate and disrupt our traditional, event, and facility-based habits. Technology is reducing traditional engagement participation barriers, providing efficiencies and cost-savings, and generating new, distinctly 21st century methods for building a culture of philanthropy.

Interconnected Digital Storytelling Launched at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library

Philanthrosphere®, Heurista’s online platform for interconnected storytelling, was recently launched at the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library. Awarded Library of the Year in 2016, the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library serves as a bustling community hub. The library has a long, rich history in the area and features a 100,000 square-foot addition designed by architect Michael Graves.

Challenges and Advantages for Digital Donor Recognition

There are benefits and compromises inherent in the decision to use a screen to present donor recognition. A traditional donor wall allows a passive viewer to understand a considerable amount of information about the relationship between an organization and its donors without reading a single name. One can glean an idea of the number of donors from the size of the list. If a hierarchy of plaque sizes or categories is part of the display, those details let the viewer know that people give different amounts. The location of the display, the environment surrounding it, and the materials used to build it all help indicate the value the organization places on its donor. The best donor walls motivate the viewer to consider giving and explain how to make a gift.

10 Top Considerations for Digital Donor Recognition

Here are the ten questions I ask in the process of investigating the appropriateness of digital donor recognition. Some relate to clarifying your needs, some to readiness and sustainability and some to design. Don't get me wrong, if enough of the answers point to the use of digital donor recognition, I'm game!

YMCA WNC Philanthropy Centers

Heurista was engaged to conduct a top-down review of stewardship practices at the YMCA of Western North Carolina, draft stewardship guidelines and design a comprehensive set of donor recognition products. The resulting program includes brand compliant signs for naming opportunity recognition and electronic “philanthropy centers” that provide versatility for the evolving Y giving programs.

Centralized Donor Recognition Display

The University of South Carolina and Greenville Health System are in campaign to raise funds, primarily around scholarships, for the medical school. This partnership has posed many questions about donor stewardship. Both USC and GHS have long-standing donor recognition standards, but both were willing to make concessions for this unique entity.