Paying Homage With Plaques

Charities find that donors are willing to give more for the opportunity to honor someone else

Not long after the Sciencenter, in Ithaca, N.Y., completed a $5.6-million capital campaign, Carl A. Batt, a food-science professor at Cornell University, stopped by one of the museum’s new permanent displays, a series of plaques honoring famous scientists and other researchers. During the campaign, Mr. Batt was one of nearly 100 donors who gave at least $3,000 for a plaque commemorating a major contributor to science.

Mr. Batt had chosen to honor Maria Montessori, the Italian physician and educator, with his plaque, but as he visited the exhibition he wondered whether anybody had paid tribute to Thomas Eisner, a world-renowned entomologist at Cornell and pioneer in the study of insects and biochemistry. As he scanned the names and pictures of illustrious scientists — many of whom have been dead for years, if not centuries — Mr. Batt saw that Mr. Eisner, now 75, wasn’t among them.

“A man of Tom Eisner’s stature should be there. He’s not some Greek guy who’s been dead for 800 years,” Mr. Batt says.

To get excited about science, he adds, youngsters need living scientists to inspire them, so Mr. Batt gave an additional $3,000 to the Sciencenter for a plaque calling attention to Mr. Eisner.

Many charities offer their most-generous donors opportunities to pay public homage to the people they admire, but the Sciencenter and a few other groups that have experimented with the idea have found that it can also be a low-cost way to get donors of small and mid-size gifts to make more substantial contributions.

At the Sciencenter, the opportunity to honor scientists was especially popular among people who pay $100 annually to become a member of the museum and people who had never previously made a gift.

“When they found out they could honor someone else, all of a sudden the $3,000 minimum was not a problem,” says Charlie Trautmann, the Sciencenter’s executive director. “This was raising people’s sights and making them feel good about increasing their giving.”

Mr. Batt is not the only donor who has decided to make a gift for a plaque even after the formal campaign seeking such gifts ended two years ago. The plaque display has inspired 11 more donations from people like him, and three additional ones are in the works.

Ambivalence About Publicity

While many donors — especially those who don’t make gigantic gifts — welcome opportunities to see their own names publicized on buildings they have helped support, other people “are often ambivalent about having their names permanently and publicly displayed simply for giving a certain amount,” says Andrea Kihlstedt, a Lancaster, Pa., fund-raising consultant who worked with the Sciencenter to develop the solicitations for the plaques.

The YMCA of Greater Seattle was able to entice donors of small sums to give much bigger gifts in part by offering them an opportunity to create a plaque to honor their role models.

With the help of Recognition Resources, a Sarasota, Fla., company, the Y came up with the idea as it tried to figure out how to persuade people who had given $25 or $50 to its annual fund to make donations that would help the organization improve its youth programs.

The Y realized it had to find a way to remind donors of what helped them grow into successful adults. Fund raisers made the link by offering people who agreed to provide at least $10,000 over four years an opportunity to place a plaque with the name of their role model on a Wall of Fame; donors could also let a child pick an adult to honor instead. Some of the plaques honoring the role models are accompanied by a picture, along with a brief description of their impact written by the person who selected him or her.

The campaign, which ended in 2000, raised $1.1-million from 45 donors who gave money to honor role models. Because the effort did so well, the Y continues to offer donors an opportunity to add to the Wall of Fame, and now raises more than $100,000 annually from donors who choose role models or ask a child to do so.

Like the YMCA and the Sciencenter, other charities have found that people want an opportunity to honor people with a plaque long after an official campaign ends.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, in Strasburg, offered small brass plaques to donors who gave $100 or more in a $500,000 campaign to expand its building. The plaques, which allow donors to honor a railroad worker who is a friend or relative, are engraved with the worker’s name, title, dates of service, and the railroad he or she worked on, and they are displayed in a “Railroader’s Hall” at the museum.

The building campaign ended in 1995, but the plaques, which cost the museum less than $10 apiece, have doubled in number since then, to 1,700. People who visit the museum often want to make a gift so they can get a plaque; in addition, the museum’s Web site also attracts people who want to buy plaques. Because the building project has been completed, the museum recently started putting money raised from the plaques into its endowment.

Quotes From Plays

Some charities offer donors a way to call attention to ideas or quotes related to their missions, instead of offering plaques that honor particular people.

At the Arden Theatre Company, in Philadelphia, a decorative ceramic tile wall featuring memorable quotes selected by donors from among plays in the theater’s repertory has become an educational tool for some 25,000 youngsters who attend children’s plays at the theater each year.

“It’s the first thing they gravitate to; they go up and touch it and read the quotes,” says Caitlin Wood, the theater’s development director.

At the Railroad Museum, the plaques also play an instructional role, says the museum’s advancement director, Deborah Reddig. The railroad workers’ names, she says, “help educate people about the human dimension of railroading. Many visitors are caught up in how big the locomotives are; they forget the human angle.”

While some groups can quickly identify types of people that donors might want to honor with a plaque, other groups, especially those involved in wide-ranging activities, have found it hard to do so.

Hudson Guild, a New York settlement house that provides social services, has been looking for a way to encourage donors to support its $11-million capital campaign and has considered offering them plaques or similar tributes commemorating people who symbolize the nonprofit organization’s good works.

But the charity is having trouble setting limits on who should be honored.

“Would the people be connected to settlement houses or social services in general? Would we limit it to people who have made a difference on public-policy issues we care about, or just let donors pick anyone who’s a hero?” asks Janice McGuire, Hudson Guild’s executive director. “These are hard questions.”

Fund raisers also say that charities can get sidetracked when donors want to honor someone who doesn’t fit the theme of a recognition display or is otherwise inappropriate.

Another potential problem for some groups with limited budgets is how to design a display of the plaques. Such displays are particularly important if the goal is to inspire people to keep giving after a campaign is over.

One big reason the Sciencenter plaques continue to attract gifts is the visual appeal of the exhibit, which was designed by the architect who expanded the facility with money raised in the museum’s capital drive. The room with the scientist plaques, which cost about $100 each to produce and mount, was literally designed around the artwork. Except for the windows, all the walls are covered floor to ceiling with built-in frames that hold the 30-inch-square plaques.

“We rotate them every six months, partly because some are too high to read,” says Mr. Trautmann. “By moving them around, people are always seeing something different.” The room is used for parties and other special events at the museum.

In Seattle, the Y keeps its display fresh by periodically changing which role models on its wall are highlighted by stories.

Building Relationships

Fund raisers say such plaques do more than just give donors a reason to make a gift. They can also be used to cement relationships with donors and to reach out to potential supporters.

At the Sciencenter, one donor honored Bill Gordon, who is considered the father of the world’s largest radiotelescope. The center notified the scientist about the plaque and invited him to come see it. That invitation led to a presentation by the scientist and his colleagues, followed by a reception for members and donors. Other events have also been held to honor scientists who have been paid tribute by donors.

Ms. Kihlstedt, consultant to the organization, says the reason that honoring others can be so powerful is that “it does a lot more than say, ‘Thanks for your money.’”