Your Donor Wall is Full…Congratulations! What’s next?
Are you left with buyer’s remorse with your donor display as it presently may not meet your donor recognition needs? You’re not alone! Sometimes, it isn’t easy to foresee or estimate how many donors you will need to recognize, and you can run out of room. Maybe your logo has changed, and your former logo is currently front and center of your title piece! You may feel your display has lost its luster and you want a new look, or your facility has revamped its interior and your display no longer fits the bill. No matter the reason for needing an update – it’s all possible to do with a little ingenuity!
There are many reasons to update your existing display:
You’ve run out of room (congratulations – this is the best problem!)
Your logo has been updated
You want to add an additional campaign to an existing display
Just wanting a facelift on a display
It’s difficult to update names, and you want a more user-friendly option
Let’s examine each of these updating needs to see what can be done to make your old display relevant again.
YOU’VE RUN OUT OF ROOM FOR NAMEPLATES
Again, this is a great problem but still overwhelming when you’re only a few years into investing in a new cumulative display, and now it won’t hold all your donors or people you want to recognize. Don’t panic – you can get more space in the existing footprint, or you can always extend out to the sides or bottom of your display to get more real estate to showcase your donor names.
Let’s talk about revamping within the existing footprint as some displays already take up most of your wall. Suppose your display is made up of movable nameplates. In that case, you may be able to simply waterfall them into space used by another category just by adding another category plate to separate the two groups of names. Or what Partners In Recognition (PIR) will typically do is change the “system” you’re currently using and use one that will allow for more names. So, let’s say you have individual nameplates on a magnetic back (our Magtech system) – simply remove the nameplates and apply a sub-base with a system like our Clear Change system. Clear Change is a cost-effective system that allows for adjusting your point sizes of names to fit into your existing display pockets – the beauty of this transformation…you don’t even need to ship your display back to make the swap!
Okay, so you’d rather not change systems, and you have some extra wall space available – no problem, PIR can design for additional names in your wall space. Even if your display has movement (not rectangles), we can add panels that look like they were shipped with the original display!
Or if your display design is modular—again, no problem; we’ll add sections that look like they’ve been there all along!
YOUR CORPORATE LOGO HAS CHANGED
At PIR, we’ve seen a lot of client logo changes over the years and many times we build our displays with the ability to easily change out the logo by putting it on a piece of acrylic or glass held on by standoffs – then you’re able to change out your logo easily. If your display has a permanently etched logo – it’s still possible to change it by seamlessly incorporating another panel over the existing logo. We’ve even incorporated another campaign logo into a display and overhauled the naming area to accommodate the new logo and nameplates as we did on the proposal for the Austin Peay display below.
YOU WANT TO ADD ADDITIONAL CAMPAIGNS OR INFORMATION
In addition to adding additional campaigns or information, please note how we handled additional Service Award panels for Ruth’s Cottages to blend in as if they were always there!
YOUR DISPLAY NEEDS A FACELIFT
Sometimes, a display may need a new look, whether there’s been a lobby renovation or you want to modernize your display – it can be done without scrapping everything. You may want to consider an entirely new display, but there are always options for keeping components of an existing display and working them into a new look. Clean lines and an uncluttered look are trending, along with subtle graphics to add interest. Unity Point Health revised many of its displays recently – changing the look, the systems, and quantities – a lot of changes but keeping some of the original components at the same time. On the display below, Unity Point moved from a MagTech system of Corian to a ClearTech system made of acrylic with large format graphics in the background. All the external framing and title piece remained the same, so only the nameplate areas were removed and replaced.
YOU WANT YOUR NAME UPDATES TO BE EASY TO MAKE
There are many beautiful displays out there that are nothing short of infuriating to try to update, or the updates are ridiculously expensive to make. Of course you don’t want to scrap your display and start over. What do you do? Adjust the nameplate portion of your beautiful display! At PIR, we’ve seen all kinds of displays that were just not functional for the foundation personnel, so we designed a revision to parts of the display to make your life easier, allowing you to update more often without any cringe factor when it’s time to add or move names around. PIR will maintain the look and feel of your display but make it user-friendly to save headaches on your end!
No matter your reason for modifying your existing display, we understand you have a sizable investment in the original build, so we’re happy to modify components to look and feel like they were not an afterthought but rather part of the original design!
When purchasing a new display, consider the functionality of your design—can it be easily updated? Can you change a misspelled name? Can the logo be easily changed? Do I have space for additional panels on my wall, or should I find a larger space? Many of the later issues can be eliminated with a little planning ahead of time. Now that we’ve covered some ways to update your existing display, you should not feel overwhelmed if your current needs are not being met. If you’d like to speak with a donor display consultant, please contact us for a free design and quote—I’m confident we can put you on the right path!