Can Your Donors View Their Names Online?

I recently received an email from my college, with the subject line, “View Our New Online Honor Roll of Donors.” It allows all alums, with a password, to view the name of everyone (class by class) who made a donation in the last fiscal year.

Of course, I clicked through, just to see my name. I felt silly as I did so, but hey, it’s a matter of human (or at least donor) nature. Which is just what the college was counting on. And as I viewed the list of other classmates who’ve also given, many of whom I remember well, I got that warm feeling of belonging to a special group. The college was no doubt counting on that, too.

There are no new lessons here, but a new-ish application of some old truths about donor recognition and sense of belonging. It shouldn’t be too hard to create such an online list for your own organization.