Award: Bronze

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Title of Entry: Benefactors of Berkeley: Mid-level Lifelong Giving Stewardship and Cultivation

About this Entry: The Benefactors of Berkeley is a stewardship and cultivation program that provides targeted personalized recognition projects for donors with lifelong giving of $100,000 to $999,999. This scalable program allows Berkeley’s central Donor Recognition team to support frontline fundraisers in the cultivation and stewardship of individual donors at this level.

Benefactors is internal-facing, so donors don't identify it as a giving society. Rather, Benefactors serves as an internal term and call-to-action that prompts Donor Recognition and fundraisers to collaborate on a more personalized stewardship plan. Importantly, this program is not tied to individual gifts. The timing of delivery is determined with the fundraiser to work with their individual fundraising strategy in hopes of surprising and delighting the donor while signaling to them that we know them.

The program offers fundraisers a menu of three stewardship opportunities that can be customized to their donors that the Donor Recognition team creates. The three projects are designed to offer flexibility so the project can reflect the donors’ giving in a way that would appeal to them. The projects include:
Giving Array - a word cloud-like image that highlights all the areas where the donor has given, usually for donors who have given to many areas;
ThankView Video - a short personal video from a student, faculty member, or dean thanking the donor for their lifelong giving, usually for donors with focused giving to one or two areas; and
Impact Brief - a two-page personalized report discussing the impact and breadth of the donor’s giving.