More About Robin
Robin E. Williams has counseled with literally hundreds of Fundraisers and their Facilities, Marketing, IT and architectural design professionals. During that counsel a programmatic approach to establishing and sustaining donor recognition as a primary driver of stewardship is the ultimate goal.
Robin E. Williams provides organizational leadership and process in communicating a culture of philanthropy through thanking.
Robin E. Williams Incorporated is a specialized donor recognition consulting firm. Our work has been proven to raise additional dollars while bolstering donor retention. We offer fundraising executives leadership guidance, as well as the implementation of tried-and-true processes that will increase organizational efficiencies and levels of giving. We simply promote and nurture the programmatic development and application of a donor recognition process. And it can all begin with a day together immersed within a collaborative “Total Program Review”.
Twenty-seven years of experience in Donor Recognition planning, programming, budgeting, design and staffing directives sets us apart from ubiquitous plaque and exhibit manufacturers. Even traditional fundraising consultants do not address the inner workings of philanthropy branding, naming opportunity master planning and product selection and execution. Ours is a unique and focused set of skills combining architectural graphic solutions with traditional marketing communications strategies to assure that donors are publicly thanked in ways that actually enhance and broaden giving.
Donor Recognition is simply the most under-utilized, 24/7 communicator available to ANY fundraising organization. Through our singular approach to melding thanking, communication strategy and stewardship, clients understand immediately that giving and continued involvement will be significantly elevated simply through a well-formed and celebratory approach to thanking. Because we know how to lead executives through the nuances of interaction with architectural designers, Facilities personnel and Marketing planners, an organizations long term internal efficiencies are assured. We introduce fundraisers, sometimes for the first time, to an understanding of terminology, process and programmatic planning for donor recognition and facility interface.
Every viewer of donor recognition is a prospective donor. That’s the unadorned truth. No matter the type of public recognition effort, today’s successful fundraisers understand that their efforts to reach donors whether through websites, donor walls, donor plaques, area namings, billboards, annual reports or even digital donor recognition displays must exist today as part of a larger philanthropy branding effort. Given that as a truth, then it is easy to see that each recognition effort must exist as a viable, critical element of the organization’s stewardship and marketing strategy. We strongly advocate this proactive approach to celebrating philanthropy via what has now become our familiar call to action for fundraisers to: “Think, Before You Thank”.
More often today as social media pervades our every-day lives, the ideas that story-telling and testimonials within donor plaques and displays, as well as for established Naming Opportunities, are more readily acceptable to the donor recognition effort. By bringing the donor and the organization’s causes to life in these ways, fundraisers offer every viewer a chance to be motivated. There is undeniably no better way to invite, excite and incite giving than through a well-planned and coordinated branding communications and thanking effort.
And just like the implementation of any marketing strategy, process and procedure for donor recognition activities underpin the efficiencies of the organization. Just as a printed brochure is simply the hardcopy expression of a broader communications plan, so, too, is a plaque or donor wall just the publicly distributed piece. Neither the brochure nor the plaque is the driver of that effort. Instead, implementation of a thoughtfully, defined, budgeted and targeted recognition/thanking plan of action leads and informs those sorts of product decisions.
We offer services to identify and evaluate any organization’s recognition past, while recommending how to build on it for tomorrow. Know, too, that all of our work is based upon established Best Practices of Donor Recognition. Be sure to ask us about a “TOTAL PROGRAM REVIEW”, a comprehensive donor recognition program needs assessment most commonly enacted as preparation for a capital campaign. Efforts to apply appropriate process to stewardship and thanking will significantly benefit the bottomline.
With Robin E. Williams you’ll learn to apply the right combination of thoughtful planning and practical knowledge to your Donor Recognition program efforts. Call us at 404.872.7646, or contact us, to learn how our thinking about thanking will benefit your organization.