Creating Capital Campaign Naming Opportunities in 7 Simple Steps

Although donors do not typically give to campaigns solely to see their name on a plaque, naming opportunities can play an important role in helping donors feel valued and recognized.

Creating Naming Opportunities in 7 Steps

If you have determined that naming opportunities are appropriate for your organization and campaign, read on for a step-by-step guide on how to devise such opportunities.

Step 1: Brainstorm a list of everything that could possibly be named.

While you can sit in your office and create a plan, you’ll get a better plan if you use this as an opportunity to engage key volunteers. Plus, those volunteers will start thinking about whether they might like to name a space or program in your campaign and you’ll have a front row seat to their growing enthusiasm.

Invite your Campaign Planning Committee to sit around a large table with the plans for your project spread out before them. Have them brainstorm every possible place in the plan that could use a name, writing each idea on a sticky note that you put on the wall. Don’t worry about the order just yet. Just put them up in a great messy group.

Encourage your group to think expansively and creatively.

Your list might include flagpoles, elevators, gardens, stairways, lobbies, or even special furnishings. A theater renovation once included little naming plaques in every rest room stall!

Your list might include your entire campus, each building on the campus, and/or the wings of those buildings. You can name office pods and entry ways and special windows. If there’s a staff lounge, that’s almost always a meaningful naming opportunity for the right donor.

If your campaign also includes endowment funds, then don’t stop with just the physical spaces. You can also include named funds within your endowment, named programs, and staff positions, too.

Step 2: Rank your naming opportunities by “WOW” factor.

Once you’ve compiled an expansive list of possible naming opportunities, the next step is to rank them by “WOW” factor, meaning visibility and appeal. While sometimes a “WOW” space is large, it need not be.

For example, you might have a small space right at the entrance of your building — a lobby where everyone stops at the reception desk, for example – that could be a “WOW.”

You might have a much larger room tucked away in the back of your building which only a few staff members frequent. That one might not be such a “WOW.”

Once you’ve listed all of your possible naming opportunities, have your group re-arrange your wall of sticky notes by “WOW” factor. It’s okay — in fact, it’s excellent — if you find yourself with several opportunities that rate roughly the same amount of “WOW.”

Step 3: Apply giving levels to naming opportunities.

Next, take the gift range chart you’ve developed for your campaign goal. Look at each giving level and the number of gifts you need at that level to reach your goal.

Now, match the highest “WOW” factor naming opportunities to the largest gift on your chart, the second-biggest “WOWs” with the second largest gift, and so on.

When this process is complete, step back and assess your list. Does it make sense and seem appropriate? Do some giving levels have many more opportunities than others? Are adjustments needed?

Step 4: Jot down notes about the appeal of each naming opportunity.

Note the appeal of each naming opportunity so that you’ll be ready to share it with interested donors when the time comes.

Once you’ve joined your list of naming opportunities with appropriate giving levels, spend some more time brainstorming with volunteers about the impact of each space, program or opportunity.

TIP — You may need to engage your architects, program staff, and/or building committee to hear their input on what the spaces will look like, how they will function, and what role they will play in advancing your organization’s mission. Documenting these ideas and drafting a brief narrative description about each space will ensure you are ready and able to supply more information to potential donors if and when they express interest in a naming gift.

You may also wish to ask your architect for up-to-date renderings of key spaces, as these too will help to bring your naming opportunities to life with potential donors.

Step 5: Decide if your campaign will offer “traditional” vs. “innovative” naming opportunities.

You may determine that the traditional approach to naming opportunities suits your organization just fine. In this approach, your donors would give the requisite amount and the space would be adorned with their names.

For example, “The Smith Family Auditorium” or “The John and Sally Smith Pavilion.” For a long time, this was the primary way organizations approached naming opportunities. Increasingly, it is not the only way.

Try reflecting your mission

Another approach, one that’s a bit more innovative, would be to come up with a naming schema that reflects some aspect of your mission rather than donor names.

In this approach, for example, a performing arts organization might invite donors to select and name spaces after their favorite musicians rather than themselves. The donors have choice and yet what’s emphasized in the space is the musician, not the donor (although there could certainly be a plaque in the space noting why the donor chose such-and-such musician!).

Discussing the pros and cons of a traditional vs. innovative naming opportunity schema is a wonderful way to engage the members of your Campaign Planning Committee and should lead to fruitful discussions.

Step 6: Develop, revisit, and refresh your naming opportunity policies.

Develop (or revisit and refresh) the campaign policies around naming opportunities at your organization so that everyone knows what to expect.

Before you or others begin naming spaces in your new building, it’s a good idea to establish policies that will govern these agreements.

• What will happen if/when named spaces require renovation and additional funds must be raised to support such renovation? May new donors to the organization rename the spaces at that point?
• Or will naming only remain in place for a certain period of time regardless of future renovations? Or, will the naming of these spaces exist in perpetuity?
• Who internally will be responsible for maintaining and repairing donor plaques if/when maintenance or repair is required?
• What happens to named spaces after a donor’s death?
• In the event of an unfortunate discovery about, say, a donor’s moral character, will the organization revisit the appropriateness of their name adorning a space or a program? If so, who will be tasked with that review? And what are the circumstances under which such a review would occur?

It is imperative that you consider and document the answers to these and other similar questions as part of your naming opportunity policy. Doing so now will save your organization from countless headaches down the road.

Step 7: Seek board approval for your naming opportunity ideas.

Make sure you obtain official Board approval for your naming opportunity plan, schema, and policies.

Once your Campaign Planning Committee has helped you design naming opportunities, be sure to present it to your board (along with all the other components of your Campaign Plan) and ask for a formal vote of approval.

That step will save you from donors who want to negotiate the price of a space. They don’t come along often, but when they do, you want to let them know that the plan has been approved by your board and isn’t flexible.

Conclusion: The 7 Steps for Creating Naming Opportunities

In conclusion, don’t forget these seven steps to create successful naming opportunities for your capital campaign:

1. Brainstorm a list of everything that could possibly be named.
2. Rank your naming opportunities by “WOW” factor.
3. Apply giving levels to naming opportunities.
4. Jot down notes about the appeal of each naming opportunity.
5. Decide if your campaign will offer “traditional” vs. “innovative” naming opportunities.
6. Develop, revisit, and refresh your naming opportunity policies.
7. Seek board approval for your naming opportunity ideas.

As complicated as naming opportunities can be, the process becomes so much easier once you break it down into doable steps.