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[ASK AN EXPERT] What Are The Pros And Cons Of Public Donor Listings?
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Updated - 01/09/2025
Our Ask An Expert series features real questions answered by Claire Axelrad, J.D., CFRE, our very own Fundraising Coach, also known as Charity Clairity. Today’s question comes from a nonprofit employee who wants advice on the pros and cons of public donor listings:
Dear Charity Clairity,
There has been some concern about the fact we have our $1,000+ donors listed on our website. My gut tells me our mid-level and legacy society donors would not generally be upset if we were to take the listings down; in fact, I think most of them don’t even know they exist. I’ve always been bothered by the fact we had defaulted to listing people (a recipe for disaster). It was something I always wanted to remedy/clean up, but just hadn’t gotten around to. And I have only gotten one complaint about it in two years.
While my manager and I would both recommend discontinuing the practice, this feels more like a judgment call than a best practices thing. I’d like to have some expert logic to point to, since it’s possible there may be a completely different perception we’re not considering.
— To Publish or Not to Publish?
Dear To Publish or Not to Publish,
That is the question! No doubt one many others have as well. So, thank you!
As you intuit, there is no one right way to approach donor listings. But, there are considerations that will apply to all nonprofits.
I like to approach conundrums like this one with a mini-SWOT analysis. It’s a version of a pro/con analysis, but better because it takes into account threats (bad things that might happen if you do/do not list publicly) and opportunities (good things you’ll potentially miss out on), depending on your course of action.
Just to refresh, here’s what a SWOT analysis can look like:
You’ll want to begin with internal factors over which you have control. Any of these can be a strength or a weakness (sometimes both), depending on your organization’s experience and resources. For example:
- Our listings are always/mostly/seldom accurate.
- The time and care required to develop our listings is manageable/not manageable.
- People give larger gifts to receive public recognition.
- People complain about perceptions of exclusivity.
- People complain about lack of privacy.
- Mistakes in listings lead to ill will and decreased future giving.
- … what else would you add based on what you know about your experience?
Next look at external factors. Might you have opportunities to grow your fundraising through public donor listings? If you don’t list names, might you lose out on larger gifts? How do you know? Are you basing your decision-making on gut feeling, past experience, third-party anecdote, first-hand accounts or research? You might consider:
- Targeted campaign: If you think people might give more if you actively promoted giving at certain levels in return for recognition, that’s different than finding out for yourself that this worked after doing a campaign.
- A/B test: Better than assuming why a campaign succeeded or failed would be to proactively launch an A/B campaign where randomly half your donors receive a “recognition in return for $1,000+ gift” message and half receive a simple ask with no indication gifts of $1,000+ will be specially recognized.
- Survey: Another route would be anonymously surveying donors and asking questions like:
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- “How would you prefer to be acknowledged for your donation?”
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- “On a scale of 1-5, how important is it to you to receive public recognition for your gift?”
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- “Which of the following recognition methods would you be most interested in (with options like event program; annual report; website)?”
- Experience: As you mention, you’ve had only one complaint in two years. That could be a good enough reason to forego the hassle of preparing the listing. Especially if it opens up that time for more high-yielding fundraising and donor retention activities.
What should you do?
A lot depends on your culture and who your donors are. Do you all appreciate setting an egalitarian tone (in which case, listing folks based on how much they give might be frowned upon). Or do you find major gift philanthropy is boosted when you promote and list gifts at leadership giving levels?
Bottom Line:
- In my experience, I’ve had many donors make larger gifts so they could receive public recognition. Not everyone cares, but plenty do. And I’m totally fine with that!
- Also in my experience, I worked at a nonprofit where it took a full two months of multiple staff painstakingly reviewing names to assure we got everything right (I think that’s where your “recipe for disaster” comment comes in). And we still made mistakes. So, one year, we simply stopped listing anyone under $1,500. It took a lot less time, and… no one said a word. So, that became our new standard operating procedure. Should it have been? Maybe. Maybe not. You see, we didn’t explore running a targeted campaign to see if people would give more (or less) based on the opportunity (or threat?) of being publicly recognized. Nor did we survey donors to ask them what they wanted (maybe some $500 donors who weren’t listed simply kept quiet but stopped giving). Nor did we deliberately substitute the time we saved with another more productive strategy. We simply relaxed a little (which wouldn’t be a bad thing if we consciously decided upon that as an objective).
Alas, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to your question. To be sure what works for you requires more evidence. Or at least a thoughtful evaluation of the evidence you already have.
Whether you publish or not, I hope you find a recipe for success!
— Charity Clairity (Please use a pseudonym if you prefer to be anonymous when you submit your own question, like “To Publish or Not to Publish” did.)
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