And the Stewie Goes to …
… Donor Birthday Cards
October 2012
Becca Taylor
‘06
Assistant Director of Donor Relations
Davidson College
DONOR BIRTHDAY CARDS
A meaningful move
Or
A wasted/wasteful gesture
The Challenge
In the past, we have sent birthday cards from the office of the president to our trustees, key
donors, and college staff members. We are looking for ways to simplify this process and
reduce the number of cards. We asked our ADRP peers to share their current practices and
specify which constituent groups (if any) receive birthday cards from their president or CEO?
We learned that there is a diversity of current practices regarding this custom.
Birthday Card Facts
According to the Greeting Card Association (the United States trade association serving the
greeting card and social expression industry):
The average person receives more than twenty greeting cards in a year, about one-
third of which are birthday cards.
The exchange of greeting cards is one of the most popular and widely accepted
customs in the United States. There are cards for virtually any occasion or
relationship.
Giving a greeting card creates a lasting impression and emotional bond between
sender and receiver. In a national survey for the Greeting Card Association, nearly
one-third of respondents said they keep the special cards they receive “forever.”
E-cards often supplement traditional card sending, and are frequently sent as a spur-
of-the-moment gesture or for an occasion too informal for a traditional card. Because
consumers rarely send e-cards in place of a traditional card, the availability of e-cards
has expanded overall card sending.
Practice A: Cards for All Key Stakeholders
Ohio University
We send birthday cards to all major boards including Board of Trustees, Foundation Board of
Trustees, Foundation Trustees Emeritus, Alumni Association Board, and members of the
Trustees’ Academy—the signature lifetime giving society. We also send to donors and
prospective donors, and select volunteers. We send approximately 150 cards per month.
Donor Relations is responsible for handwriting “Happy Birthday” on each card with the month
and year in the top corner (example 9/2012).
The President’s Office, Vice President University Advancement, and all development
professionals are notified of the next month’s birthdays in an Excel spreadsheet about
halfway through the current month—in the body of the e-mail message I identify the most
recognizable names in case someone wants to do something extra such as send an e-mail or
place a phone call. I select certain significant birth dates on the spreadsheet and list those in
bold—those people are significant to us (as leader, donor, and/or volunteer) and celebrating
a milestone birthday. These people receive an extra birthday acknowledgment—a tin of
brownies from a company owned by two Ohio University alumna with a special card (with
greetings but also illustrating that we are supporting this entrepreneurial business of our own
graduates).
We have found that cards and birthday acknowledgments are well received—we are not
trying to reduce our quantities, if anything, our efforts have expanded. We have kept firm on
centralizing the effort and simply supplying the information so that others can take action as
sensible.
Practice B: Cards for Top Donors Only
University of Pittsburgh & UPMC
We send birthday greetings from our president to those who have made cumulative gifts of
$1,000,000 or greater.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Our chancellor sends birthday cards with handwritten notes to individuals in our top giving
circle ($250,000
+
lifetime giving). This group totals just over a hundred cards per year. We in
Stewardship & Donor Relations coordinate the process. We have an info sheet for each card
that we fill out with basic information (name, address, birth date, total giving) then send out to
the development directors for prospect background information. They also provide possible
birthday greeting messages as our new chancellor started in July and needs time to get to
know these folks.
Practice C: Cards Sent to Giving Society Members
University of Idaho
Donor-wise, our president sends birthday cards to members of our two lifetime societies—the
Silver and Gold Society (lifetime giving of $100,000 or more) and the 1889 Society (lifetime
giving of $1M or more). I work in conjunction with the president’s office each spring to select
and order birthday cards (we use generic cards, not school specific so they appear to be
more personal from the president to the donor).
Our administrative assistant processes them monthly by putting a sticky note on each with
the donor’s name (both formal name and informal salutation) and then takes them to the
president’s office where he handwrites a personal message to each donor in them. We
usually have between thirty to thirty-five donors needing cards per month. Our assistant then
mails these cards on a weekly basis and enters a contact report in Banner. I believe the
president’s office coordinates other birthday cards from the president to some of his direct
staff members and deans, but we are not involved in this process.
Tyler Junior College
We have an annual giving group called the “President’s Circle” which our donors can join as
members for a year by donating $1000 to the President’s Circle, which is a fund that meets
the greatest needs of the college at the president’s discretion. Only these members receive
birthday cards from the president.
1. The donor relations coordinator is responsible for printing the names (per month) and
providing them to the president’s secretary.
2. The president makes personal notes on the cards and sends them back to the donor
relations coordinator.
3. The donor relations coordinator then handwrites the name and address on the
envelope, and places inside the card a smaller envelope containing four tickets to our Center
for Earth and Space Science Education, where we always have an open exhibit. The donor
relations coordinator puts a stamp (that’s right, a real stamp!) on the envelope.
4. The donor relations coordinator scans the birthday card to the donor’s record and mails
it in time for the donor to receive it ON their birthday.
*The donor relations coordinator has reminders set on the Outlook calendar for each birthday
(a year out and does this at the beginning of the fiscal year) and there is a shared Excel
spreadsheet where the donor relations coordinator keeps track of all members in the
President’s Circle. We use this spreadsheet to confirm a birthday card was sent for each
member.
Every once in a while we have an “oops” because the president was out of town and did not
get all the birthday cards in time, and so we hand deliver those when we can to avoid sending
a late birthday card.
Practice D: Cards Sent by Officers, Not President/CEO
College of William & Mary
For the most part, our president does not send birthday cards unless it is a particular
milestone birthday for a leadership donor or trustee. In that case, my office requests he send
birthday greetings.
At the beginning of each month we run a list of donors and their birthdays for the following
month. These lists are then sent to the appropriate development officer who is assigned to
the donor. The development officer signs the cards, often adding a note and addresses
them. They are returned to my office where we send them out as the birthday approaches.
Practice E: E-Cards Sent
Utah Valley University
We have our web and marketing teams create an e-mail birthday card for faculty and staff.
We changed the e-card annually so no one gets the same card twice. It has worked great
and the faculty and staff love the animated card
Practice F: Cards Rarely Sent
Wheaton
Actually, we stopped sending birthday cards, except for the rare donor who is a) approaching
an extraordinary birthday, like one hundred, or b) among the very top of the giving pyramid
(and, in fact, I remember doing this for only our most generous donor).
Conclusion
With these best and current practices shared by our generous contributors, we hope you now
have the tools to proactively formulate and fine tune donor birthday card guidelines for your
program that will best serve your unique organizational culture and donor constituency.
