| By :
Mark Etinger
When one of the most esteemed members of our community recently passed away, we were surprised to see that he had left a large sum to our foundation. We were excited and began planning for ways to use the money appropriately. Then we thought that it is important to commemorate the memory of our benefactor. We began investigating memorial plaques. The president of our organization and I went to have a meeting with a representative from a memorial plaques company. We sat in his large airy office and he began describing to us our options. He started by saying that when someone leaves an organization a large sum of money, it's important to say thank you appropriately. There are different ways of doing so; let's look at which ones are most appropriate for what occasion. Cast bronze plaques are best when one person in particular has left a large sum of money, as in your case. These small to medium size plaques can include some written blurb about the life of the person and their affiliation with the organization. Memorial plaques allow more people to be remembered. A long list of smaller memorial plaques works well when you want to encourage more people to donate. Then add their names to the donor walls. This makes it easy to organize and display the names of benefactors, as well as the date they gave their sum and their life dates. A tree of life is a more modern take on traditional memorial plaques. It serves a similar purpose but its design is quite different. Each benefactor's name is a leaf on the tree of life, which metaphorically represents the future seedlings that will grow from his or her generosity. We felt that since this sum was the largest we had ever received, it would be appropriate to commemorate it with cast bronze plaques. This would show people the result of such beneficence. We also hoped that it would encourage them to give more willingly so as to be honored in a similar fashion. In addition we decided to invest in donor walls, with past benefactor's names included. This too would serve to encourage people to give: by contributing $100, their name would go on the donor wall. Giving more than ten thousand dollars would enshrine them with a memorial plaque. We feel that the two methods are a good balance and an important way to honor contributions.
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