Best of CASE District VI Award
 

Institution: University of Nebraska Foundation

Title of entry: Personalized Caricatures - A Creative and Meaningful Stewardship Touch

About this entry: As a part of our goal to create meaningful and creative donor stewardship, we have created a new type of specialty project initiative that's been executed in a variety of ways with tremendous donor enjoyment and positive outcomes.

When tasked with creating a retirement gift for a donor who was an executive at a well-known railroad company, my fundraiser colleague said we needed to show “where they had been during their time in Nebraska.” We heard that and wanted to create a visual representation of their path across Nebraska while using a railroad theme. We had seen personalized caricatures in the past on the walls of old restaurants or used at our local Press Club, and we wanted to provide something different than a photo anyone could provide.

Though not artists ourselves, we sketched out our ideas as an outline and commissioned a local graphic artist to bring them to life. We knew we needed to be very specific with the artist with our requests to provide vital context. This piece ended up telling our donor’s Nebraska story in a unique, personal, and visually pleasing way and will connect him to his Nebraska memories for years to come.

The best part is what started as one specialty project turned into a new tool in our toolbox that for a low cost provides a donor with an individualized and loving representation of themselves that we have used creatively in at least three distinct donor projects, with many more in the future.