Modernising donor recognition across the National Trust for Scotland  

“We are really pleased with the result and feel we have a very strong framework with which to engage our colleagues and take forward for the benefit of the charity. It’s a clear foundation which we hope will save considerable staff time and lead to much clearer recognition options, messaging and journeys for our donors.”
Caroline McKay, Deputy Head of Philanthropy

Challenge

The National Trust for Scotland support the treasured natural, cultural and built heritage across Scotland. The Trust commissioned Philanthropy Company to deliver two fundraising infrastructure projects including a review of its donor recognition. They needed to audit and review the existing donor recognition approach in order to create a new, consistent national policy. Donor recognition is a critical part of stewardship, yet previous ad‑hoc practices across a complex, multi‑site organisation had resulted in maintenance burdens, inconsistent donor experiences and reputational risk. The Trust required a new coherent framework that could be applied consistently across all properties and communicated clearly to both staff and supporters.
 

Response

We carried out a series of consultations with key internal stakeholders, including property managers and fundraising and philanthropy staff, to understand operational realities and expectations. This insight, combined with sector benchmarking, enabled us to design a detailed and centralised donor recognition framework. The framework establishes a modern, conservation‑led and digitally focused approach which can be applied consistently across all National Trust for Scotland sites. We developed a clear and detailed model which includes the key principles of donor acknowledgement and how to communicate this across a range of audiences. Alongside this we prepared a practical toolkit, simple training and user guides to enable colleagues to embed the new approach confidently and consistently.
 

Impact

The resulting framework provides a coherent, future‑proofed structure that strengthens stewardship, reduces risk and creates organisational efficiencies. It will enable the Trust to streamline its approach and deliver a more consistent and coherent donor experience across all sites.