Donor Naming Opportunities

Thinking about named endowment gifts at your school? What can be named? Anything!

• Departments: Programs, Chair positions. o Technology, Arts, Israel Program, Social Justice Program
• Parking spots (Head of School parking spot brought to you by Helen London!)
• Text books, siddurim, curriculum design, professional development
• Your Admissions office (the first place a prospective donor visits)
• The website (the virtual first door to enter the school)
• The mezuzah on the front door
• Building maintenance
• Board training/Lay leadership development
• The name of the street the school is on
• The theatre, main hallway/stairwell, etc.

What criteria can you use to determine what to offer as a naming opportunity?

• What’s most valuable to your stakeholders.
• What’s most visible to your donors.
• How does it tie to your mission statement.

Look at the budget of the school: where are you spending the most money?

Take a look at your case statement and engage the board, development committee and donors in conversation. Figure out what’s valuable to your communities and gauge the value of the ‘items’. It should be obvious that the name of the school is the most expensive—but pricing is subjective; it depends on what the school feels is valuable. A good rule of thumb: bigger, more public spaces get higher price tags. With that being said, who knows what your donor might be passionate about investing in?

A PEJE resource