# A giving society recognition display that honors loyalty as well as size

> A giving society recognition display for your school: show each society’s levels, its members and the donors who have given for consecutive years.

Source: https://history-showcase.com/use-cases/giving-society-recognition · HistoryShowcase · Updated 2026-10-26

Your societies have names, levels and histories. Give each one a place on the touchscreen, list its members, and recognize the donors who keep giving year after year, whatever the size of their gift.

## What is a giving society recognition display?

A giving society recognition display shows a school’s donor societies, such as leadership circles, loyalty groups and bequest societies, with each society’s members, levels and history, often near the advancement office. On HistoryShowcase, every society gets its own collection, members sit in ledger rows with the year they joined, and a consecutive-years count can go right beside each loyal donor’s name.

- Made for: advancement and alumni relations directors
- Where schools put it: Advancement office reception, Alumni center, The annual society dinner
- Layouts: Honors ledger, Portrait gallery, Profiles
- Visitors can filter by: Giving society, Level, Year
- Cost: Free to use. No payment details required.

## Loyal donors deserve more than a name in small type.

Giving societies give donors something to belong to: a leadership circle, a society named for the founding year, a loyalty group for people who give every year. On most walls, though, the societies collapse into one long list sorted by gift size, and the alumna who has given for twenty-two years straight looks the same as a first-time donor.

A giving society recognition display gives each society its own collection with its name, its history and what it takes to belong. Members are listed in clean rows, and a consecutive-years count can sit right beside each name. When a donor reaches a new milestone, your office updates the entry and publishes, so the recognition arrives in the same year the donor earns it.

## How does a giving society recognition display compare with an engraved donor wall?

| What matters | Engraved donor wall | HistoryShowcase |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How societies appear | Often merged into one long list | Each society in its own collection |
| Recognizing loyalty | Not usually shown | Consecutive years of giving beside each name |
| Reaching a milestone | Wait for the next engraving order | Update the count and publish that year |
| A society’s history | A title above the names | A description of its namesake and origins |
| Society name changes | Old plates stay or come down | Earlier member lists kept in their own folder |

## What each giving society needs on screen

- **The society’s story.** Who it is named for, when it began and why, so members know what they are part of.
- **Levels in plain words.** What it takes to join each society or circle, written the way your donors hear it from your office.
- **Members by level.** Clean ledger rows of names, with the year each donor joined the society.
- **Consecutive years of giving.** A count of unbroken years beside each loyalty member, so a donor’s decade of support is visible.
- **Milestone members.** Donors reaching ten, twenty or twenty-five consecutive years, featured with a short profile and portrait.
- **Bequest society members.** People who have remembered the school in their wills, listed with their permission and their class year.

## How to set up giving societies

One collection per society keeps each one distinct. Use the subtitle for the level and the year field for when each donor joined.

Site: Giving Societies

- **Founders Circle** (Honors ledger): Leadership donors, with the level in each entry’s subtitle.
- **Loyalty Society** (Honors ledger): Consecutive years of giving in the subtitle, updated each year.
- **Milestone members** (Portrait gallery): Portraits of donors reaching a new loyalty milestone this year.
- **Heritage Society** (Profiles): Bequest donors, with a short story where the family agrees.

Visitors can filter by: Giving society, Level, Year.

## How do you set up a giving society recognition display?

1. **Write down the society rules.** Before entering anyone, settle each society’s name, levels and loyalty milestones, and write the description that opens each collection.
2. **Import members with their years.** Import a spreadsheet with columns for society, level, year joined and consecutive years, or type smaller societies in by hand.
3. **Update loyalty counts each year.** When the giving year closes, update each loyalty member’s count, feature new milestone members and publish the refreshed lists.

## Where should giving society members be recognized?

- **Advancement office reception.** Donors waiting for a meeting see their society and their fellow members.
- **Alumni center.** Returning alumni find their names and the societies they belong to.
- **The annual society dinner.** Open the display on a screen at the dinner so members can find themselves.

## Giving society display questions

### Can we show consecutive years of giving?

Yes. Put the count in each member’s subtitle, such as “14 consecutive years”, and update it when the giving year closes. Visitors see it right beside the name.

### Our societies have changed names over the years. How do we handle that?

Write the history into the society’s description and keep earlier member lists in their own folder, so donors who joined under the old name are still recognized.

### Can members filter to their own society?

Yes. Add a Giving society filter to the collection so visitors can narrow the list, and they can also search by name.

### Do we have to show gift amounts?

No. You decide what appears in each entry. You can show only the society and level, with no amounts anywhere on the screen.

## Related

- [Annual Fund Donor Recognition](https://history-showcase.com/use-cases/annual-fund-donor-recognition): Thank each year’s annual fund donors by name, from first-time parents to class agents, without a new wall.
- [Digital Donor Wall](https://history-showcase.com/use-cases/digital-donor-wall): Every donor by name and giving level, with the stories of what their gifts built.
- [Legacy Families Recognition](https://history-showcase.com/use-cases/legacy-families-display): Families with three or four generations at your school, traced class by class with photos from each era.
- [Capital Campaign Donor Recognition](https://history-showcase.com/use-cases/capital-campaign-donor-display): Recognize campaign donors through every phase, then keep them with the building after the campaign ends.

Honor the donors who give every year Free to use. No payment details required. Start building, no account needed: https://history-showcase.com/start