Two questions and Two Responses

20 Jan Two questions and Two Responses

20 January 2026

By David Allen, Development for Conservation

Periodically I get questions that are straightforward enough that they don’t lend themselves to full-blog responses. I have recently fielded two such questions, so I’m piling them into one blog and calling it good for this week.

I invite you to weigh in on either or both – my responses are just my own opinions – and/or to forward your own questions for a future blog.

Question 1:

My development committee has asked me to consider offering a discounted rate on programs for members. I am opposed to this (it’s transactional; it means charging for programs that I believe should be free; it’s a pain in the butt for me to administer). Could you address this in one of your future blogs?

I don’t know your specific situation, so take some of this with a grain of salt.

In my perfect land trust world, membership would ALWAYS be a gift. And the denomination of the gift would ALWAYS be determined by the giver, not by the organization. So $5 would be a membership. And $5,000 would be a membership.

Under those circumstances offering “discounts” – for anything – doesn’t really make any sense. (Neither does “family,” “student,” “senior,” or “life” membership designations!)

I have no problem providing specific “benefits” that might accrue at different threshold amounts. For example, an appreciation dinner offered to $1,000+ members. Or an annual meeting that is available only to members (and their families) giving $35 or more.

So – to address the question directly, you first need to decide whether to charge for your programs at all. There are good reasons to charge something – people are more likely to come to events that they have paid for.

But as long as the cost is minimal, the “discount” you offer members could be that they are not charged anything at all. If you do that, I would encourage you to require on-line registration to mitigate the need to check membership status at the gate. Actually, I like requiring on-line registration regardless – even if the event is free.

That said, you need not make it a blanket policy. There may be some events in which you want to encourage member participation, and others in which you might not. If participation is limited, you have another option – giving members a head start by anywhere from a day to a weekend to sign up before non-members even find out about it.

Regardless, I have one more suggestion – ask all members to wear a membership identifying sticker on their clothing for the event. That way nonmembers are subtly encouraged to become members.

At a level they themselves determine, of course.

Question 2:

I so enjoy your blog and it’s the highlight of my Tuesday mornings. As a department of 1, it makes me feel connected to the wider land trust community. I’ve taken away so many usable tidbits and shared the blog out with many of my colleagues – thank you for doing what you do and sharing with all of us. Rising tide lifts all boats.

I searched to the best of my ability through your archives, but wondering if you have a blog post with your thoughts on the pros/cons of printing all donor names publicly in an annual report or otherwise? We have typically only printed in honor/in memory donations and are weighing the idea of printing all for the first time but have mixed feelings!

Thank you so much for writing. I don’t get a lot of feedback other than from booth visitors at conferences, so I’ll take all the atta-boys I can get!

You can’t find a blog post on listing names because there isn’t one. And there isn’t one because I don’t have strong convictions either way. On the one hand, people love, love, love to see their names in print. They love to find other people they know as well because being in good company validates their own decisions to give.

On the other hand getting everyone’s name spelled exactly right is a pain in the a** – time that could have been spent in other useful endeavors. Plus, once it’s in print, you lose control of it. Plenty of data miners (including my own research tool of choice, DonorSearch) are more than happy to pay for digitizing your lists.

What I usually tell people is to keep listing your donors if you’re doing it now – because stopping will irritate someone – and don’t start if you’re NOT listing your donors now – because starting will irritate someone.

A better answer might be to explore listing alternatives. Such as listing only new members. Or members passing various continuous giving milestones, like 5 years or 10 years.

You could also print your member list on a separate sheet of paper and only insert it into the Annual Reports being mailed to members whose names appear on the lists. Everyone else (and online) would get the AR without the names.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas you can work with.

Can you add to my answers above? Please weigh in with your own experience in the comments below. And keep your questions coming!

Cheers and Have a Good Week!

-da

PS: Your comments on these posts are welcomed and warmly requested. If you have not posted a comment before, or if you are using a new email address, please know that there may be a delay in seeing your posted comment. That’s my SPAM defense at work. I approve all comments as soon as I am able during the day.

Photo by Lisa Baird courtesy Pixabay