In 1993 a group of artists got together to fill the gap of fine design for donor recognition for non-profit campaigns. They were artists and designers in the fields of fine art, fashion arts, architectural design, graphic design, model making and manufacturing.

The outcome was a series of installations that changed the ideas of many about donor recognition. Non-profits now had the chance to engage a serious group of artists to carry out the challenges of how they could say thank you to their donors while inspiring more and larger gifts in the future.

Our first clients saw their Annual Campaigns, Capital Campaigns, Planned Giving Societies and Walls of Honor come alive in new and exciting ways. They, as well as their donors, were thrilled to see donor walls, naming opportunities, plaques and cut letters crafted in timeless materials like glass, aluminum, hand finished woods and stainless steel as well as new materials like photo embedded metal and touch screen displays. The art of saying thank you was being enhanced by the art and use of fine materials and creative thinking.

With an impeccable record of success, this group of artists felt they were on the right track. For the next eight years, under the name DONORWALL, these artists continued working to develop new methods of manufacture, new materials to work in and new designs to solve the needs of the various types of campaigns non-profits were undertaking. With this effort a new genre of donor recognition art evolved — Modern American Minimalism. What defines Modern American Minimalism are very clear precepts.

• Every work must be elegant, sophisticated and donor centric.
• Each design must reflect the nature of American philanthropy.
• The art must highlight the donors and reinforce the non-profit’s brand.

By adhering to the above principles DONORWALL has become a major force in contemporary donor recognition, fine art donor recognition to be exact. We are proud to say that the clients we work for share our commitments. They trust us with their fund raising campaigns and donor recognition programs and reap the rewards as each project comes to fruition. We are particularly proud of our digital donor walls, DonorMurals, magnetic recognition installations and glass panel displays — all of which have garnered us client praise over and over again.

Adhering to Our Values

In 2001, the 9/11 terror attacks came upon us. With 90% of our artists and designers in New York we decided to bring all of us together to discuss what is next.

We met over the course of several weeks and examined who we were and what we wanted to accomplish and say. What became clear from these meetings was that we would not sell out on our principles, they were bottom line important. We did decide to enlarge our size and scope. We made many new relationships with other fine artists, designers and manufacturers. Our abilities to design and build grew exponentially. We were now able to offer a much larger portfolio of art to the non-profit community.

With our larger capabilities we renamed the company DONORWALL DESIGN GROUP to reflect the expanded network of our artists both on staff and free lance and our new manufacturing partners both owned and in partnership.

We still believe that fine art wins the day and we are here to bring it to you — to every one of your non-profit campaigns.