EP 78: Building a Loyalty Program That Celebrates Every Gift with Carly Plate and Dominika McLean

In this episode of The Responsive Lab, Carly and Scott sit down with Carly Plate and Dominika McLean from the University of South Florida to talk about building a consecutive giving recognition program that celebrates loyalty over gift size.Their core belief? The donor who gives $25 every year for 30 years deserves just as much recognition as someone who writes one large check.You'll hear about:Why USF created Loyalty Herd to close the gap between major giving programs and unrecognized lower-level consecutive donorsHow the program defines eligibility: any dollar amount, three or more consecutive fiscal yearsHow USF scaled stewardship across 20,000 donors using milestone touch points, in-house design, and creative campus partnershipsWhy they chose not to offer a buyback option, and how that decision strengthened the program's intentHow to approach data, communications, and development teams before launching a program like thisThe real ROI of recognizing giving behavior over giving amountPractical advice for teams with small budgets who want to start something meaningful nowLinks from the episode:Connect with Carly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-plate-a8373b2b/Connect with Dominika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominikamclean/Learn more about the USF Foundation: https://giving.usf.edu/about/about-usf-foundationLooking for technology that helps you build deeper donor relationships with less work from your team? Learn more at virtuous.org.