# Threads of a trusted fundraising tool

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/08/31/threads-trusted-fundraising-tool/
- Published: 2011-08-31T23:16:19+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

On holiday in York this summer I was pleased and surprised to come across a 114 
year old version of the donor recognition wall. It confirmed to me that there are
some tried and trusted fundraising tools that we Facebook-era fundraisers can forget
have been honed and used by many of our predecessors.

I was visiting [The Quilt Museum and Gallery](http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk) for
the first time and came across an 1897 example of a ‘signature quilt’. [The Tyneside Quilt](http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/tyneside-signature-quilt.html)
features 212 hand embroidered signatures in red and pale blue. The quilt marks Queen
Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and was created by members of the Primitive Methodist
Connexion Jarrow on Tyne Circuit. The signatures surround an embroidered outline
of Queen Victoria.

According to the Museum, “signature quilts were often made as commemorative gifts
or as part of a fundraising activity, and people would pay to have their name included
as one of the signatures”.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

I’d often thought of donor recognition walls with names on bricks as starting the
trend, although I recall that medieval and later donors and patrons were sometimes
rewarded with their likeness or initials appearing in architectural or artistic 
flourishes. But the signature quilts serve to remind that donors have been thanked
and will no doubt continue to be thanked and acknowledged in a wide range of media.
The “electronic plaquing” of donors’ names on websites and the more recent use of
Facebook and Twitter to achieve the same end are simply the latest in a long line
of public acknowledgements.

You can see The Tyneside Quilt and explore it in some detail at

www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/tyneside-signature-quilt.html

Do you have other early examples of donor recognition?

 * **[Thank you Send A Cow for your thank you campaign](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/01/06/thank-you-send-cow-your-thank-you-campaign/)**(
   6 January 2012)
 * **[Pell & Bales says thank you to outstanding fundraisers](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/01/11/pell-amp-bales-says-thank-you-outstanding-fundraisers/)**(
   11 January 2012)
 * **[Say thank you nicely to major donors](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/07/04/say-thank-you-nicely-major-donors/)**(
   4 July 2012)