BEST SUPPORTER EXPERIENCE

Guide Dogs

Queensland

Guide Dogs

Queensland Memorial Garden

Guide Dogs Queensland’s Memorial Garden is a special place to acknowledge and commemorate Gift in Will donors. Central to the creation of the garden was the development of a new Gifts in Wills strategy in 2018 which focused on increasing average annual bequest revenue by $6m over 15 years.

They wanted to provide meaningful and memorable experiences for supporters to prompt and reaffirm decisions about leaving a gift to GDQ in their wills. One way was to better leverage the Bald Hills training facilities which are perfect for site tours and interactive donor experiences. From this, the memorial garden concept emerged.

After a year of design and development, the garden was ceremoniously opened in August 2019. Three curved walls circle an established Queensland Bottle Tree, around which sandstone blocks create a space to sit and view plaques acknowledging each bequestor.

Finalist

The full impact of Memorial Garden is still being realised. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the opportunity to fully engage donors and their loved ones has been limited but this year, friends and family of recently deceased Gifts in Will donors attended a morning tea to hear about the impact of the bequests and to enjoy the garden and view the plaques of their loved ones. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and has allowed open conversations with potential new donors.