The university had to find a personal connection for each of the 400 key supporters and make certain that the $1million donors felt just as important as the $100million donors.

The simple yet regal ceremony P.W. Feats orchestrated paired each donor with a distinguished faculty escort, some of whom were Nobel laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners, or a student recipient of that donor’s philanthropy. Wearing full academic regalia and marching to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance, escorts led  honorees up the red-carpeted steps. Inside the auditorium, families and friends watched live video as the trustee chairman read each donor’s name before they entered the hall of honor.

The ceremony built to a powerful moment as donors were asked to rise and accept a specially commissioned medallion, conferred upon each by his or her escort. The medallion symbolized partnership, but the message went even deeper: “We in the Hopkins community consider you one of us.”

P.W. Feats sensitively maintained the program’s pitch perfect tone —serious, but not solemn, dignified, but not stuffy.