Sustaining a successful nonprofit takes smart fundraising. In today’s competitive environment, that means setting yourself apart from the competition by making your vision and purpose as clear as possible. Donors and sponsors are inundated with options, so naturally, they narrow their focus to find the handful of organizations that share their goals and vision best.
When searching for that perfect match, sponsors usually ask one simple but important question:
“Does this organization’s message and goal align with mine?”
Beyond simply making a contribution to help an organization achieve something, donors want to put their money where it makes the most difference while advancing their own interests at the same time. How you position yourself and how you’re perceived is extremely important when convincing larger sponsors to associate themselves with you.
So, how do you do it right?
Effective, value-driven branding is one of the best ways to shape perception the way you want it. The better your brand’s message resonates with your target, the more likely they’ll realize they share the same values and goals as you––a clear advantage when sponsors pursue partnerships with those that help them realize a common mission.
How a single logo transformed an event into an effective branded campaign
When budgets are tight however, it’s hard to start building a brand from scratch. Where do you begin?
This was the question a local Madison chapter of the National Urban League approached us with during the run-up to an annual fundraising event aimed at empowering communities of color.
With limited resources to spend and a one-year-old event with virtually no established brand to build on, the Urban League needed to start from square-one to give their event a look and feel that sparked excitement while giving donors, participants and the community something they could easily identify with.
Elevating the theme of the event with a stylized brand
The event was described as a “cabaret,” a theme that inspired the brand’s new aesthetic. Red curtains, noir-inspired shadows, and marquee-style type sets were all used to create a compelling backdrop for the eclectic mix of entertainment scheduled throughout the evening.
With this in mind, our creative team went to work creating a logo that could be applied to various promotional pieces in just a short amount of time. Worried that the scope of the project was far too big for the budget at their disposal, Urban League leaders were surprised by what they received given the limitations.
The result was a dynamic, modern logo combining the event’s theme with the broader brand and message of the organization.
After realizing how much they could do with the little spend they had, the Urban League began picking up ideas they originally thought were destined for the cutting room floor, giving them new life with a compelling visual edge.
Over the next month, our creative team worked closely with the Urban League to create an array of promotional and supplementary campaign pieces aimed at:
- Raising general awareness of the event,
- Communicating the event’s purpose and tying it into the broader values of the Urban League, and
- Making it simple and easy for donors to get involved.
After starting with a simple logo, The Urban League was able to reach out to donors on multiple channels with a variety of consistent, professional marketing materials, including:
- Sponsorship brochure
- Reminder postcard
- Web banner
- Handout
- Invitation
- Magazine ad
- Digital billboard
- Donation envelope
- Sponsor signs
- Ticket design
- Event program, and more.
Providing big value despite a limited budget
More often than not, limited budgets mean limited expectations for success. But as the Urban League proved, partnering with qualified design and print specialists can stretch even the smallest budgets far beyond what you think is possible.
So, how exactly did we help provide big value despite such a lean project? Here are the three biggest takeaways from the partnership with Suttle-Straus:
1. Better fundraising results
Compared to the previous year’s total of $92,560, the 2014 Urban Cabaret was able to meet and exceed the League’s goal of $100,000 for the first time with a grand total of over $102,000 in funds raised.
2. An easier way to let sponsors get involved
Better branding wasn’t the only difference between 2014’s event and the previous one, but with a full-range of outreach materials and supplementary information tied to the event, there’s no doubt the new approach made it considerably easier for sponsors to learn about the event and participate if they wanted to.
3. A permanent, repeatable brand for future fundraisers
After seeing the difference branding can help make, the Urban League decided carry over Suttle-Straus’s visual elements into the next year rather than starting from square one all over again. In terms of value, this means huge savings by avoiding the need to create new logos and design components from scratch all over again.
Instead, the Urban League plans to continue its relationship with Suttle-Straus to expand upon what worked best the year before. In the run-up to the League’s 2015 event, we plan to create an even wider array of campaign materials to reach an even larger audience of potential sponsors.
Whether you’re a nonprofit or not, we love working with organizations of all kinds to bring messages to life regardless of budget. If you’re interested in stretching your spend to its full potential, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today to talk about how we can help you with your next project.
Interested in seeing more of our work? Check out our graphic design portfolio. Want to learn about how we combine data and personalization to create effective direct mail campaigns? Download our Dynamic Mail Infographic here.
