Properly promoting your event will help make it a success. We have compiled this checklist of items for promoting your fundraising event as well as free resources you can take advantage of.
Continue readingCharity Event Marketing Checklist
Cheeky Campaign Attracts Younger Generation
Parody of movie poster promotes voter outreach party
Continue readingOvercoming the Odds Fundraising Event Invitation Design
CLIENT: Student Advocacy
Student Advocacy’s annual Overcoming the Odds Award Gala Dinner celebrates students who have faced serious challenges in their life including physical and mental issues, sexual abuse, and other hardships. The low cost 2-color invitation package and journal is economical to print.
Links
- See the Student Advocacy Branding Case Study.
- See more invitations.
- Contact Red Rooster Group about promoting your organization.
Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites and marketing campaigns for nonprofits to increase their visibility, fundraising and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.
Creating a Low Cost Annual Report That Gets Noticed
Compelling stories and design help this nonprofit convey their message.
Continue readingUpdated Brand Unifies Social Service Organization with 3 Locations
CLIENT: Grafton
Providing services for people with a range of mental disabilities including autism, Grafton School was perceived as the last resource for help. With three locations in Virginia, the organization was calling out to be rebranded as a regional powerhouse in behavioral healthcare. Red Rooster Group repositioned Grafton as a centralized source for hope in the Mid-Atlantic region. We updated an old tagline and introduced a new visual look.
Brand Architecture
Our research uncovered that one of Grafton’s strengths, the specialized expertise and dedication of its staff, was not being conveyed. We shortened the official name of Grafton School to Grafton and established a brand hierarchy to unify the organization’s four locations under one brand name.
Brand Manual
We created a brand manual to explain the brand – what the organization stands for — and specifies colors, typefaces, graphics and guidelines for the brand. This has allowed the client manage their own brand effectively.
Website
After a strategic assessment of competitors and the users, we redesigned the website around the needs of the users. The redesign has been receiving rave reviews. grafton.org
Newsletter
Grafton’s internal newsletter to its 700 employees at their three locations keeps employees informed and generates enthusiasm for the organization.
Display
A flexible system of interchangeable panels helps make their display adaptable for fairs, attracting potential students and employees.
Workforce Development Guide Makes Complex Ideas Accessible
The design of a publication can greatly affect how well it is used.
Continue readingJCC Mid-Westchester Logo
CLIENT: JCC Mid-Westchester
We refreshed the logo and brand for this nonprofit organization — the Jewish Community Center of Mid-Westchester to present them as the hub of the Jewish community. The visual identity system provides a more dynamic look and the flexibility that allows staff to create a range of marketing materials with maintaining a consistent look.
Program Guide
The Annual Program Guide introduces the new look with photos emerging from the logo. A redesigned Application Form divides the sections with colors and makes it easy to register up to 4 people simultaneously.
Agency Brochure
The agency brochure is organized around thematic topics rather than the traditional departments. This helps donors as well as members to understand the underlying values that the JCC believes in to help people connect with the organization on a deeper level.
Program Branding
To create an independent look for the Bendheim Performing Arts Center that is still related to the overall JCC branding, we use the overlapping chips to create a spotlight effect and introduce a magenta color to the organizational color palette. Use of the same typefaces maintain consistency with the organizational brand. The Performing Art Center is able to maintain its own identity but still connect with the JCC.
Event & Sponsorship Marketing
We also create a suite of marketing materials to promote recruitment and fundraising for the Maccabi Games, the Olympic-style event for Jewish teens. See the award-winning campaign we created for the Maccabi Games.
Links
- See how we developed the JCC’s award-winning event promotional materials.
- See other examples of nonprofit branding.
- Contact Red Rooster Group to learn about branding and design for your organization.
Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.
Are you hiding your message from your donors?
Are you hiding your message from your donors?
In today’s environment, it is more critical than ever to have your communications be as crisp and targeted as possible. In his article, The Dance of the Four Veils, Tom Ahern describes the hinderances to communications. I would add a fourth veil: that of poor design, a factor which is often overlooked by nonprofits.
Poor design hinders your communication in many ways. When your reader doesn’t know what to look at first on your website or newsletter, or can’t focus on your message because of the distracting formatting, you are doing a dis-service your communications.
A strong design will lead lead your reader through your message in the sequence you want, including getting the full emotional impact from well-selected images, to understanding the impact, through your writing, to connecting with your brand, through your colors and overall attitude conveyed.
Don’t let design be the overlooked element that hinders readers from connecting with your cause
Veil Number One: Avoiding Conflict at All Costs
Veil Number Two: A Tendency toward Weak, Bland Language Rather Than Bold, Vivid Words
Veil Number Three: Faint Appreciation for the Emotional Basis of Human Response
Veil Number Four: Relying on Jargon
The Dance of the Four Veils
http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1410:the-dance-of-the-four-veils&catid=150:from-the-archives
In today’s environment, it is more critical than ever to have your communications be as crisp and targeted as possible. In his article, The Dance of the Four Veils, Tom Ahern describes four hinderances to communications. I would add a fifth veil: that of poor design, a factor which is often overlooked by nonprofits.Continue reading
Use Icons to Tell Complex Stories
GreenDepot’s use of icons to explain the environmental benefits of their various products can serve as a model for nonprofits in telling a complex story. Each of their products features a strip of icons above the description to indicate the eco attributes they possess. You can then click to find out more about each attribute – a nice way to present a lot of information in a useful way. Nonprofits can similarly use this system to showcase specific services for various audiences or convey the benefits of particular programs.
SOURCE: greendepot.com
Craftsman Farms Brochure
CLIENT: Gustav Stickley House & Museum
We designed this brochure to promote the home turned museum of Gustav Stickley, founder of the Arts & Crafts movement, a cultural institution. The typography of the brochure evokes the Arts & Crafts style and drawings of various details provide points of interest. The brochure was produced through Pro Bono Inc.
Links
- See more brochures.
- See Business Nonprofit Marketing Case Studies.
- Read more about Red Rooster Group’s commitment to the nonprofit sector.
- Contract Red Rooster Group for help with your marketing.
Effective Low-Cost Marketing Tactic
In Madison Square Park today, people were handing out postcards with a pack of gum taped on. Free gum was an enticing offer and got me to take the postcard. The card itself had a compelling headline that invites you to find out more. Turns out, this is a promotion for a church. It’s not the first time that innovative marketing has helped promote religion – it seems to be part of a larger trend of reaching people “where they are” rather than where the church is. It makes use of low-cost marketing tactics that you can apply to your campaign. Here’s why I think this piece is effective:
- It provides something of value to get your attention (the free pack of gum is nice and costs them little).
- It focuses on the customer’s needs rather than the church’s (the compelling headline is very different for a church).
- It respects the reader’s intelligence (it doesn’t patronize, insult or use fear or insecurity as a motivating factor).
- It provides clues as to what to expect (the photos show a diversity of young smiling people in the church).
- It provide specific instructions as to what to do (lists services to attend, how to enter and gives other benefits, such as “Childcare available.”
- It provide a link to the website for more information.
- It was inexpensive to produce (the gum was taped on with a loop of masking tape).
- It was distributed to people in their demographic (by someone who could answer questions and be an advocate for the church).
Free Videos for Nonprofits
YouTube
In partnership with All for Good, YouTube is launching “Video Volunteers,” a platform designed to make connections between non-profit organizations with video needs and skilled video makers who can help broadcast their causes through video. Video Volunteers will pool nonprofit, video-related volunteer postings from All for Good and then match them up with YouTubers who want to volunteer their video-creating skills to make a difference. Because many YouTubers have amassed a large online audience, the influence of their work on behalf of nonprofits can have a big effect in raising the profile of the causes nonprofits are working on and can drive others online to take action. Here’s how it works: Starting today, nonprofits can post video assignments (with the words “Video Volunteers” in the description) on idealist.org, serve.gov or volunteermatch.org; these posts will be cycled through the Video Volunteers feed of the All for Good widget on youtube.com/videovolunteers. YouTube Video Volunteers can visit youtube.com/videovolunteers to pick up assignments directly from nonprofits. Select videos will be showcased on the Video Volunteers YouTube channel and in other high-traffic areas of YouTub
From Business Wire
In partnership with All for Good, YouTube is launching “Video Volunteers,” a platform designed to make connections between non-profit organizations with video needs and skilled video makers who can help broadcast their causes through video. Video Volunteers will pool nonprofit, video-related volunteer postings from All for Good and then match them up with YouTubers who want to volunteer their video-creating skills to make a difference.
Because many YouTubers have amassed a large online audience, the influence of their work on behalf of nonprofits can have a big effect in raising the profile of the causes nonprofits are working on and can drive others online to take action. Here’s how it works: Starting today, nonprofits can post video assignments (with the words “Video Volunteers” in the description) on idealist.org, serve.gov or volunteermatch.org; these posts will be cycled through the Video Volunteers feed of the All for Good widget on youtube.com/videovolunteers. YouTube Video Volunteers can visit youtube.com/videovolunteers to pick up assignments directly from nonprofits. Select videos will be showcased on the Video Volunteers YouTube channel and in other high-traffic areas of YouTube.