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Archive for the ‘branding’ Category

Does brand kill fundraising?

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Being a subscriber to a few blogs ensures I don’t miss a thing people are writing about. One of my favourites is written by Jeff Brooks over at Donor Power Blog. Time and time again he nails something that is floating around in my head, and he obviously feels that he can speak the truth and tell it like it is. His post on “Does Brand Kill Fundraising” is a case in point.

He says “…in the real world, branding shackles fundraising. And the more involved the branding effort is, the more damage it does to fundraising revenue.”

He makes a great point about how the very nature of branding is that it is all about you. Which is just great.

But what about your donor? Where is your brand book that is all about your donors? What? You don’t have one?

Jeff closes with, “Keep your brand simple. And not about you.”

I don’t completely agree with him on that. You do need to have a common voice, a common way of communicating with your donor. You need every touch point a donor might have with your charity to be a similar, inspiring and helpful experience – but one that constantly engages the donor and makes it about them… Like Jeff says, keep your brand simple, and focus on what’s most important – your donor…

And I will personally design and put together a brand book for FREE the first charity who wants to create one all about their donor.

Posted in Basic Design, Inspiration, Two Cents, branding | 5 Comments »

A Creative Checklist

Monday, September 8th, 2008

A few years ago, I got to sit in a session hosted by Derek Humphries from the UK firm THINK Consulting. If you are into creative, and you get a chance, Derek is one of those guys you need to hear speak. His colleague Tony Elischer, is also fantastic.

As part of the session – Derek passed us a checklist of things you should look at before you release your dm/brochure/welcome kit/etc into the world.

1. Is it on brief? (Does the solution suit the original problem formed in the creative brief?)
2. Is it factually accurate?
3. Is it clear who we are talking to?
4. Is it clear what we are asking?
5. Have you explained why?
6. Does it sound important?
7. Is the point made simply?
8. Is the response device (for the donor) simple and easy?
9. Are we doing something that has never been done before?
10. AND MOST IMPORTANT – Does it sing?

I love this list because it’s helped me keep the design I do focused and on target through the years. Your communication piece to donors does not have to be complicated, just stick to the checklist.

Posted in Basic Design, Inspiration, branding | 1 Comment »

The importance of a Welcome Kit

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Early this year, I was asked by Wasila Basset and Kelly Ellis of UNICEF Canada to critique their Global Parent Welcome Kit. Global Parent is the name for one of their monthly donor programs.

I was delighted to have this opportunity to do some research into the Canadian marketplace to see what other charities were doing, as well as to just use my creative brain to analyze the current design.

Currently, it is safe to say that Canada is not awash with welcome kits. There are a number of reasons for that. The first is cost, I think that some charities think that it is wasteful spending to produce a welcome kit for their donor. Welcome kits = $$$$$$$$$…. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The second is value. I can hear the board now… “We don’t see the point in spending so much time and effort for a donor who may never give again.” How can you quantify the results of having a welcome kit for your donors?

There are many more resources out there to tell you about the importance of developing donor relationships. But I believe in my heart of hearts that if you can reach a potential donor in a way that moves them and makes them care about what you do, they will support you. But you need to do it in a way that is appropriate and honest.

Back to Welcome Kits. The role of the welcome kit is very simple. First, it is to welcome your new donor to your charity. But second, and more important, this is your opportunity to thank them, over and over and remind them they have made an incredibly good decision by joining you in your mission.

And it doesn’t need to be fancy and it doesn’t need to cost a small fortune. But it needs to be representative of your charity and it needs to be appropriate to your donor.

In the coming weeks I will show you how we are developing the Global Parents welcome kit but I would like to hear about your thoughts about Welcome Kits. Good idea or wasteful spending?

Posted in Basic Design, Two Cents, branding | 3 Comments »

My Two Cents: Stock images

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I’m not exactly sure where this would rank on your list of “Things I should be worried about” but I will go out on a limb and guess it’s not very high.

But I would like you to reconsider.

One of the most popular stock image sites out there is istockphoto. I know – I use it all the time. It’s relatively inexpensive and there is a great selection with new shots coming online all the time.

Here’s the problem. Everyone else I know is using it all the time. Good for istock – bad for you. Why?

Consider this, you’ve spent countless hours or funds to craft a beautiful letter from one of your donors. It’s moving, emotional, riveting and you know it’s not only going to knock the socks off your other donors but make them immediately drop $50 in the BRE and send it to you.

Your designer pulls a nice shot of your letter signer off istock – who now becomes the face of this signer.

Your donors, a day after mailing their $50 to you, are flipping through their local newspaper. Here is a massive ad for that new condo that is being built in town. And in that massive ad is a massive picture of… hold on… isn’t that the same picture of the woman that was the letter signer for… Yah.

Stock is great, versitle and cheap. Do you donors feel lied to in a situation like this? Do they start to doubt the authenticity of your letters? Of everything?

I know donors out there who think that letter of yours REALLY did come from who you tell them it came from. They believe you because they trust you.

I make a point of either taking my own images when I can or leave it to the professionals when I think I can manage the budget. At the very least, I try to alter the images in some way to make it unique.

I just want you to remember – your donors trust you. They believe what you tell them. Be truthful to them in every way that you can. “Transparency” is one of THE business concepts of this still very young 21st century.

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You might notice a shiny new badge on the right there from Alltop who has listed The Naked Idea in their impressive “who’s who” blog roll because they feel I am kicking some serious ass with this blog. Take a look at their site and maybe you will find one or two new favourite blogs to follow.

Posted in Blogs, Two Cents, branding | 2 Comments »

Welcome to Idea Design 2.0

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

Spring is, of course, a time of renewal. After six months, Idea Design 2.0 is here. And welcome.The revised site and blog really encapsulate all that we believe. Please take a few minutes and poke about, subscribe to the blog, email me your thoughts, critiques or to discuss what we can do for you.Thanks for coming by and we look forward to you inspiring us today.

Posted in Blogs, branding | No Comments »

Moving The Naked Idea

Monday, March 17th, 2008

I hope this is my last post on blogger.

I blogged a while back about the redesign of Idea Design. This has been a year long project with many ups and downs and has given me the opportunity to step back and really analyze what Idea Design has to offer to the sector of fund raising and more importantly, it’s clients and customers.

I got to work with an amazing writer and designer, Kim McMullen of Flipside Creative from Vancouver who left no stone unturned in her search to understand what Idea Design does and who we work for.

I finally understood what it was like to be on the other side of the fence – I was now (deep breath) the client! A very scary prospect indeed, but unique in the sense that I could understand why some clients react the way they do and resist against some types of changes.

But Kim was gentle. She found the voice in my head, she got to the very heart of what it is that I do and my feelings for the creative I produce. And executed it flawlessly.

Other creative colleagues expressed surprise that I would allow another to rebrand me. I think like all clients, we know what’s best for us and what the correct solution is – but we are blinded by those beliefs as well.

You’ll have to ask Kim, but I believe I was a good client. I challenged her, I pushed her and I respected the hell out of her for what she was doing for me and my company. It’s a tough job.

So now, I have been working with the uber-patient Paul Koehler, of Omega Station to make it sing. And it is thrilling to see all the jigsaw puzzle pieces fall into place.

The job of a programmer-designer is probably a thankless one. There is so much of the process that goes unnoticed and misunderstood (Paul has caught me going “huh??” on more than an a few occasions)… and yet so important.

And so, I hope to be relaunching Idea Design one week from today – and at the risk of offending all Christians around the world – almost to the day that Jesus rose from the dead. There’s something symbolic in that I think.

I have tried to be a good client and let the talented people around me do their absolute best for me and I hope I succeeded.

You will be the judge on that. Stay tuned.

Posted in Blogs, branding | 1 Comment »