You may have seen these key phrases on advertisements, or even shed a tear at the ASPCA’s commercials with Sarah Mclachlan’s “Angel” playing in the background. These calls-to-action are a few tools that non-profit organizations incorporate into their campaigns to help meet their fundraising goals.

Over the years we have been honored to work with local non-profit organizations such as HI-HOPE and Annandale Village to increase their exposure and help their fundraising projects become successful. Both HI-HOPE and Annandale have an established brand, but for capital campaigns it’s important to develop a separate brand for a specific charity event. A great example of this is HI-HOPE’S Harvest Moon Gala. The event was held on a beautiful farm in the fall with elegant rustic details. We took those elements and incorporated them into the logo, and then carried those design components over to other graphic assets such as invites, eblasts, and print materials.

Getting the word out and making sure you have all the correct information about your event is essential to the success of the fundraiser. Incorporating the right marketing materials not only keeps your donors informed, but helps spread the word to gain new potential donors.

Working with Annandale Village, we created different marketing materials for their biggest fundraising event of the year, Jazzy Thing, which brings in more than a thousand attendees. Part of those printed materials included the invitation, response card, postcards, flyers and posters, just to name a few.

The big get-away travel raffles are a highlight of Jazzy Thing. Keeping the same branding for the event, we designed a separate postcard to emphasize the raffles, but also maintained the importance and message of the overall event. Kiss-A-Pig is another anticipated part of Jazzy Thing, in which community leaders campaign and compete for donations. We designed pledge cards that were incorporated into the marketing materials for each individual candidate to hand out to help gain exposure and donations.

In your marketing campaign, focus on integrating the designs into a digital format. If your non-profit has a website, not only should you include a calendar so donors can see upcoming events, but also include a separate page for the event itself. That way it not only draws people to your site, but keeps your viewers informed and up-to-date on the event. Take full advantage of the different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Social media not only helps reach your donors faster, but increases the amount of viewers reached. Whether it’s on your website or social media, make sure to have a donate button or a link listed that is clear and easy to access allowing people to make a donation to your event.

Even after your event is over, your campaign is still not quite finished. A well-designed and thoughtful thank you card is not only polite, but a great way to make the donors feel special for being part of the success of the event. It’s a great way to capitalize on the brand and designs one last time after a successful campaign while still making an impact.