What are the limitations of working with charities?
Charities face many of the same challenges as profit-making businesses – they have very tight budgets and a strong obligation to their stakeholders. But they also need to show their supporters that they are being savvy with their money and not wasting funds that could be directed at their cause.
The charity sector is highly competitive, with millions of charities competing for donations and involvement (regardless of whether their values or missions are aligned), which means the competitive set for a charity is vast and it is crucial that a charity stands out from the crowd if they are going to make a return online.
However, the level of marketing expertise can sometimes be lower than you would find in for-profit businesses, as charities often recruit staff who are passionate about their cause rather than those who have a traditional marketing background. They also have complex departmental structures that all need to be represented and are all vying for the same budgets. This can lead to a situation where there is no holistic marketing strategy and individual departments want to act in isolation, without the joined-up thinking required to achieve great results online.
Limited experience and tight budgets can also make charities more risk-adverse than for-profit businesses and a ‘play it safe’ policy doesn’t work in the digital space, where you always have to be prepared to try new ways to engage your audience and make an impact.
What are the differences between working with charities and for-profit businesses?
Fundamentally our task is the same for charities as it is for for-profit businesses. Every brand we work with needs us to use digital to present them in an engaging way that connects with their audiences online.
What are the advantages of working with charities?
Working with charities is a really rewarding and stimulating process. Firstly, people who work for charities are a really nice bunch of passionate people who wholeheartedly believe in their cause, which makes them really easy to work with. And secondly, working with a charity challenges us to think laterally and forces us to continually question how we can be efficient with assets and make best use of time and budget.
What is the effect of good design on a charity’s campaign?
A badly designed campaign is usually just a bad campaign. We have worked with charities in the past that have been swayed by gimmicks and ignored fundamental insight about the kind of concepts their audience would be receptive to, and this has been integral to the failure of that campaign. An engaging campaign that grabs people’s attention has to be appropriate to the audience and intelligently positioned.
Charities have an incredibly hard job to do because they need to connect with people emotionally and then inspire them to act. The design of the campaign – from the top-line concept, right down to the position of the “donate” button, or tone of voice in the thank you email – is instrumental in making that connection.
A good campaign can generate a response without the audience even noticing the design, it can be the reason why they donate to one charity over another without them even realising that the design has influenced their decision. That’s the power of great design.
In what circumstances does a charity approach you?
Charities usually approach us to be their digital partner through referrals, because we have built a reputation for understanding their challenges, being smart with their budgets… and being great to work with!