After we returned from Belize, I was fortunate enough to work with several non profit organizations, which I found very interesting and rewarding.
My favourite work was for Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières between the years 2005 – 2006.
Doctors Without Borders help people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters or exclusion from health care. At the core of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières identity is a commitment to independence, neutrality and impartiality. These are the MSF principles. These ideals have driven every aspect of their work – from medical care and logistics to finance and communications – since MSF was established in 1971.
I was responsible for all the creative direction and development of their Canadian fundraising for a one year period.
The campaigns I created over the next year raised millions of dollars for Doctors Without Borders.
Medicine shouldn’t be a Luxury Campaign.
This was my first campaign for MSF and I wanted it to be dramatic, using the hard stark black and white tones which made up part of the MSF Identity. The basic concept is “What if the medicines that could save your life cost a hundred times what you earn in a year?”
Many people in developing countries can’t get hold of the treatment they need to stay alive and healthy.
That’s why Médecins Sans Frontières launched the MSF Access Campaign – to find ways of ensuring that medicines could be made available for all our patients and others in developing countries.
The Access Campaign’s mission is to increase access to – and the development of – affordable, practical and effective drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests for diseases that affect people in places where we work.
I am proud to have been a part of this important work.
Long Term Challenges Campaign.
Long term challenges require long term commitment. This was a monthly giving piece, asking supporters to become regular partners by pre-authorizing a giving option.
A monthly giving program is a regular donations plan that allows donors to automatically give a specified amount to an organization each month. Many organizations find that monthly programs are a source of reliable financial support, and that they only take a minimal amount of administration work to keep them running smoothly.
The benefits to an organization of monthly giving campaigns are numerous;
- Regular, reliable donations income, making it easier to budget and plan.
- Less admin work helping donors make one-time gifts – the donation will be made automatically.
- No need to send reminder emails to donors – they can set it and forget it.
- Retention rates for monthly giving are often over 80% after one year, compared to new donor retention rates of around 23%.
- Donors are more likely to feel invested in your organization’s work and stay engaged for longer.
- Cut out the waste associated with paper donations forms, stamps, envelopes and checks.
Make a Difference Renewal Campaign.
Help make a difference for people in urgent need of medical treatment.
Here our creative showcased the areas of the world that MSF is/was making a difference – A strong visual reminder of how many countries the Doctors volunteer in. A renewal campaign is sent to supporters who have signed up for a one year term as a reminder that their help is still needed and asking them to consider another donation. It’s a fine line asking the same people and the ask has to be solid.
Identifying customers who are approaching the end of their contract can be a tedious manual process for a sales team. Constantly reaching out on a 1:1 basis can take up time and resources that can be spent elsewhere. When this process is not started in a timely manner (e.g. several months prior to expiration), renewal communications can come as a surprise for a customer, as an interruption in service could have direct business impact.
The Solution: Implementing an automated renewal process that triggers out a series of mailings that allow customers to prepare for an upcoming renewal. This will add a sense of urgency by informing them of their contract expiration date and begin a countdown within your series of emails.
This campaign also allows you to reinforce the value of your product by sending resources and useful tips on how they can make the most of your service or product. Share case studies, ideas, and prompt them to try something they haven’t before.
In many cases, you can optimize the renewal process in order to continue your partnership with your customers. Renewing a contract should be easy and painless. In some cases, an incentive to renew can be included to give customers a reason to renew early.
The Christmas Campaign.
Taking a slightly festive approach to this direct mail piece by using a red envelope and showing children’s faces through the window on the envelope proved very successful. The small detachable bottom section allowed supporter to sign a Christmas card which could be placed n local hospitals showing the children that people cared for them.
This campaign generated a 9% response.
To put that in perspective, direct mail has an average response rate of 4.4 percent, compared to a 0.12 percent response rate for email, so my creative generate returns twice the industry average. In retrospect, these results were what allowed me to continue growing in the creative industry – I seemed to always have an intuitive ability to adapt to any industry I worked in…
Advertising Support.
On several occasions, when disaster struck, Doctors Without Borders would want ads created overnight to start raising relief funds. This is one example of an entire campaign done virtually overnight for an Earthquake in Iran.
It was a good year and I knew that every piece that I created had an impact on one patient by successfully triggering one donation at a time.
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