12 reflections and shares from ’21 - part 2

The other week I posted three reflections from this past year. And today I want to focus on three more and a few things we learned along the way. Here are entries 4, 5 and 6:

4. Camp Ooch

We’ve shared various case studies about Camp Ooch over the last two years in a number of presentations. For a few reasons.

Camp Ooch is a camp, that up until 2019, sent kids who had, or have, cancer to camp, for the summer time.

Then (waves hands around) all of this happened. Covid. Ugh.

Basically overnight, this organization lost the ability to meet the core of its mission. Sending kids to camp.

But using creative stories, lots of vulnerability, emotion and compelling asks - donors have stayed connected to their giving. 

I wanted to share this example because the realities of our pandemic world meant that we couldn’t share the amazing stories happening from camp because there were none. 

So we leaned into some unexpected voices to share stories. We utilized the voices of the critters and friends that were still there at camp, holding down the fort, to keep the fun alive.

The animals weren’t just here to be cute (and they were!). They actually served a purpose. Which was to help create compelling and fun asks as well as tell unique stories from a completely different point of view.

For the purpose of this blog post, I will skip ahead to this past June, when it looked like Ooch was going to be able to send some kids and their families back to camp, our animal friends shared how they were getting camp ready for the big return.

The point is - there are many voices that can speak on behalf of or for your organization. Go beyond your CEO or board members. Be creative. Change the perspective. Channel your inner child storyteller and have FUN! 

Thanks to Jessica Rae Gordon for her amazing illustration work.

5. BC SPCA Gift catalogue

Further to the above point, this year we worked with the BC SPCA on their holiday gift guide. 

Symbolic in nature, we wanted to go a little further beyond the “$10 Gift of Warmth” idea.

The animals themselves have a lot to say about how much they appreciate these gifts and we wanted to lean in to that to give donors a fresh look at the difference these gifts can make. We used some fun illustrations to visually represent how these gifts would help.

I love this line from the insert: “Woof! I'm Harley! You know when you just feel awful all over? That's what I felt like in my old home. My mouth hurt, my fur hurt, my feet hurt, everything hurt. My owners weren't looking after me and my sister Maggie and our kitty brothers and sisters. The nice Animal Protection Officer never gave up on us and when it became clear our owners couldn't care for us, they brought us to the shelter. I can't say Health Checks are my favourite thing, but I did start to feel much better afterwards! And now, my sister Maggie and I love our new paw-rents! We're both so happy now. Thank you for saving us!” 

Thanks to Rachel Zant for creative writing and storytelling and Veronica Davies to bring it all to life with her illustrations.

6. Celebrating creativity

Finally, we use a lot of illustration in our storytelling.

I like to think of it as the Agents secret sauce, because it allows us to tell stories that you either can’t represent or capture in photography. And - as we all know, a picture is always worth a 1,000 words. 

Here are a few of my favourites from this past year.

For Humber River Hospital Foundation. Illustration by Veronica Davies.

For sofii.org. Illustration by Jessica Rae Gordon.

For Ontario Nature. Illustration by Ashley Barron.

We are so grateful to illustrators like Jessica, Veronica and Ashley Barron who help us and our clients visually tell beautiful stories to donors. And donors feel a connection to their cause and their giving since we are talking to them in such a unique way.

Thanks for reading along, as always. And stay tuned for 3 more reflections and shares from 2021!