Fundraising Day in New York Marriage Counseling: How

Fundraising Day in New York
6/27/14
Marriage Counseling:
How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
Who is City Harvest?
Marriage Counseling: How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
Speakers:
Heather Wallace Gary Laermer
Vice President Marketing, Senior Vice President &
City
Harvest
Moderator:
 
 
 
Chief Development Officer
YMCA NYC
 
 
Lisa Maska, CFRE
Partner, Lautman Maska Neill & Company
Marketing Department
Structure
A Strong Brand Is the
Foundation for Fundraising
Success
 
Creates legitimacy
 
Attracts new donors/partners
 
Helps tell your story
 
Helps break out of the clutter
As the world’s first food rescue organization, City Harvest’s mission
is to end hunger in communities throughout New York City. This year, City Harvest will rescue 46 million pounds of excess food
from all segments of the food industry including restaurants,
grocers, farms and manufacturers. City Harvest delivers rescued food free of charge to some 400
community food programs using a fleet of trucks and bikes.
Nutrient-rich food including dairy, meats, fruits and vegetables now
comprise more than 75 percent of deliveries. Through our Healthy Neighborhoods program, City Harvest is
working to meet the immediate demand for food while also
promoting long-term food security by increasing access to and
demand for affordable, healthy food in the communities we serve.
Marketing & Fundraising: Where
They Fit at City Harvest
Brand Should NOT Limit
Creativity
 
Key identity pieces should adhere strictly to
guidelines – these pieces set the look/feel/
personality of your organization
 
Fundraising materials need to resonate with
donors – flexibility of design is necessary
 
Good brand management is about a consistent
look and feel – not a rigid design/style guide
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Fundraising Day in New York
6/27/14
Marriage Counseling:
How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
There is Room for
Creativity!
 
Direct mail
 
Special Events
 
Major donor fundraising
 
Partner promotions
 
Advertising
 
Website/Social Media
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Fundraising Day in New York
6/27/14
Marriage Counseling:
How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
Branding: More Than Just the
Visual
  Consistent messaging across functions
is essential!
◦  Make it formal
◦  Make it collaborative
◦  Make it flexible
◦  Make it easily accessible
◦  Make sure it evolves
◦  Make sure it works!
Process: How to Manage it All
 
 
Earlier collaborative work on messaging minimizes
edits/eliminates broader review process
New creative reviewed within teams with ED final
review/approval
 
Marketing produces ‘designed’ materials for all areas of
organization
 
New language outside of core messaging developed by
Communications team
Marketing & Fundraising Strategy =
Success
35000000
City Harvest Revenue 2004-2014
30000000
25000000
20000000
15000000
10000000
Participant Outcomes:
•  How branding and building brand
equity support charitable messaging
•  When to relax brand guidelines to
ensure the best fundraising results
•  How to balance the needs of
branding and fundraising across
channels
5000000
0
FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14
Marketing
Dept. Fund
Raising 3
Fundraising Day in New York
6/27/14
Marriage Counseling:
How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
Marketing
Dept. Fund
Fund
Raising
Raising
Marketing
Market for awareness
Reinforcing “the things you
do” Can be transactional
Speaks to everyone
Reinforces brand equity
Fund Raising
Communicating
Why “the things you do”
is needed – case
Emotional
Drives to a desired
response
Less transactional – more
relationship Educates
Reinforces your impact
The Y. So Much
More
•  Find a creative middle ground
•  Use a third party
•  Establish a framework that
works for multiple messages
•  Define your relationship
roadmap
•  Pre-print pieces in
advance for efficiency
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Fundraising Day in New York
6/27/14
Marriage Counseling:
How Fundraising and Branding Can Live Happily Ever After
SAMPLE MESSAGE MATRIX
SUMMER CAMP
PROGRAM
•  Have an agreed upon
message matrix. •  Each program can also have
an established set of
message guidelines. PROOF
POINTS
Summer is the season of rapid learning loss, as unstructured time weakens all the progress that
has been achieved during the school year. To keep kids engaged and active throughout the
summer months, YMCA Summer Camp connects with 10,000 youth via fun, structured activities
that encourage healthy growth in spirit, mind and body. All kids are welcome in our Summer
Camp program, which incorporates swimming, arts and crafts, recreation and sports, field trips,
literacy initiatives and character development to provide kids with positive and fun
developmental experiences and to prevent learning loss during the summer months.
Need
• 
• 
Unequal opportunity to learn year-round. Two-thirds of ninth-grade reading achievement
gap can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities, contributing to
fewer disadvantaged youth graduating from high school or entering college.*
Achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening. In recent decades, class has
outpaced race as the biggest determinant of academic achievement.**
Impact
• 
• 
Quantitative improvement: 10,000 youth are engaged throughout the summer months at
YMCA summer camps
Summer learning loss is minimized: helping to bolster educational outcomes.
Sidestepping misbehavior: Each summer camp experience represents a potential unhealthy
experience avoided.
"What I worry about a lot is summer reading loss. You have kids who don't have a lot of books
at home and aren't read to. You get kids to a certain point in June, and when they come back in
September, they're further behind than when they left you three months ago. It's heartbreaking.
I'm not saying we need to do more of the school day in the summer, but it's all the
opportunities that middle class kids have, to develop a skill or interest, to get drama or
athletics, to get tutoring or be read to.“
• 
What People
Are Saying
—Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, March 25, 2009 Interview in Education Daily***
•  The greatest challenge
to brand consistency is
high staff turnover. •  When the marriage works, you build
brand equity.
•  If you only communicate what you do,
you’ll never be able to do anything else
without seeming to be opportunistic, out
of touch or not expert enough to begin a
new venture.
•  The second is changing the message to
fit the platform. Be consistent. •  Use platforms that fit your message.
Don’t chase messaging fads.
•  Make the platform work for you! Don’t
do it just so you can say you did. Thank You!
Heather Wallace hwallace@cityharvest.org
Gary Laermer
glaermer@ymcanyc.org
Lisa Maska
lmaska@lautmandc.com 5