Case Study
Project Elements
WIX/ Facebook Ads / Graphic Design / Social Media
Art a la Carte (AALC) is a charity operating out of Calgary, Alberta in Canada. Founded over 25 years ago, AALC seeks to use the power of art to inspire hope and rehabilitate patients that are in a critical state or suffering from neurological conditions. AALC started by brightening long term patient’s rooms using a selection of donated art that a patient could choose from. This simple act transformed the room from a sterile hospital bed into a safe space that they could heal in. AALC soon grew to work actively with patients suffering neurological conditions, including a lot of work directly with dementia patients, to create art directly with the patients. This interactive experience stimulates the mind and allows the patients to escape the hospital to wherever their imagination will take them and of course it provides a lot of fun.
AALC is 99% volunteer based and relies heavily on donations to keep the charity operating. As many charities made the progression to online donation, AALC found it difficult to secure consistent funding online. Although AALC has been operating for over two decades, the social media of the charity was unfortunately de-prioritised resulting in a small following and no formal email database to reach donors.
10,000 Smiles Campaign
Aurora Web was contracted by AALC to come up with a campaign to encourage donations as the year was coming to a close. The holiday season is an extremely popular time to give for many and AALC was counting on the generous support of the public to help them fund another year of their work.
Aurora Web came up with the 10,000 Smiles campaign. A set target of $10,000 to be raised that would eventuate in 10,000 smiles brought to the individuals that AALC helps every day. This campaign had several key elements:
- Custom branding and design for Social media, emails and the website
- Targeted messages to help viewers understand the value of their donations
- Streamlining the donation portal on the website to assist willing donors
- Left field approaches including a Reddit IAMA (I am, Ask Me Anything)
The campaign was an overall success for AALC as they exceeded their donations goal receiving donations from over XXX people.
Social Media Campaign
Facebook provides an excellent platform to advertise to a specific demographics in order to increase the chance that the message delivered will resonate with the viewer. Every person that likes the page will then act like a mailing list – constantly receiving updates about the charity as posts are made on the page. Aurora Web worked with AALC to help drive up engagement on the Facebook and to set them up for success after the contract was done. Some key elements included:
- Setting up a blog on the main website to cross post to Facebook
- Running paid adverts to promote key info to new audiences
- Connected a Donate button to the Facebook to promote the call to action
Email Database
When AALC contacted Aurora Web they communicated to their previous donors via individual emails sent from the director’s personal email account. This resulted in an enormous amount of work for the director every time a new campaign is launched, or general communication sent out. As a result, Aurora Web set up a database that included all current contacts, grouped by role (Volunteers, Donors etc.) and merged that database with Mail Chimp – an email communication tool. Mail Chimp was also then connected to the website sign up form meaning that new users that signed up to the newsletter would automatically be added to Mail Chimp.
AALC now can send communication to all or selected members of their contact database at a single push of the button.