Los Alamos National Laboratory is an incredible, buzzing place for world-class science with approximately 10,000 employees. It was originally founded to create the first atomic weapon in World War II. Now, it has a has a population of nearly one in five people having a phD, making the town of Los Alamos an oasis of smarts, top-ranking schools, and impressive incomes.
Los Alamos is located in northern New Mexico. New Mexico–on the other hand–ranks last, or close to last, in nearly everything on talkpoverty.org. New Mexico is rated 49th for overall poverty, 50th for high school graduation rates and–wait for it–51st for children living below poverty line (if you didn't know you could rank past 50, well, apparently you can). To say this state could use a little financial help is an understatement.
As a graphic designer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, I was tasked to be the designer for the Employee Giving Campaign. Beyond excited for this opportunity, I took this job very seriously, but I realized I didn't understand or even pay attention to the previous year's campaign. I had no idea that Los Alamos National Laboratory would match a portion, around 40 cents on the dollar, of ANY size of donation donation to ANY nonprofit organization. I took it upon myself to try to get the attention of people like me–young and distracted–with the new-age-attention-span of a goldfish (or less). New Mexico is my homeland, my state, and by increasing last year's contributions was how I was going to make an impact.
This wasn't easy. Most givers, in general, are older–meaning they have higher ranked jobs and pay, and in turn, more disposable income. A large portion Los Alamos National Laboratory's staff was nearing retirement–meaning we could lose a lot of the previous givers. It also meant trying to undo 'myths' of the campaign–I started out by creating a mini survey on a focus group of only fourteen employees–and found many of them were in the same boat I was–having no idea that the donation-contributions got a portion matched, and that they could donate to any nonprofit (not just United Way–as one woman relentlessly told me she did not want to give in the campaign because she did not want to give to United Way, because they dropped an organization she believed in. I had to correct her and tell her United Way was only one of thousands of nonprofits she could give to!).
I worked tirelessly marketing materials, banking on the financial cliche of "the cost of a cup of coffee is only five bucks and boy does that add up over time!", but instead applying it to participation. If all 10,000 employees gave $5–just $5!– that would amount to $50,000, plus the matched portion. Using Los Alamos National Laboratory's current web logo mark to imply an 'internal campaign', I designed it with words like "Give" and "The Power of Us" to have direct messaging. I also designed a "Give Where You Live" mark showing our state and surrounding counties. I branded everything with the dates and designed postcards with how-to-give instructions. My campaign team released articles on local nonprofits in our surrounding communities, and facts about the campaign to debunk the myths surrounding the campaign. I created nearly everything in Adobe Illustrator, so we had vector files that could easily be transformed to banners, posters, thankyou cards–and graphics that could be easily animated by another employee to make an explainer video on how to donate with a voiceover from a well-liked division leader. My campaign team also put on a free-coffee event–the idea being we covered their coffee, so they can go give $5–and employees had the opportunity to write the nonprofit they wanted to promote and get their picture taken (later turned into a video mashup by another employee). I designed swag–pins, bumper stickers, coffee cups, thank you cards. I did not want to leave anything up for questioning–how to donate, to whom to donate, the employer matching a portion on the contribution, or when to donate–this all had to be communicated. These 'hows', 'whens', and the 'whats' is what made this campaign an awesome opportunity for our workplace to give back to our surrounding communities, and I felt if employees knew about it somehow, through some touchpoint, they would think it was awesome too.
End result? We bumped last year's contributions from 2.2 million to 3 million.
.8 million dollars more going to nonprofits? Yep, I would say that's an impact. Design matters.
This wasn't easy. Most givers, in general, are older–meaning they have higher ranked jobs and pay, and in turn, more disposable income. A large portion Los Alamos National Laboratory's staff was nearing retirement–meaning we could lose a lot of the previous givers. It also meant trying to undo 'myths' of the campaign–I started out by creating a mini survey on a focus group of only fourteen employees–and found many of them were in the same boat I was–having no idea that the donation-contributions got a portion matched, and that they could donate to any nonprofit (not just United Way–as one woman relentlessly told me she did not want to give in the campaign because she did not want to give to United Way, because they dropped an organization she believed in. I had to correct her and tell her United Way was only one of thousands of nonprofits she could give to!).
I worked tirelessly marketing materials, banking on the financial cliche of "the cost of a cup of coffee is only five bucks and boy does that add up over time!", but instead applying it to participation. If all 10,000 employees gave $5–just $5!– that would amount to $50,000, plus the matched portion. Using Los Alamos National Laboratory's current web logo mark to imply an 'internal campaign', I designed it with words like "Give" and "The Power of Us" to have direct messaging. I also designed a "Give Where You Live" mark showing our state and surrounding counties. I branded everything with the dates and designed postcards with how-to-give instructions. My campaign team released articles on local nonprofits in our surrounding communities, and facts about the campaign to debunk the myths surrounding the campaign. I created nearly everything in Adobe Illustrator, so we had vector files that could easily be transformed to banners, posters, thankyou cards–and graphics that could be easily animated by another employee to make an explainer video on how to donate with a voiceover from a well-liked division leader. My campaign team also put on a free-coffee event–the idea being we covered their coffee, so they can go give $5–and employees had the opportunity to write the nonprofit they wanted to promote and get their picture taken (later turned into a video mashup by another employee). I designed swag–pins, bumper stickers, coffee cups, thank you cards. I did not want to leave anything up for questioning–how to donate, to whom to donate, the employer matching a portion on the contribution, or when to donate–this all had to be communicated. These 'hows', 'whens', and the 'whats' is what made this campaign an awesome opportunity for our workplace to give back to our surrounding communities, and I felt if employees knew about it somehow, through some touchpoint, they would think it was awesome too.
End result? We bumped last year's contributions from 2.2 million to 3 million.
.8 million dollars more going to nonprofits? Yep, I would say that's an impact. Design matters.
