After Dark Gala: A Brighter Path Foundation
Gamifying a nonprofit's annual gala to boost donor engagement, networking, and fundraising success.
Background
IFB Solutions (formerly Winston-Salem Industries for the Blind) is the largest employer of people who are blind or visually impaired in the United States, a group with a near 70 percent unemployment rate.
What started more than 80 years ago as a two-room shop has grown into a national multimillion-dollar enterprise. As part of their offering to the visually-impaired community, A Brighter Path Foundation, their programming arm, had an annual community gala to introduce attendees to the good works being done and celebrate the generosity of current donors.
Our Approach
We were given a few parameters to work with for the event: black tie and elegant with a secret agent theme. We were also told that the core challenge with past events is that it was a challenge for leadership to mingle with donors. Guests didn’t feel inclined to mingle, reducing networking opportunities.
We decided to gamify the experience for attendees by sending them a dossier ahead of time, identifying the leadership team as secret agents they needed to identify. Then, at the event, they were given a passport book that was stamped by each agent to prove they had tracked each of them down. Guests with completed passports were then entered into a drawing for fun door prizes.
For the materials themselves, we worked with IFB’s skilled workforce to assemble and kit the materials, allowing each one to have hand-stamped and highlighted pages for a more authentic feel.
The Result
The event was a runaway success. IFB Solutions reported guests enjoyed the experience and worked hard to complete their passports. IFB leadership reported making connections with more people than they ever had in the past. And most importantly, donations were way up, making the event a profitable one.
Discipline
Graphic Design, Direct Mail
Client
IFB Solutions
Responsibilities
Design and illustration work, print production management, event planning
Project Team
Elliot Strunk, Valecia Hopper - Fifth Letter
Seth Anderson, Senior Director, Marketing and Development, IFB Solutions