Reading In Motion:
Reading Heroes
A superhero-themed fundraising appeal campaign raising over $50,000 for critical early literacy programming in Chicago, Las Vegas, and Detroit.
Fundraising Campaign
12 Weeks
Project Timeline
Campaign Strategist & Creative Lead
My Role
Print & Digital Fundraising Campaign
Deliverables
About the project
After a difficult year of remote learning due to COVID-19, we had limited resources and a big fundraising goal. We needed a Spring fundraising campaign that would:
Celebrate student progress and capture the tangible impact of every donation
Introduce the organization's mission to new audiences
Inspire donors and reignite enthusiasm despite the pandemic overwhelm
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The Challenge
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My goal was to design and execute a cohesive, story-driven campaign
that would...
1. Capture attention and spark joy in a saturated fundraising landscape
2. Translate the complexities of literacy development into an engaging, accessible narrative
3. Motivate donors to see themselves as crucial allies in every student’s reading journey
The Goal
I partnered with the Director of Development to build a campaign that would unfold over three months as a serialized story, building anticipation and engaging different donor audiences.
Every element was designed to make the impact of literacy education visible and memorable, guiding stakeholders through the journeys students go through to reach grade-level literacy.
Reading Heroes was a unified, story-driven fundraising campaign spanning email, print, and social media.
The SOLUTION
The creative direction was inspired by a type of storytelling most popular with our students: comic books.
During a time when many people felt powerless to help, Reading Heroes offered donors a way to be part of something hopeful and tangible with stories of discovery, courage, and transformation.
Technical difficulties and distractions became villains, literacy fundamentals became superpowers, donors became allies, and, most notably, students became superheroes.
The Concept
Below is a sampling of the campaign's components, including designs, email communications, printed materials, and a social post. I was the strategist, copywriter, designer, and illustrator for this campaign.
Reading Heroes Campaign
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Student Designs
Throughout the narrative of the campaign they grew as readers to become the Reading Heroes: Sparks the Phonics Hero, Millennium the Vocabulary Hero, and Supersonic the Fluency Hero.
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Printed Mailers
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Email Campaign
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Social Media
The Deliverables