Transcript of Video
Customer Success Story
Project: Online Rebrand
Solution: Andar e-Community & Andar e-Pledge
Customer: United Way Elgin Middlesex, London, ON
Featuring: Aness Symons, Associate Director, Communications & Donor Experience
My name is Aness, I work for United Way Elgin Middlesex, and I have been here for about eight years now; and I’ve had a number of different roles since I’ve been here. I started out-in Fund Development, I did that for three years, and then we actually had purchased Andar and they wanted somebody with a fundraising background who kind of understood the tool to move into a fulltime Andar position for a couple of years to really look at maximizing and how we were using it. So, I did a two-year secondment, which turned into a fulltime long-term position; and then most recently last year I became Associate Director of Communications.
Why did you update your online brand?
We realized that our site (the branding, the colour scheme, things like that) really weren’t in line with our national brand, and we wanted to make sure the donor experience was really positive. So, when we first started out with Andar we had a basic template, it had been working for us, but we had gotten to a point where it wasn’t really user responsive any more.
What’s the biggest risk of not updating your online brand?
One of the big things that we’re seeing in our office, but across United Ways is the move of corporations to third party tools. So, for us, we really wanted to make sure that the online platform we were giving them for their employee donations was as responsive as possible; otherwise we would be looking at other major corporations going to use those platforms. And I think the one we came up with has really delivered. From little things like buttons for your pledge type as opposed to just a bunch of text on a page, the feedback we received this year was really, really positive. So, we are fairly confident that those corporations are going to stick with us as opposed to moving to a third-party platform.
What were some of your rebrand goals?
One of our biggest goals was – we amalgamated with another United Way last year – we really wanted a consolidated brand platform, and we definitely reached that goal. And again, by having it all in one tool, we only had to build it once instead of going into multiple tools, and swap out logos, and swap out contact information, and all of that stuff. It definitely simplified meeting that goal of rebranding. Now everything is beautiful, and it matches the website, and it matches our email templates, and we have switched everything over to be bilingual as well.
What were the results and benefits of your efforts?
The feedback we’re getting is really, really positive. And I think, you know, when I’m looking at other not-for-profits – obviously we do a lot of research in what other people are doing – what do their online systems look like if I go on as a donor, at this point we’re competitive, which is key. If somebody comes on and they have a negative experience we know they’re unlikely to come back. So, we want to get them the first time, and I think we’re doing a good job of that.
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