December 16, 2014
This has been a busy month for us! Last week Unite attended Affinity Credit Union Business For Good Social Venture Challenge winner announcement (see media coverage 1, 2, 3, & 4). As the agency who worked closely with the 3 finalists, and Affinity’s community development and marketing teams, we would like to express our gratitude, excitement, and document our experience. Below are vines we took from the announcement night.
The Affinity Business-for-Good Social Venture Challenge is a crowdfunding competition between 3 social enterprises addressing social and environmental issues in Saskatoon & area. Affinity challenged Saskatoon to become a social investor and contribute to the finalist they believe has the most potential to build a better world. The campaign with the most funders would get $50,000 from Affinity Credit Union.
Saskatoon, you amazed us by overwhelmingly supporting 3 social enterprise initiatives, each with a unique story and impact, who crowdfunded over $90,000, and engaged over 1,300 contributors for the campaigns.
Unite worked with Affinity’s community development and marketing team (web, social, traditional) in articulating key objectives (e.g. defining success, key metrics), target audience analysis, and a strategy to get there. Our teams worked collaboratively in developing key messaging, and defining timelines.
Next phase was working with the 3 finalists in developing their crowdfunding strategies, stories, videos (production – see below), Indiegogo pages, perks, and key messaging, including clear call to action. This campaign was a community and movement building exercise for the organizations backing the social enterprise ideas. As was anticipated some of the initiatives exceeded the initial goal set by Affinity ($10,000) early, and Unite was involved in proactively advising them changes in strategy, and updates on the fly. We will write a Unite Digital Tip of the Month blog post on this topic.
Overall the campaign was an astounding success in many ways. First, all organizations involved generated great momentum and engagement, reaching out to their base of supporters to vote by dollars. Second, Saskatoon overwhelmingly supporting social enterprises in the form of crowdfunding demonstrates we are fertile and ready for supporting and inspiring social and environmental good through business, in this digital age.
About Unite
Unite helps positive messages spread and purpose driven organizations succeed through strategic marketing, creative ideas, and high-quality media.
Unite is one of the first marketing worker owned cooperatives in Western Canada. This model helps us deliver high quality marketing solutions by bringing together highly experienced professionals in marketing, strategy, social media, design, web development, video production, and other services on-demand.