Emotional Connection Helps American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge Reach its Fundraising Goals

New York, July 13, 2009 — Faced with a difficult environment for fundraising, The American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge is getting donations by asking people to give hope.

Located in New York City, Hope Lodge Jerome L. Greene Family Center is a safe and free place for cancer patients and families to live while receiving treatment from some of the best cancer centers in the world. They turned to CBX Strategic Branding in New York to create collateral materials for a $50 million major gifts campaign.

“Designed to be delivered personally, the elements work together to establish an emotional connection,” says Gregg Lipman, Managing Partner at CBX. “It’s driven by the message of giving hope, giving from the heart, instead of asking for money.” The campaign’s power comes from looking through the eyes of past residents and past donors and reading their stories.

The CBX design team worked closely with the Hope Lodge campaign committee to create an entirely new visual system and contemporary palette while leveraging both the ACS corporate identity and current Hope Lodge website. Wide use of large, close-up photography keeps the focus on hope and life. Warm and lively colors including yellows, greens, and oranges, convey the vitality and hope of those patients who are fighting cancer.

The components of the campaign include:
*A tri-fold with an 8-page brochure inset that unveils a message of compassion. Full-page photos depict guests as heroes with their stories as well as enduring messages regarding the purpose, power and impact of Hope Lodge. *The Donor Profile Page stands out with a cooler color palette of blue and green to differentiate the donor heroes from the guest heroes.
*The Vital Statistics page provides numbers about Hope Lodge operations and savings to guests at the lodge with an easy-to-read grid system that organizes the information while maintaining impact through the use of color and copy size.
*The Quarterly Newsletter is a direct mail piece that is sent to anyone in the ACS community. It is editorial by design and able to stand on its own, while maintaining its aesthetic fit with the donor brochure based on the color palette and layout.

The first three components listed above target potential donors of $10,000 or more.

The new visual system is being extended to outdoor signage, print advertising, and campaign displays inside the Hope Lodge lobby. Because of the great initial success of the campaign, ACS has extended it to other lodges around New York State as well.

“In tough economic times we needed a completely new and different approach for our major gifts campaign. CBX provided us with materials that successfully connect potential donors with Hope Lodge, thus increasing the likelihood of a donation,” says Mady Schuman, American Cancer Society senior vice president, campaign and leadership giving, “It was also an added bonus for CBX to design the Hope Lodge collateral pieces pro bono thus giving us more flexibility in our budget to respond to the needs of Hope Lodge services.”

About CBX
CBX is a strategic branding consultancy specializing in corporate identity, consumer branding and retail. The company was founded in 2003 and has a client base that includes Johnson & Johnson, Del Monte, General Mills, Kimberly Clark and Petro China. In addition to its New York City headquarters, CBX has offices in San Francisco and Minneapolis and, with the CBX Worldwide Partnership has operating offices in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Melbourne, Shanghai, London and Amsterdam.

About Hope Lodge
Hope Lodge New York City is one of 28 American Cancer Society Hope Lodges located near major cancer centers throughout the nation. With seven additional lodges in development, the ACS plans to extend the Hope Lodge network to more than 50 locations by 2015.