After years of working with the non-profit space, our team has learned that, not only is it a challenge to pull and maintain attention, it can also be a challenge to resource the expertise needed to stand out and grow. Getting a leg up can be really tough for small, under-funded non-profit organizations and we saw a real need for us to do something to help. Paper Crane’s Flight Program was created to support such non-profits who may not be able to afford the agency fees.
As it turns out, we weren’t alone in our passion for supporting Canada’s non-profit sector. After we launched the Flight Program, a partner agency, WMCco, reached out to lend their support to the program. With their support, The Flight Program would be able to offer clear testing and direction to inform the marketing strategy we develop for our chosen candidate.
The Paper Crane and WMCco teams agreed that, for us to have the biggest impact on our community, we were looking for a non-profit with a strong mission, clear need for strategic support, and that would be ready and able to implement our recommendations.
“We were in awe of the quality of candidates and the diversity of impact that each organization was having on its community locally and globally,” says Paper Crane’s Strategy and Content Lead, Christy Seville. “That we could be even a small part of the impact these organizations were making was truly inspiring.”
We found the perfect organization in the form of a scrappy non-profit with a unique mission, passionate team and clear need for strategic support: The Impact Society.
The Impact Society’s application clearly expressed their need for more intentional and strategic marketing to increase awareness and adoption of their evidence-based programming within schools and beyond. Here was a non-profit ready to leave the nest and take flight.
"Reading through the submissions, you could feel how much these organizations pour into their work with so little support to help them grow, and that's exactly why the Flight Program matters," says Julie Wieler, Founder of WMCco. "Impact Society stood out because their plan for their mission was so clear and so thorough. They didn't need someone to hand them a new direction, they needed someone to help them tell their story and stretch every dollar further. Getting to be part of that felt like a privilege."
“Many not-for-profits achieve miracles on razor-thin budgets, but too often lack the strategic backbone needed to scale their vision. That is exactly why we created the Flight Program,” explains Paper Crane CEO, Tara Collins. “We knew organizations like Impact Society had all the right ingredients—heart, track record and a dedicated team—to execute a truly impactful strategy.”
Working with our team doesn’t mean that The Impact Society will suddenly have more money to spend; it means that they can be more certain of how to strategically allocate their current resources to have the most impact. We expect this to present itself as more opportunity, awareness and donations from the Alberta community and beyond.
Follow along to see how this project evolves as we continue to build opportunities for non-profit organizations to create intentional marketing.
