- Organization Name:
- AIDS Resource Center Ohio
- Describe your creative piece – what is it and what has it been used for, and why is it innovative?
- AIDS Resource Center Ohio (ARC Ohio) celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2009/2010 and needed an annual report to reflect annual accomplishments as well as celebrate this historic milestone. We wanted the message to be fresh, uplifting and people focused. However, celebrating the 25th anniversary of an organization who has been witness to the loss of so many of our friends and family members was not an easy task. Our tag line for our 25th anniversary became “Together, let’s finish the work.” This piece not only focused on the grassroots beginning of the organization, but also reminded people that the work isn’t over. We mailed this piece to over 10,000 households and utilized it throughout the year as an all-encompassing brochure about our agency, our services and programs.
- What issue or problem were you working to address with this piece?
- Like other HIV/AIDS organizations, ARC Ohio has been facing a growing complacency about this still-incurable disease. Our goal was to reinvigorate our community and constituents and remind them of how important their support is to ARC Ohio. Also, over the last 8 years ARC Ohio merged 3 other smaller AIDS Services organizations into our agency, expanding our service area from 6 to 36 Ohio counties. This expansion resulted in some of our newer communities feeling an identity crisis around HIV. No longer the previous agency and not yet connected to ARC Ohio, we needed to find a way to bridge the gap and bring them into the fold. ARC Ohio also wanted to pay homage to previous agency’s collective histories, but wanted to do this in a way that unified our communities instead of splintering. It was also an opportunity to communicate openly with the communities we serve about our programs, funding and outcomes.
- How has your submission successfully impacted your organization’s ability to solve this issue/problem?
- Once the report was mailed to our constituents, we received phone calls and donation response cards applauding our transparency and successes. This piece helped to bring individuals from our new service area into the organization as clients, donors and volunteers; restoring a sense of trust that was lost when the group they supported integrated into ARC Ohio. And several steadfast supporters became more involved by hosting awareness events, chairing committees, and increasing their donations. Most importantly, new people became involved with our organization through fundraising, donations and volunteering. Due to its success, we have since modeled our website on the overall look, feel and tone of the piece.
- Creative Submission - Files
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