While the process of developing content for a donor engagement centre may vary slightly from client to client, we believe there is a clear pathway for the process we would follow in working with you to create the content for your donor engagement centre.
Below is an outline of the pathway we initially recommend and would confirm or modify in the Discovery phase of our work with you.
CLEARLY ARTICULATE YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
In our Discovery phase of our methodology, we listen to you and then clarify and confirm that we clearly understand what you want to communicate on, and accomplish with, your donor engagement centre. This simple process ensures that we understand your strategic objectives and can clearly see what your definition of success is.
ENGAGE THE KEY STAKEHOLDERS EARLY IN THE PROCESS
We develop creative designs that are uniquely tailored with input from key stakeholders you select. Under your direction, we often obtain input and create buy-in from your medical and administrative leadership, campaign committees or volunteers, patients and families, art committees, representatives from the facilities or project managers, architects, and interior design leaders.
EVALUATE YOUR HUMAN RESOURCES & CAPABILITIES EARLY
From the very first interaction, we pay attention to your resources and capabilities related to content creation and management, especially digital content. In the Discovery phase of our methodology, we gain an understanding of the resources and capabilities you have available to manage your donor engagement centre. This allows us to "right-size" the digital elements for you so that you are capable of effectively using it from day one.
IDENTIFY STRATEGIC MESSAGE CATEGORIES
Utilizing our deep fundraising experience and expertise, we work with you to strategically select the types of messages and stories (what we call message categories) your donor engagement centre will communicate. This ensures that the messages and stories are aligned with your fundraising program’s strategies, your institutional priorities, and your broader communication objectives. Selecting a specific list of message categories also helps streamline the content gathering process for you, making it much more efficient and effective.
IDENTIFY THE OPTIMAL METHOD OF COMMUNICATING YOUR STORIES AND KEY MESSAGES
Once we’ve confirmed the specific types of messages you want to communicate and know how they “fit” into your overall fundraising strategies, we then work with you to determine whether the messages are more optimally communicated through the Brook Easy Change elements or the digital elements. This unique and elegantly combined mix of static messages and digital messages is the key to creating a memorable experience for visitors.
CREATE TEMPLATE LAYOUTS FOR EACH MESSAGE CATEGORY
After the messages are selected and we know the medium through which those messages will be communicated, the next step is to create the designs that communicate those messages most effectively. The templates we create (called Style Frames) are powerful tools to communicate your initial round of content. However, they also serve the purpose of allowing you to update content easily and effectively by simply changing out photos, headlines and key messages. This helps make updating and refreshing content more manageable.
EMPOWER YOU TO MANAGE YOUR FUTURE CONTENT
As we are creating Style Frames with you, we are also paying close attention to your staff members who will be refreshing those Style Frames with new content. Having their participation in the initial content creation process sets the stage for them to be capable and confident about refreshing or updating the content in the future, especially the digital content.
DETERMINE THE FREQUENCY WITH WHICH YOU WILL REFRESH CONTENT
As your team is learning about how to update and refresh content, we also talk with you about the frequency with which you expect to update content. Planning this prior to unveiling your donor engagement centre, rather than an afterthought, helps you tremendously in allocating staff time and resources to this critical process.
RENDER AND PRODUCE YOUR INITIAL CONTENT
The final step is to print the Brook Easy Change content and render the digital content and then either install it or upload it to your donor engagement centre. After that, you can stand back and watch as viewers stand in awe of the centre's beauty and impact! And you can work to repurpose those same messages to evoke a similar response from those who read, hear, or see your other communication channels as you migrate those same messages across those channels.
CONFIDENTIAL | 25 MARCH 2022