Experienced Brand Stewardship

Experienced Brand Stewardship

We believe in harnessing the integrity of your brand and representing your mission authentically. Like you, we cringe at some of the junky things some organizations send to their donors. We respect and value your donors, and we will safeguard the trust they place in your organization.

Wherever possible, we will elevate the discussion with your donors and represent your highest ideals. Good brand stewardship earns donor trust.

We also believe that even good things can be improved upon, and it’s our duty to be a continual source of fresh ideas that we can test, together.

First: We Take Our Responsibilities Very Seriously

Many of us have been in your shoes, as leaders of nonprofits, and we know how much you are counting on us to hit your numbers and accomplish all of the things you need from your consultants.

We are also highly selective in what clients and causes we choose to support, and we’ve all come to Avalon to support the important work of organizations like yours.

It’s also part of our DNA to focus entirely on getting more people to do what you most need.

Whether you need more:

  • online activists
  • planned gifts
  • retained donors
  • monthly givers
  • new donors
  • major givers
  • higher revenue from digital ads
  • more awareness & participation in a capital campaign
  • or whatever your top concern might be …

We start with an analysis of what your own performance data can tell us about the audiences that will be most receptive to that type of pitch.

We combine those analytical and audience insights with our own prior experiences in crafting similar motivational messages – using the particular strengths of each of your communication channels, in a coordinated campaign, to make your case.

And our clients are thankful for the improvements we bring to their campaigns – based on the experience and insights we can offer from our prior behavioral research and creative successes.

Our Recommendations Are Based on
Decades of Behavioral Research

Our suggestions are almost always based on what definitely works. Not our opinions. Not because of any whim or vain desire to do things “differently” for the sake of being different.

And our clients appreciate how we try to protect them from the risky things that can hurt their brand or bottom line – if not tested in the proper way.

Don’t get us wrong: We love testing new ideas.

We embrace change. Avalon welcomes and celebrates new ideas when they perform well for the clients we have the honor of serving.

We have also seen many counterintuitive things work surprisingly well.

So, we are not closed-minded to trying anything new – as long as the risks are discussed up front, and we set up the necessary safeguards to protect your reputation, money, and overall objectives.

We Follow the Science

We love the discovery process and setting up new tests – to see how people respond to new types of visual stimuli and iconic imagery, for example, in the digital advertisements we produce.

Avalon is constantly testing in direct mail as well – even though we have decades of behavioral research at our fingertips.

Our client teams test, retest, and track people’s giving behaviors because things change.

We’ve used our behavioral research – on the tremendous changes in how people receive their information and interact with the outside world – to create more satisfying donor engagement opportunities and higher netting programs for brand-new causes.

We’ve also used the latest donor trends and online strategies we’ve developed to help larger, established organizations to make fundamental changes in how they recruit, retain, and create a better omnichannel experience for their donors.

Avalon Is Also “Channel Agnostic”

We do not favor one channel over another.

Your constituencies do not care very much about what “silo” may be contacting them, nor do we. When it comes to brand stewardship, we use the best channel to communicate your brand effectively.

It’s our job, when asked, to coordinate all of the communications so all of the channels speak with one voice and pull in the same direction. That has always been our model, and it hasn’t changed as new channels continue to be added to our clients’ ability to reach the people who need to hear about your work.

With a digital agency and a stand-alone analytics shop built in-house, we can do any and all of the online and analytics work that you may need.

We also have clients who use only our online services, or excellent analytical services, in a la carte fashion. The choice is yours.

NEXT: Knowing What To Do – Or Avoid