Introduction

“It gets better.” This brief, profound phrase has been the beating heart of It Gets Better for more than 10 years. With vibrant original content, transformative youth empowerment programs, grantmaking for schools, free educational materials and more, it reminds millions of LGBTQ+ youth around the globe that they have bright futures ahead of them. 

Over the years, It Gets Better has excelled at engaging donors. Most who give are parents or educators, or self-actualized LGBTQ+ adults — those who know firsthand how important it is to reach LGBTQ+ youth before they are in crisis, and equip them with the skills to safely navigate the world.

So, during a time when LGBTQ+ youth are weathering brutal attacks from hateful legislation, censorship in schools, and rising harassment, it became even more urgent for It Gets Better to mobilize this important audience. By ramping up donor engagement in 2023 and 2024, It Gets Better would be able to reassure donors that there is a refuge out there for their loved ones, and keep funding coming in to sustain its work. 

In this critical moment, the It Gets Better came to Mixte looking for fresh ways to tell its story to donors.

Our Objectives

  • Develop It Gets Better’s 2022 annual report
  • Create and execute a communications strategy to support year-end fundraising in both 2023 and 2024.

 

Here’s how we did it:

  • We reveled in research — With listening sessions, close reviews of past It Gets Better materials and a healthy dose of our own industry know-how, we took note of where the It Gets Better had seen success in past years, and where it had space to innovate. 
  • We pushed the annual report beyond the norm — Rather than rushing through a list of achievements and sharing rote financial statements, we reflected the It Gets Better’s unique organizational voice — talking to donors as members of a cherished community, and sharing success stories that showed how the organization puts power back in the hands of the community it belongs to.
  • We developed a year-end fundraising campaign with a powerful central theme — Lots of nonprofits clamor for donors’ attention during the year-end giving season, so we devised a campaign around a powerful central theme (Believe In Better) to ensure the It Gets Better content would stand out from the crowd as it sought to bring in new, recurring donors. We laid out how all elements of the campaign would tie together with a strong written and visual identity, from social media templates, to web content, to landing page logistics, to emails. Finally, we suggested some ways to extend the campaign’s effectiveness beyond the year-end finish line (more on that below!).
  • We made donations tangible — We worked with the team to devise a set of giving tiers that ensured donors would clearly and quickly be able to see the impact of their gifts. This included showcasing the It Gets Better’s 2023 accomplishments in an engaging and creative impact report. Playing off Spotify Wrapped, together we created a vibrant look back at the year through social media posts, email and Instagram Stories.

The Outcome

  • A vibrant new annual report
    • In an engaging, scannable format, with quotes from community members and concise summaries of the myriad ways the organization made an impact in 2022, the annual report drew more positive donor attention. 
    • Downloads of the report increased, and direct feedback from donors lauded it as one of the best reports they’d seen!
  • Two successful fundraising campaigns that, together, raised over $250,000
    • The year-end campaigns that we designed called donors to Believe in Better and commit to a Joy Rebellion with LGBTQ+ youth, featuring:
      • A targeted series of emails sharing stories from It Gets Better youth, staff, families and donors
      • A dedicated landing page to bring in donations, while showcasing donors’ impact and lifting up the voices of youth leaders from It Gets Better 
      • Social media and email graphics to highlight the many ways donations go to work for LGBTQ+ youth, and call donors to action on important days like #GivingTuesday
    • Both campaigns were resounding successes, reaching their fundraising goals each year.