Case Study
GiveGreen
Connecting political donors with environmental champions in Congress
services provided
Brand messaging
Voice & tone development
Verbal brand guidelines & strategic documentation
Content strategy
Copywriting & UX writing
AGENCY PARTNER
Happy Cog
Project Background
A verbal and visual refresh for the 2024 election cycle
A sister organization to the League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, and NextGen America, GiveGreen is dedicated to connecting political donors with candidates who champion the environment.
In 2023, they sought to refresh their verbal brand and website with digital agency Happy Cog, in order to prepare for a record-breaking 2024 election cycle.
project goals
Shaping climate policy, together
In the years since GiveGreen’s 2009 launch, climate-conscious voters became a powerful constituency.
GiveGreen needed to reach both grassroots and major donors with clear, scalable messaging, connect their audience to a shared set of values, and communicate the impact of their work.
They also needed a new website with a powerful logged-in user experience to help donors find and fund winning campaigns.
information architecture
Browsing by climate concern
I worked with lead agency Happy Cog, as well as GiveGreen’s team, to re-imagine their information architecture through the lens of climate.
The new browsing experience connected prospective donors to key environmental issues at stake in federal and state elections.
Each issue has related candidates and slates, so donors can support local, state, and federal representatives that will protect their communities.
CONTENT MODEL
A dashboard for boosting donor engagement
Designing GiveGreen’s new user dashboard required organizing and modeling a complex amount of user data, from individual donations to contributions raised during events.
At every point, our project team considered how to keep donors engaged and reflect the impact of their contributions.
From donating to individual candidates to sharing slates with friends and family, GiveGreen’s users now have a robust set of tools to drive real wins on the ground.
verbal brand
Connecting a community of donors through brand
In order to reach donors more effectively, I helped the GiveGreen team develop new narratives about their leadership, community, and public offerings.
We demonstrated GiveGreen’s success by communicating past fundraising and electoral wins. We also developed a clear narrative for prospective donors about the organization’s purpose and power as a fundraising platform.
Through a series of workshops, we identified organizational values and a shared vision for the future. That way, GiveGreen could successfully attract and engage donors who believe government can protect the environment.
The final narratives can be mixed and matched across all of their channels, from the website to social media to email campaigns.
Outcomes
Breaking records with new tools
With new messaging and digital tools at their disposal, GiveGreen’s team broke the organization’s fundraising records.
Contributions increased 35% over the presidential cycle in 2020, and donors held more than 100 fundraising events across the country.
$60 Million
RAISED
35%
INCREASE IN DONATIONS
30%
INCREASE IN DONOR PARTICIPATION
"My first time working with Kristen, I asked her to structure content around a framework she was unfamiliar with.
She embraced and improved it, teaching our client how to structure and write with intention, then how to scale and protect their efforts through proper governance.
Five years later, that content architecture remains the communications spine of a very effective environmental nonprofit."
Michael Johnson
Executive Director, Design & Experience
Happy Cog
Project Credits
CLIENT
GiveGreen
lead agency
Happy Cog
Team members
Kristen Evans
Content Strategist
Kate Lechleiter Ramsey
Design Lead, Happy Cog
Dave Olson
Technical Lead, Happy Cog
Michael Johnson
Experience Director, Happy Cog
HI, I’m KRISTEN
Let’s get ready for your redesign
I’m an experienced independent content strategist and agency partner, and I’ve seen first-hand how many teams aren’t ready to tackle their content needs inside the high-pressure timelines of a site redesign.
I’ve pulled out the pieces of the content strategy process that will help you evaluate your existing content and align your stakeholders around a core vision for what content should do on your new site.
Because there’s a better way to get your content ready for a redesign—and it starts before you ever reach out to a design agency.