UCAN President/CEO, Zack Schrantz, CEO Emeritus, Tom Vanden Berk, and VP of Development, Fred Long, discuss AE Marketing Group’s expertise in storytelling for nonprofits. AE Marketing Group helped UCAN find a smart way to use their limited resources to brand their nonprofit through transformational storytelling and streamline focus.
UCAN advocates for, and provides opportunities that change the lives of youths and families through compassionate healing, education, and empowerment. Originally founded as an orphanage during the Civil War, the non-profit has certainly withstood the test of time – including the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.
AE Marketing Group began working with UCAN in 2013 to bring clarity and consensus to its brand and improve the organization’s positioning for future fundraising. In 2019 and 2020, AE produced all video assets for the nonprofit’s largest fundraising event of the year – the Youth Leadership Awards.
UCAN’s leadership understood that storytelling was important to drive fundraising, but they sought AE Marketing Group’s help with differentiation.
While many non-profits focus on heartbreaking stories to drive giving, UCAN’s goal was never to use storytelling to create pity for its youths. Therefore, through numerous storytelling projects for UCAN, our goal has always been to use storytelling to highlight the potential, goals, and aspirations of their youths. We use storytelling to show where these youths are going, not where they have been. This strategy of storytelling for nonprofits allows donors to visualize and invest in the future of these youths.