American Friends Service Committee
Wage Peace
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) partnered with Beaconfire Consulting to develop and implement an Integrated Marketing and Communications plan around its traveling exhibit about the Iraq War called "Eyes Wide Open." AFSC sought to build on the momentum of the increasingly popular exhibit by creating an integrated offline and online campaign to mobilize grassroots peace activists to take action and make a donation online — and ultimately to grow the organization's number of advocates and donors for future peace activities.
The resulting Wage Peace Campaign officially launched on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January 2005. In the first eight weeks of the campaign, 31,000 advocates signed the peace petition calling for an end to the Iraq War, more than 60,000 viewed the Wage Peace flash movie, and donations poured in through the Web site. Tony Heriza, AFSC associate director of communications, is pleased with the outcome. "The AFSC-Beaconfire relationship has been a very productive partnership that continues to bear fruit," he said.
The Challenge: The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service. AFSC knew that it needed to engage an outside agency with experience and dedication in working closely with nonprofits to help it move quickly to springboard new peace activities from the grassroots success of its exhibit. AFSC wanted to use the Internet to attract a younger group of constituents who had not already heard of the organization, and to establish an ongoing advocacy and donor relationship with them.
The Solution: Beaconfire worked with AFSC to quickly develop an integrated Wage Peace Campaign plan, with step-by-step tactics, messages, and timelines designed both to attract a new youth constituency and to renew its relationship with older constituents. Integrated offline and online marketing, fundraising, and acquisition tools were used to appeal to both groups. Leveraging the success and visual impact of the offline Eyes Wide Open exhibit, Beaconfire designed and developed the Wage Peace flash movie and a Wage Peace bracelet (with accompanying collateral card). Beaconfire provided creative leadership to the AFSC team for an online petition against the war in Iraq and email messaging. The resulting success of this campaign speaks to the success of integrating and tailoring these campaign activities. "This is one of the most effective messages ever developed by AFSC," commented a long-time constituent. See the Wage Peace flash movie at www.afsc.org/wagepeace.
