About the Business
HACES is a nonprofit based in Lake County with 20 years of experience providing navigational support and expertise. Department of Justice-accredited, HACES specializes in immigration law and offers expert guidance on immigration cases. Operating on three pillars—legal, education, and health—HACES divides its services to address different aspects of clients’ lives, aiming to improve their overall quality of life.
My Role
The Marketing & Development Coordinator oversees the marketing department and creates all event visuals. Assisted by marketing interns.
Project Date
December 2024
Project Duration
6 Months
Project Brief
HACES introduced the annual Gran Lotería Night to bring the community together in a casual setting. This mini-fundraiser, which offered small sponsorship opportunities, grew HACES’ community visibility while raising funds. Designed as a more affordable and inclusive alternative to the formal gala, the event provided a fun and accessible opportunity for the community to connect with HACES and its cause.
The Gran Lotería Night took place in the evening at a brewery. This event targeted working adults. We organized the event from 6-8 PM to accommodate the busy schedules of our participants. Loteria is a Mexican game similar to bingo, but instead of numbers, it uses colorful illustrations with an associated title. While playing, attendees could purchase beer brewed in-house at Nightshade and Dark’s or food from a taco truck outside. In addition, seven lucky winners won prizes and gift baskets.
To further connect attendees to the HACES mission, I created nine custom HACES lotería cards and incorporated them into the game. Speakers shared information about HACES’ services when these special cards were announced. Nine cards featured Hope, the HACES mascot, adding a recognizable and engaging element. These changes offered attendees a unique and memorable HACES experience, reinforcing the mission they were supporting, highlighting its impact, and strengthening brand equity within the community.
Project Overview
The board members were interested in creating an annual fundraiser that would be:
- Cost effective
- Fundraise an additional $3,000
- Easy for the staff to recreate every year
- Would bring the community together to increase the visibility and strengthen the brand recognition of HACES
To launch this new annual fundraiser, we needed a reliable platform that made ticket transactions easy by allowing payment through various methods and making in-person transactions easy. In addition, we focused on “the pull” and the unique HACES experience we would create for the attendees to look forward to year after year.
Graphic Design
- Visual Design
- Postcard Invitation
- Sponsorship Form
- Loteria Cards
- Sponsorship Table Cards
Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
- Functioning Online Ticket Platform
- Above the Fold Image on Website
- Facebook Event Cover Graphic
Stakeholders
The Gran Lotería Night was organized by HACES staff and the Board of Directors. A dedicated fundraising committee was established to oversee the planning and execution of the event. Board members helped secure sponsorship and gift basket donations. Throughout the design and marketing process, careful consideration was given to the target audience, working adults, to create an event that would be fun, easy to participate, and well attended.
Sketches
After being assigned to create the event’s visual identity, I asked HACES marketing intern JP to review the project brief and provide me with an original idea of where we could take the visuals of the event. JP thought we could make the logo a glowing sign to emphasize the “gaming” aspect of the event, as seen in other industries like the casino. Additionally, he added that we should have flying loteria cards around it. Next to his written notes, he showed me a picture of a glowing sign he found on Amazon.
I loved JP’s idea. It was unique, eye-catching, and targeted the correct audience. Once I approved JP’s idea, JP created three initial sketches. I enjoyed JP’s layout in the second sketch. I did a quick sketch to picture how the cards could interact with the neon sign. I began to study the color scheme of the classic Mexican Loteria game made by Don Clemente and picked out the repeated colors I saw, noting them in my sketchbook. In addition, I started sketching the sponsorship logos for each category.
Color Scheme
The visual identity for Gran Lotería Night features a vibrant color palette of blue, yellow, pink, and green. These colors were chosen both to capture attention and to evoke the traditional look and feel of the classic Don Clemente Mexican Lotería game. This helped ensure that when the seven new HACES cards were integrated, they matched the overall design and felt authentic within the classic lotería aesthetic.
The classic Don Clemente Loteria cards lay on my desk at work. I chose ten cards that repeated the colors I most frequently saw within the deck.
I created a color palette based on those colors. I added five pigmented hues and three lighter hues for contrast.
Visual Elements
Nine unique HACES cards were created to add a personalized element to the invitation and the Loteria card.
Showcases the three pillars of HACES from which the continuum of services is provided.
Represents HACES clients and volunteers.
Depicted HACES services and the Hope, the HACES Mascot, informing the audience she is a Swallow.
The Final Design
In conclusion, the design of Gran Lotería Night maintained the look and feel of the classic Don Clemente Mexican lotería game while thoughtfully integrating HACES visual elements. This balance of tradition and personalization ensured familiarity for attendees while generating excitement around the unique twist HACES would bring to the experience.
Marketing
The First and Second Annual Family Fun Walk & Run digital marketing included social media, email marketing, and showcasing a digital banner. The digital banner was advertised to numerous outlets, informing users of the upcoming event. It also created consistency, increasing the event’s brand recognition. For example, the HACES website displayed the digital banner on its slider above the fold. When users clicked on it, it took them to the online ticket site, which displayed the banner again. In addition, I created print marketing items like the sponsorship letter and outside banners each year. This section is split into two to showcase the First and Second Annual Family Fun Walk & Run materials.
Sponsorship Letter
A fillable PDF was made for sponsors to fill out and send via email, or print out and bring in person.
Digital Banner
Reaching all audiences invested in the HACES mission was essential to me and my team. I marketed to all the digital outlets where we had an existing presence, including the HACES website, ticket site, the company’s Facebook business page, and a Facebook event page. When marketing on the HACES website, I created a call to action so that users would click on the image and be directed to the ticket site to purchase a ticket or sponsor electronically. On Facebook, I wrote a description that included the link to the ticket site.
Email Marketing
Interact with the newsletter above! Hover near the bottom right corner of the newsletter to zoom in, zoom out, or enter full screen.
The two newsletters above were sent to the HACES constituents solely to promote the First Annual Family Fun Walk & Run. For this reason, the newsletter used the branding colors of the event instead of the HACES brand colors.
Social Media Marketing
4 months of a social media marketing campaign with varying posting frequency:
- 3 months prior: 2 posts
- 2 months prior: 1 post
- 4 weeks prior: 2 posts/week
- 3 weeks prior: 2 posts/week
- 2 weeks prior: 5 posts/week
- 1 week prior: 8 posts/week
- Final posts: 3 days, 2 days, and 1 day before the event
- 2 posts after the event
Posted a total of 23 posts.
The Event
This section is split into two to showcase the graphic design materials used in the First and Second Annual Family Fun Walk & Run.
The First Family Fun Walk & Run included the following Graphic Design material:
- Customized T-Shirt
- Yard Signs
- Thank You Letter
T-Shirt
Every participant who bought a ticket in advance received an event t-shirt.
Yard Signs
Yard signs were placed around the running path to direct runners to the correct path. In total, 15 signs were placed around the running path. The yard signs feature a sponsor and a HACES fact.
Thank you Letter
After the event, I created a letterhead design that was used to thank the sponsors and donors who had supported the event.
