Get Inspired with 2019's Top 8 Charitable Experiential Activations

Experiential activations are incredibly powerful marketing tools for charities and nonprofits because of how they connect with emotions. Charities do work that can really pull on peoples’ heartstrings, which is why experiential events can be a great tactic to drive people toward taking action.

And it's all the better when those actions make the world a better place.

Quality event marketing companies that provide experiential activations don’t create dull meetups. Instead, the events they put on are designed to give people the chance to interact with the nonprofit or charity in a real-world situation.

When it comes to getting involved with a great cause, it’s compelling to see how your efforts can make a difference when connecting with others in-person. Just as importantly, event marketing companies know how vital it is to capture these emotional connections and realizations participants have during experiential activations.

Through photography and videography, an experiential marketing agency can demonstrate what the charity offers and what it stands for.

That's where O Hello Media steps in to help make the world a better place.

And we get that it can be tough for charities and nonprofits to find the extra cash in their budget for marketing. So, every quarter, O Hello Media donates photography and videography services to a charity's experiential activation.

Submit your charity or nonprofit event through our Work Wholeheartedly Project for a chance to have our team capture the moments that count most during your activation.

While you wait for us to pick our next charity partner…

GET INSPIRED BY READING ABOUT OUR PICKS FOR THE TOP EIGHT NONPROFIT EXPERIENTIAL ACTIVATIONS OF 2019:

#1: #BringArtBackToSchools

There is a creativity crisis in America. It's gotten to the point that one state — Alaska — doesn't even have an arts council. Fighting back, LIFEWTR teamed up with Macklemore and Scholastic to reach 10 million students in 2019 via the #BringArtBackToSchools campaign.

The first step of the experiential marketing campaign was to infuse creativity in schools nationwide through a school mural beautification project. For this, LIFEWTR teamed up with local, emerging artists to create powerful murals to inspire students.

And, O Hello Media was there with their vetted and trained experiential visual content creators to handle the multi-market shoots, ensuring that that the inspiration from the murals reached more than those who visited the schools.

#2: Putting More Than Pennies into the Piggy Bank

Bacon is the best. In fact, it's hard to argue that anything is as good as perfectly cooked pork — besides ethically-sourced, perfectly cooked pork. 

Cochon555 sprung up to educate the public about heritage breed pigs and quickly evolved into a wildly popular event series discussing how to buy, cook, and donate in the name of safe, honest, and delicious pork.

Bolstered by dynamic documentation of Cochon555 events, support for their mission goes toward the Piggy Bank. The Piggy Bank is a foundation project designed to serve as a kickstarter for new family farms and a safety net for those recovering from natural disasters.

#3: Minds Matter — So Does Art

Denver's top artists and collectors put their money where their mind’s at with The 2019 Rock 'n Roll Art Party, where each participating artist pledged to donate at least 10% of all their art sales to help the students of Minds Matter in 2019.

The wild and visually stimulating extravaganza, which concluded with a rooftop concert, was captured by the O Hello Media team to expand the message and good times beyond the Battery 621 rooftop. 

#4: Getting Good at Life

In America, basketball is important. It brings families together, it brings communities together, and it offers many athletes their best shot at a college education and a career. With this in mind, New York Life teamed up with the PAC 12 Network to create a community outreach event that had a real impact.

Together, New York Life and the PAC 12 hosted 50 guests, including kids and parents, from the Boys and Girls Club at the Saturday, March 9th Semi-Final NCAA Games. Ahead of the big game, participants enjoyed pre-game activities, including a band and cheer pep rally, and several stops around the arena to check out PAC 12 Network’s live broadcast setup. 

The experience was all part of New York Life's "Be Good at Life" initiative — a push to inspire people to take control of their finances to achieve the sort of financial liberation that leads to better living.

#5: Stopping Child Trafficking

The #Passport2Freedom Gala was an emotionally impactful experiential event that served up international cuisine and beverages to guests as they explored the hurdles Nepali women and girls face in their bid for freedom. After taking in each creative art installation, guests received a stamp in their “passports".

The money raised through the black-tie gala was put toward building a Girls' Empowerment Center & Dormitory in Nepal with the goal of a reduction in the 25% of adolescent girls being trafficked to India for prostitution. Some of the funds were also tagged as seed money for the Denver Anti-Child Trafficking Program.

Check out our full feature on the Global Orphan Prevention’s #Passport2Freedom Gala on our Work Wholeheartedly page.

#6: Cuvee Flight to Luxury benefitting PIVOT

Ambitious and effective, Cuvee Flight to Luxury leaned on their built-in wow-power, tapping two of Denver's private jet hangars to host an elite experiential event to raise funds for PIVOT.

Showcasing Denver's best culinary creations, exotic cars, elite jets, and live entertainment, no expense was spared when it came to fully immersing guests in the experience.

And indeed it was effective, as many participants didn't hesitate to reach for their credit cards when it came time to bid on live auction items and raise money to better connect the various nonprofits that support Colorado's most at-risk children.

#7: It's Her Time to Play

It's basketball, again. This time with a focus on inspiring girls aged 8-14 to develop their skills on the court. 

Collaborating with the WNBA, USA Basketball, YMCA of the USA, the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, and the Women's Sports Foundation, AT&T brought its A-game to the hardwood with the Her Time to Play Clinic.

The initiative, launched in 2018, provides hundreds of youth organizations access to a free basketball curriculum and lessons designed to help young women prepare for the challenges of adolescence.

#8: Reaching Out To Family

We gather inspiration from all kinds of activations, and although the O Hello Media team wasn’t on site for this event (photos courtesy of Family Reach), we felt that the initiative shed light on an important issue that some might not realize exists. Fighting cancer is about more than just battling the disease; it's also about tackling cancer-related financial toxicity, which involves the financial barriers that accompany a cancer diagnosis. 

Family Reach provides critical financial assistance, planning, and education to families with members in cancer treatment.

Some of their biggest fundraisers involve experiential activations: cooking demonstrations with celebrity chefs, running events with famous athletes, and their signature golf fundraiser.

Specifically, their Night of Wonder event in Boston gave participants the chance to meet and experience the executive chef talents of Ming Tsai. Besides giving people an opportunity to have their own brush with celebrity, they were also taken through different tour stops at the Boston Children’s Museum to learn about Cancer-Related Financial Toxicity and how Family Reach uses donations to help.

Through these various experiential activations, Family Reach helps people emotionally connect with donors to raise funds.

Final Thoughts: Beyond the Experience Activation of the Day

The real key to the success of these experiential activations was not only the compelling emotional experiences they created in the moment, but also in how they were documented. 

By having professional photographers and videographers as part of the team, these charities were able to expand their reach and develop engaging promotional and outreach materials.

The proof is in the pudding — that's what they used to say. Of course, in the modern world, it's more like the proof is in the photography and the videography. Being heard and seen on various social media channels, magazines, and news outlets takes any experiential activation to the next level. 

Thankfully, such creative and engaging documenting of your event doesn't have to use up all your funds. By following a few helpful tips from the pros, you can learn how to get the most out of working with a photography and videography team.

And, of course, you can also submit your charity or nonprofit through the Work Wholeheartedly Project for a chance to have O Hello Media's team there to help you create the most impact with your experiential activation.