Communities and individuals turn to fundraising platform GoFundMe to raise money for various missions, but often those goals are left unreached.
KeyBank wanted to help small businesses and community groups — including ones that are minority and woman-owned — by completing their GoFundMe goals through its “Follows Your Lead” initiative.
KeyBank donated between $700 to $50,000 to GoFundMe campaigns for restaurants, arts organizations, student fundraisers, restoration and preservation efforts and more, contributing in total more than $175,000 to over 15 organizations. All recipients embody KeyBank’s community giving pillars that prepare individuals for thriving futures.
KeyBank donated to GoFundMe campaigns in cites including Boise, Idaho; Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Seattle, Washington.
Fallon, KeyBank’s creative agency of record, spotlighted each individual, business and organization that received funding across Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, covering both KeyBank and the recipients’ channels. The social channels were selected based on where KeyBank’s partners and stakeholders interact and share information the most.
“Fallon [and KeyBank] wanted to spotlight the partners to increase their reach and drive traffic to their respective websites and social pages,” Matt Garcia, managing director at Fallon, said in an email. “From a strategy perspective under our KeyBank Opens Doors platform, we focused on how every community faces different challenges. They have different doors that need to be opened, and no two locks are the same.”
In a recent post, KeyBank highlighted Buffalo Books, an initiative to bring literary resources to historically excluded neighborhoods in Buffalo, New York.
The initiative is led by Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo’s official poet laureate and director of leadership development at Open Buffalo, a non-profit that focuses on racial, economic and ecological justice.
The campaign also includes on-the-ground community events that will take place in the coming months.
Fallon was inspired to spotlight the recipients after launching its first major creative campaign, “KeyBank Opens Doors,” for the financial services company in March.
“KeyBank takes pride in not being defined just by what happens inside its four walls, but representing that it’s the impact it makes outside of them that really counts,” Garcia added.