Beating the Clock Together
Mission: Accomplished for this year's ZURBwired. We'd like to thank Family Giving Tree and all the volunteers for sticking it out for 24 hours.
Nonprofits Benefit from Design Thinking
We've caught up on our sleep after another successful ZURBwired! Every year, we work with one lucky nonprofit and get them over a design hump in one coffee-fueled 24-hour marathon. Not only do we help them achieve their design goals, but we teach them our unique design methods so that they can create great work on their own for years to come.
Over the years, we've helped our participating nonprofits raise better awareness of their causes through our unique brand of design instruction. These organizations have gone on to raise more than $500,000. More than that, they've continued to use the design methods we've taught them.
This year, we worked with the Elves over at Family Giving Tree. In 24 hours, we worked hand-in-hand to redesign their website and create various print materials for their Holiday Wish Drive, which also happens to celebrate this year the millionth child they've helped.
Relive the Action of ZURBwired 2012From the blog
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ZURBwired Mission Complete, Final Pieces Snap in Place
August 03, 2012 by Tony with 1 Comment
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30 Minutes Later, Invites, Thank You's, and Brochures Get Delivered
August 03, 2012 by Bryan with 2 Comments
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The Posters and Stickers Arrived
August 03, 2012 by Bryan with 1 Comment
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Early Morning Photos
August 03, 2012 by Bryan with 2 Comments
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A Quick Shout Out to Our Awesome Community
August 03, 2012 by Tony with 1 Comment
ZURBwired on Flickr
Past Events
2012 Family Giving Tree
View 2012 Event
Since 1990, Family Giving Tree has fulfilled the holiday wishes of children in low-income neighborhoods.
What They Needed
Family Giving Tree came to us after having applied two other times and not being selected to be our participating nonprofit. But they didn't give up and applied a third time. Like the saying goes, third time's a charm. The Elves not only wanted to redesign their website, but they also needed our help to come up with a marketing game plan for their "One Millionth Child" campaign, which celebrates the millionth child they've helped. They needed new brochures, posters, invitations, Thank You cards and stickers for that campaign.
What We Did
Using Foundation 3, we had the site up and running by 7:45 AM on Friday, beating the previous year's record time by 13 minutes. We even made a very tight print deadline, getting all of the print material to the printers when they needed it. In 24 hours, we were able to do:
- A full website visual redesign that's responsive
- Rewrote website and print messaging
- A logo update
- Newsletter template
- Brochures, Thank You cards and posters
- Stickers and invitations for the "One Millionth Child" campaign
- Two new t-shirt designs
- Social media images and strategy
- Jennifer "Queen Elf" Cullenbine
- Executive Director & Co-Founder
- Family Giving Tree
The caliber of service and the attention to detail is something that we could have never in a million years been able to buy as a nonprofit, and ZURB has truly presented us with a once in a lifetime opportunity with ZURBwired this year. With the most talented designers and strategists at our fingertips, it's been a truly incredible day. Thanks so much for everything ZURB!
2011 Rebekah Children’s Services
View 2011 Event
Rebekah Children's Services promotes the social, emotional and physical well being of children and families.
What They Needed
Rebekah Children's came to us because their old site didn't really convey the good that they do and, in their words, was a "visual train wreck" that broke all the rules for what a good nonprofit website should look like. They also needed a new look for their brochures that was eye-catching, consistent and provided people with information about their services. Our goal was to create a visual look that conveyed clearly Rebekah Children’s purpose and services clearly in both print and web materials.
What We Did
Foundation allowed us to whip up the website from sketches to prototype in no time. From there, we were able to complete the website redesign before sun up. After 24 hours without sleep and plenty of coffee, we were able to finish:
- Full website visual redesign that's responsive
- Fully updated website back-end on Joomla
- Rewrote entire website and print messaging
- Two tri-fold brochures (printed)
- A postcard (printed)
- Two logo updates
- Newsletter template
- Letterhead and business card templates
- Melissa Driscoll
- Relations Manager
- RCS
The ZURB Team is really something special in and of itself. On the way home Friday morning, I was thinking of the experience as a whole, working with so many talented people without any egos or hierarchy, there weren't any crisis or meltdowns, the build was such a wonderful feat of teamwork. It's been a long time since I've had that experience, really miss it. Can you create an app for that? Maybe call it ZURB Juice.
We couldn't be more grateful to have had opportunity, and I'm glad that the ZURB team enjoyed themselves as much as we did.
2010 Resource Area For Teaching
View 2010 Event
RAFT provides creative ideas and one-on-one mentoring to more than 10,000 educators so they can prepare kids to meet 21st Century challenges.
What They Needed
RAFT came to ZURB with the goal of fixing their broken message and interactions on their website. This was part of their larger effort to grow more of an online presence and expand the reach of their materials and efforts.
What We Did
As hard as we tried, we hit a few snags and weren’t able to launch the new website by 8 a.m. the next day. However, the RAFT team got some sleep over the weekend and launched the site the very next week. Despite not getting the site up and running by the next day, we had some pretty big wins:
- We set strategic goals for RAFT, such as building awareness by answering the simple who, what, where, when and how of RAFT
- RAFT website redesigned, rewritten and restructured
- Rewrote entire website and print messaging
- Reworked RAFT’s newsletter to be consistent with their newly-created visual style
- Redesign of RAFT’s annual reports
- Mary Simon
- Exectutive Dirctor
- RAFT
From everyone at RAFT, Greg and Dave, and me - thank you very very much! Compared to the last website which we've done, which took two years, this was absolutely painless. Thank you! I'm out of words! We're in the business of making things memorable and this was definitely memorable.
2009 Pie Ranch
View 2009 Event
Pie Ranch is a thriving, hands-on farm and food education center. Their mission is to inspire urban and rural people to know the source of their food and improve the health of our food system, from seed to table.
What They Needed
Pie Ranch’s ambitious goal of a fundraiser dinner on their farm for hundreds, as well as their “Reach for the Pie!” capital campaign captured our team’s imagination. We had to help them come up with a theme, a menu, a web presence and all the necessary collateral to host their largest farm event ever.
What We Did
We really hustled for 24 hours to get all the materials printed and ready for Pie Ranch’s campaign as well as their fundraiser dinner. When all was said and done, we were able to:
- Fully functional website with blog www.pieranch.org
- Newsletter template
- Printed materials, such as invites, envelopes, Thank You cards, stickers and posters
- Zazzle store — www.zazzle.com/pieranch
- Twitter page — www.twitter.com/pieranch
- Susan Peterson
- Board Member
- Pie Ranch
It was amazing. It has really exceeded my expectations. We had priorities of what we wanted to accomplish, which was the campaign materials and the invitations. I actually thought we would not get to invitations, but we did not even finish that, but we did a number of other things we did not anticipate. It was amazing how productive everyone was and how much energy everyone had!
2006 Second Harvest
View 2006 Event
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo is dedicated to ending local hunger by connecting people with the nutrition that they need.
What They Needed
Second Harvest was our first ZURBwired nonprofit. They came to ZURB so we could help them build an entire campaign for their June 8, 2006, Skip Lunch Event. They needed us to whip up all the PR materials for the campaign in 24 hours.
What We Did
In 24 hours, we were not only able to print the materials Second Harvest needed, but we were also able to launch a website. Here’s some of our wins from our first ZURBwired event:
- Launch website for campaign — iskippedlunch
- Send out initial email for the campaign — Email Campaign
- Create printed materials, such as T-shirts, stickers and posters — Check it out
8AM - Family Giving Tree:
FGT came to us looking for a redesign of their website and the creation of a new marketing campaign. Here's the 8 AM kickoff and the early brainstorming process.
4PM - Family Giving Tree:
We had a very tight deadline to get all the print materials to the printers so that we could have them by the following morning. Here, we race against the clock to meet that deadline.
9PM - Family Giving Tree:
With our print deadline out of the way, we focused our nightly activity on pushing forward with the visual design of the website.
8AM - Family Giving Tree:
The sun is up and we've made it, launching the new website and getting all the print materials. Now it's time for the ZURBians and Elves to get some sleep.
8AM - RCS:
Rebekah Children’s Services came to ZURB because they needed a complete overhaul of their website and needed a new, vibrant visual look. Here’s the 8AM kickoff as the ZURB and RCS team got to work.
12PM - RCS:
Rebekah Children’s Services came to ZURB because they needed a complete overhaul of their website and needed a new, vibrant visual look. Here’s the team presenting the initial concepts so they can get feedback.
1AM - RCS:
Rebekah Children’s Services came to ZURB because they needed a complete overhaul of their website and needed a new, vibrant visual look. It’s 1AM and the team is a little sleep deprived, which is the perfect time for a little silly fun and a photo shoot!
8AM - RCS:
Rebekah Children’s Services came to ZURB because they needed a complete overhaul of their website and needed a new, vibrant visual look. The end is here and now it’s time to see what the team accomplished.
8AM - RAFT:
RAFT needed ZURB’s help to fix their messaging and busted interactions on their website. The ZURB and RAFT team don’t waste anytime and get right to work to beat the ticking clock.
1PM - RAFT:
RAFT needed ZURB’s help to fix their messaging and busted interactions on their website. We take a trip to tell you all about how RAFT takes the things we discard and use them to spark a child’s imagination.
4PM - RAFT:
RAFT needed ZURB’s help to fix their messaging and busted interactions on their website. We’re knee-deep in work as we try to spin up another server and refine our visual designs and content strategies.
8AM - RAFT:
RAFT needed ZURB’s help to fix their messaging and busted interactions on their website. It’s 8AM the next day, people are sleepy but they made it and get to see the fruits of their labor.
8AM - Pie Ranch:
Pie Ranch turned to ZURB to help them put together a theme, menu and visual look for their ambitious fundraiser. It’s 8AM — the ZURB and Pie Ranch teams get to know each other before getting to work!
5PM - Pie Ranch:
Pie Ranch turned to ZURB to help them put together a theme, menu and visual look for their ambitious fundraiser. At 5PM, the team overcomes the challenges of not having any Internet.
3AM - Pie Ranch:
Pie Ranch turned to ZURB to help them put together a theme, menu and visual look for their ambitious fundraiser. At 3AM, the printed materials are in!
8AM - Pie Ranch:
Pie Ranch turned to ZURB to help them put together a theme, menu and visual look for their ambitious fundraiser. Check out this time-lapse video of the final stretch!
8AM - Second Harvest:
Second Harvest was our first-ever ZURBwired event. We helped them build an entire campaign in 24 hours. Here the folks at Second Harvest give us the lowdown on their campaign.
12PM - Second Harvest:
Second Harvest was our first-ever ZURBwired event. We helped them build an entire campaign in 24 hours. It’s time for a midday update on where everything is at.
2AM - Second Harvest:
Second Harvest was our first-ever ZURBwired event. We helped them build an entire campaign in 24 hours. At 2AM, Hunter arrives with the printed materials.
6AM - Second Harvest:
Second Harvest was our first-ever ZURBwired event. We helped them build an entire campaign in 24 hours. It’s 6AM. So it’s a perfect time for Bryan to break out the camera and take a few snapshots.