CASE STUDY: HOLIDAY GIVING CAMPAIGN FOR KRI
Holiday Donation campaign: Give the Gift Of
Client: The Kelp Rescue Initiative
My role: Campaign strategy, messaging framework, science translation, storytelling and content design
The holiday season is a critical moment for nonprofit fundraising, but it is also one of the noisiest times of year. Appeals compete for attention, urgency is high and audiences are often asked to give before they fully understand what their donation supports.
For The Kelp Rescue Initiative, the timing of this campaign mattered. Following the Spore to Sea Giving Tuesday campaign, much of the audience was still early in their learning journey. The mechanics of kelp restoration had been introduced, but many supporters were only beginning to understand why kelp forests matter and what their loss or recovery means for coastal systems and communities.
Give the Gift Of was designed as the next step in that journey. Rather than re explaining how restoration works, the campaign focused on why we restore kelp and how kelp forests support life, climate resilience and ocean health. The goal was to create a holiday campaign that could function as both a public education tool and a flexible fundraising framework, resonating with individual donors while also supporting longer term corporate and institutional conversations.
The challenge
Kelp restoration is essential to coastal resilience, yet for many audiences its value remains abstract. Ecosystem services such as carbon cycling, habitat creation and shoreline protection are rarely visible in everyday life.
During the holiday season, this challenge is amplified. Donors are more likely to give when impact feels clear, meaningful and personally relevant, especially when giving on behalf of someone else.
The campaign needed to:
Build on existing education without repeating it
Shift focus from process to purpose
Translate ecosystem services into tangible, giftable concepts
Stand out during a crowded holiday giving period
Appeal to both individual and corporate donors
Avoid fear-based or transactional fundraising language
Create a framework that could be reused beyond a single season
The concept: Holiday giving as education
Give the Gift Of reframes holiday donations as acts of learning, stewardship and shared responsibility. The campaign was designed as two complementary efforts: a public-facing social media campaign for individual donors and a corporate-focused email campaign to support institutional giving conversations.
Instead of centering on dollar amounts or deadlines, each donation tier was framed as a “gift” connected to a specific ecological function provided by kelp forests. These included roles such as carbon and nutrient cycling, habitat creation and coastal protection.
For individual donors, the social media campaign translated ecosystem services into meaningful, values-driven gifts that could be given on behalf of someone else during the holidays. For corporate supporters, the email campaign provided a clear and credible way to link financial contributions to ecosystem services, climate outcomes and long-term environmental impact.
By focusing on what kelp forests do for the ocean and for people, and tailoring delivery to the audience and channel, the campaign helped make restoration feel relevant and tangible, even for audiences still early in their relationship with the organization.
Strategy and methodology
1. BUILD FROM EDUCATION TOWARDS PURPOSE
Following Spore to Sea, audiences had a foundational understanding of how kelp restoration works. This campaign intentionally shifted the narrative from process to impact.
Messaging focused on why kelp forests matter, what they provide and what is at stake if they are lost. This progression respected the audience’s learning journey and avoided overwhelming them with repeated technical detail.
2. GROUNDED IN SCIENCE, TRANSLATED FOR THE SEASON
Each gift category was rooted in real ecological processes supported by kelp forests. Scientific accuracy was non-negotiable.
I worked with scientists at The Kelp Rescue Initiative to ensure that ecosystem services were described accurately and that simplified language remained scientifically sound. The challenge was to translate complex concepts into language that felt warm, accessible and appropriate for a holiday campaign without losing integrity.
For example, Give the Gift of Carbon and Nutrient Cycling connects a complex biogeochemical process to a clear story about climate resilience and ecosystem health, framed in a way that feels meaningful rather than technical.
3. DESIGNED FOR DUAL AUDIENCES
The campaign was intentionally structured to support both public and corporate audiences using a shared framework, while tailoring delivery, messaging and pathways to each group.
The public-facing campaign lived primarily on social media and directed individual donors to a custom landing page built around themed tiers of giving. Each tier reflected a specific ecosystem service provided by kelp forests, with impact increasing as support scaled. This allowed donors to understand what their gift supported and choose a level of giving that felt meaningful and tangible.
The corporate and institutional campaign was delivered through a targeted email outreach supported by its own custom landing page. Messaging emphasized clarity of impact, alignment with sustainability and climate commitments and credible, science-backed restoration outcomes. Tiered giving options made it easy for organizations to connect financial contributions to measurable ecological functions.
This dual structure allowed the campaign to support individual donations, team gifts and larger contributions while maintaining a cohesive narrative grounded in science, impact and shared responsibility.
4. MODULAR DESIGN FOR REUSE AND SCALE
Give the Gift Of was built as a modular system rather than a one-off holiday appeal.
Individual gift themes can be highlighted year after year, adapted for different seasons or extended into partnership and institutional giving conversations. This reduces long term workload while maintaining consistency in tone, science and values.
5. INTEGRATED ACROSS CHANNELS
The campaign was designed to live across social media, email, website content and outreach materials.
Short-form posts introduced each gift festively and invitingly. Visual assets and carousels provided deeper context. Longer-form content supported donors and partners who wanted a clearer understanding of impact.
This layered approach respected different levels of attention and intent, which is especially important during the holiday season.
Outcomes and impact
The campaign:
Secured new donors
Attracted new corporate support, with promising conversations around annual giving
Supported the development of new partnerships
Deepened public understanding of kelp ecosystem services
Created a reusable framework for future seasonal and partnership campaigns
By aligning education, storytelling and fundraising, the campaign positioned kelp restoration as something people could meaningfully support during the holidays and beyond.
Why this approach works
Holiday giving is most effective when people understand what they are supporting and why it matters.
By framing donations as gifts of ecological function rather than abstract dollars, Give the Gift Of builds connection, trust and long term engagement. It respects the audience’s intelligence while meeting them where they are during a season when meaning matters as much as urgency.
For organizations working in complex environmental systems, this approach demonstrates how holiday fundraising can strengthen education and relationships rather than dilute them.
What this case study demonstrates
This campaign reflects my broader approach to communications and fundraising strategy.
I design campaigns that:
Build on audience learning journeys
Translate scientific complexity into meaningful narratives
Serve both public and institutional audiences
Prioritize trust, clarity and integrity
Are built to scale and evolve over time
Give the Gift Of is not just a holiday campaign. It is a framework for how education, restoration and support can move forward together.