Volunteering England gets creative with pro bono partnership

For immediate release

Creative agency eatsleepthink is helping national volunteering development agency Volunteering England raise its profile among the country’s 20 million volunteers through the pro bono creation of design and publicity materials for its national convention.

Volunteering England (VE) approached eatsleepthink to design a series of e-newsletters, graphics, advertisements, programme and the registration form for its biennial national conference, in return for which the creative agency would have a presence on the literature and a workshop slot at the convention free of charge.

The creative focused on a goldfish theme with a bowl falling into the ocean and the strap line, “little fish, big pond, shoals of ideas”. The fish represents the thousands of volunteering organisations in the country swimming together in the direction of the convention to exchange ideas and meet other like-minded individuals.

Mike Marshall, Creative Director of eatsleepthink, said:

“I agreed to work with Volunteering England as it offered us the opportunity to get our teeth into a really interesting project which would boost our portfolio and promote our designs to prospective clients while helping out a good cause at the same time.

“It’s important to treat a charity like any other fee paying client and not cut corners, because in the end it's still your work that will get seen. I enjoy my pro bono projects - the briefs are always challenging, balancing a small budget with big ideas, and the feeling you get from helping out is better than coins in your pocket!”

Sarah Nelson, Head of Communications and Marketing at Volunteering England, said:
“This has been a fantastic experience for us, and I’m delighted that Mike and the rest of the eatsleepthink team are so supportive of VE’s work. Their creative expertise has been invaluable in effectively communicating our message and brand values to both the voluntary and private sectors and I’m very pleased that we have found a solution where we all benefit from the process.”

The Volunteering England National Convention; Transforming Passion into Power: Volunteering at the heart of social change is being held on 23-25 April 2008. For more details visit: www.volunteering.org.uk/convention.

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