A L T E R M A N I A

Some logos that could suit any foundation that contributes to DonorsChoose.org. Since a lot of foundations don’t have logos, we make ones for them to post on the site. Pictured below (the names are completely arbitrary):

Home page banner design for the awesome nonprofit charity I’m currently interning at, DonorsChoose.org (as seen on the Colbert Report).

The science behind the copy:

For the headline, I wanted something catchy, cheerful, and evocative of generosity. I went with alliteration to cover the catchiness, the word “celebrate” to add cheer, and “learning” as a way to activate a prosocial mindset without referencing money. I recently read a psychological study mentioning that when words dealing with money are referenced, people tend to weigh extrinsic rewards (like recognition or avoiding negative evaluation) for charitable donations. On the other hand, when faced with verbs like “share” and “volunteer” and “support” people donate for intrinsic reasons (i.e. empathy, resultant feeling of well-being, etc.). Thus, I tried to stay away from words like “donate” and “give,” which have more monetary connotations. (On the other hand, both “donate” and “give” might have been more direct.)

In the byline, I wanted to offer the donor a chance to become part of a category (“*become* a supporter”) rather than pushing a one-time action (“support”). Another study I read and a social psych lecture I recently heard talked about the power of rewarding a disposition, or someone’s character – as opposed to rewarding a single behavior. This encourages future giving, since the donor thinks to themselves, “I am a supporter of year-round schools,” instead of “I supported year-round schools.” Again, with the word “support,” I tried to stay away from associations with money.

Finally, I put “today” at the end to add a sense of immediacy, so users won’t simply look at the message and put their donation off until later.

Design-wise, I wanted a celebratory, summery, childlike aesthetic to match the message. After a few iterations, I included “summer projects” with a button to make the banner more clickable.