View PDF of Family Tails Issue 14
As Donor Engagement Coordinator, I am responsible for writing, designing, and managing the direct mailing of Dane County Humane Society’s annual report and newsletter, Family Tails, to more than 15,000 supporters. In previous years, Family Tails had three spreads constituting the annual report appended to a collection of newsletter stories and ads; to encourage readers to review the annual report, DCHS staff embedded mini-stories about animals who had been in care.
I believed we could not only bring our annual publication more in line with other non-profits’ annual reports (thereby better meeting readers’ expectations and mental models), but also leverage the work we already planned to do. Therefore, I recommended a new version of the newsletter, and sketched a rough design to illustrate it, in which we embedded parts of the annual report throughout the newsletter, putting relevant statistics alongside the usual stories and ads. My design was approved by stakeholders, and I wrote the feature story for our newsletter, revised and edited all other stories and ads, and laid out the content in InDesign from blank page to finished product.
Finally, I coordinated the printing and direct mail of the physical version with local brand experience provider Thysse, and created a digital version complete with links to relevant content on our website to upload to our Reports & Newsletters webpage: www.giveshelter.org/about-dchs/reports
Date Written & Designed
January – May 2022
Target Audience
Donors and supporters of Dane County Humane Society
Skills Developed
- Research of similar publications to ascertain reader expectations
- Creating and conveying recommendations for stakeholders to encourage breaking with tradition and selecting a new format in line with contemporary publications
- Crafting a whole newsletter experience, from big picture design (order of stories) to how stories and associated annual report content fit together within a single spread
- Aligning all written and visual content with organization’s voice and branding (including a separate spread for DCHS’s Wildlife Center, which has different brand colors than DCHS)