Branding Impact for Foundation Annual Report

Development Gateway is an international nonprofit organization that provides web-based platforms to make aid and development efforts more effective around the world. Its mission is to reduce poverty and enable change in developing nations through information technology. In addition, it envisions a world in which the digital revolution serves people everywhere by creating greater opportunity through increased access to critical information and greater reliance on local capabilities.

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The work of the Development Gateway Foundation focuses on areas in which the Internet can have a high impact in terms of development results: better coordination of international aid; more efficient government, particularly in procurement; and the exchange of knowledge and best practices online.

Development Gateway’s Annual Report serves as a primary marketing vehicle to help generate and secure additional funding for their programs in developing countries, and is distributed to high-profile dignitaries, including Ministers of Finance in governments of foreign countries, United Nations Development Program, World Bank, and European Commission.

Situation:

Development Gateway was seeking a marketing/publications partner to help design a publication that would resonate with a variety of audiences and accomplish its fundraising and organizational promotion objectives.

The Annual Report needed to have both substance and aesthetics but also needed to sell why Development Gateway is needed as a source for information and communications on international aid distribution.

In addition, Development Gateway wanted to incorporate a clean, professional design while ensuring that the product was not overly polished to avoid misrepresenting the organization’s mission and use of funds. To help achieve this goal, Sage recommended that the report be produced on environmentally friendly paper that was of lighter weight and use a satin finish as opposed to a high-gloss stock. In addition, Sage chose imagery from a library of vibrant photographs that helped balance the publication’s human interest and technology themes.

Our Process:

Sage kicked off the project by meeting with the marketing leadership to confirm messaging and specs for the publication, which would morph into a 24-page plus cover, 4-color Annual Report. To provide a delicate balance between clean design and substantive content, the Sage design team created design templates that optimized white space, incorporated at least one photograph per page, and included charts and graphs to help demonstrate financial benchmarks and milestones. In keeping with the client’s already established brand, Sage created a ghosted version of the Development Gateway logo and carried this element consistently throughout the publication.

Results:

After producing the English-language version of the Annual Report, the Sage team produced both French and Spanish versions of the publication for Development Gateway’s diverse constituents. The goal of the Annual Report was to communicate that Development Gateway provides information and communication technology (ICT) tools to make aid more effective, and that these tools can help reduce poverty by streamlining operations and reducing developing countries’ administrative and operating costs, and the report did just that. 

Kudos:

Graphic Design USA magazine honored the Report with an Award of Excellence in the Annual Reports Category.