$300,000 for COVID-19 Relief

— POCKET PREP

Identity, website, and marketing materials for an initiative that encouraged financially stable US citizens to donate their stimulus checks to neighbors in need.

Team

Kevin Miller, Organizer & Jack of all trades / Ryan O’Donnell, PR / Matt Cotter, Back End Dev / Jordan Bowman, PR / Craig Prince, PR / + many other volunteers

My Role

Founding Designer
Identity / Web design / Press kit / Social Assets

Platform

www.pledgemycheck.org

Timeline

One weekend to launch v1 identity, social, and website design. Then updates over the next 12 months.

Team picture of several of our founding members

[Above] The founding team!

Situation

It was April 2020 and we were all stuck in our homes. We received news that the US government was going to send stimulus checks of up to $1,200 to all taxpaying US citizens.

Many of us working remote office jobs weren't impacted financially by the pandemic unlike many of our neighbors, and didn't feel like we needed the money. Some entrepreneurial friends and I got together to address that discrepancy.

Screenshot of the front page of the Pledge My Check website. It reads "$310,000 pledged from 474 people across 42 states"

[Left] Logo
[Right] Mark

Task

We opted for a pledge program that didn't collect money, but did collect people's declarations to donate part or all of their stimulus checks to a person or organization in need. To launch, we needed:

A trustworthy brand identity
A set of social media assets to spread awareness
A simple and easily maintainable website design that felt high quality enough to encourage people to submit the basic personal information we were asking for.

Me speaking to a local news network about Pledge My Check

[Top] A sample of pledges
[Bottom] On the news

Action

We had 4 days before the first checks were going out. I designed the identity, website, and social assets in a weekend.

When the response was much larger than we anticipated and we had major news outlets engaging with our work, I also put together a press kit. We had a few PR go-to's on our team, but I jumped into a few news interviews.

Map of donors pinpoints across the united states.

“I gave away a thank you card with a $100 bill tucked inside to 24 CNA’s at [nursing home], and was delighted to do so. I believe 21 residents of the nursing home died early from Covid-19 …. CNA’s always perform a difficult, often distasteful and under appreciated, not to mention underpaid, job."
Suzanne • Donated $2400 • North Carolina

[Left] A map of 400+ pledges across the USA
[Right] Quote from a pledger who confirmed her donation to her local nursing home.

Impact

We raised almost $311,000 in pledges from across 42 states. We verified follow-through on over $100,000 of those pledges with follow up emails. Our PR outreach got stories from Yahoo News, Upworthy, and many local news sources.

UP NEXT —

25 Years of STEM Discovery

Design and build of a website report for SATELLITE, a STEM education camp for NC's underserved rural youth.