The Story
Every year, millions of nonprofits spend trillions of dollars around the world. Candid, a nonprofit data research organization, knows where that money comes from, where it goes and why it matters.
That’s how Candid empowers philanthropy with connections and data and training
Candid collects comprehensive philanthropic data from 1.8 million IRS-recognized tax-exempt organizations and thousands of faith-based nonprofits. Their information, training and tools connect nonprofits, foundations, businesses and grants to help change the world.
Candid’s GuideStar tool features a database that provides donors and funders with information to guide giving decisions, making it easy to gather insights on a nonprofit organization’s financials, people/leadership, mission and more. Companies also use this data to validate organizations for promotional programs and employee volunteer efforts.
With Candid, anyone can find up-to-date information on thousands of nonprofits, including Goodwill, March of Dimes, United Way, and smaller local organizations.
The same tool simplifies fundraising efforts for nonprofits with a single source of information they can use during grant applications and attract new donors. Instead of spending hours and resources completing grant applications, nonprofit organizations can direct potential donors to their Candid GuideStar profile for consideration.
The collective insights gathered from nonprofits worldwide help make the public sector more efficient, effective and equitable.
Candid’s CEO Ann Mei Chang puts it this way: “We think that data is a force for good and can help everybody trying to do good, to do good better.”
Candid strives to expand its data collection and share its insights with the public sector community as a leading authority on nonprofits. This level of transparency helps connect donors, volunteers and nonprofits, making giving and receiving easy.
As a next step, Candid wanted to leverage its thought leaders to amplify its brand through data and insights.
Challenge
Red Fan was tasked to increase awareness of Candid’s brand and services by objectively promoting its data and insights through the group’s thought leaders. Candid officials wanted to avoid the appearance of advocating particular positions or causes despite the opinions of their executives and any conclusions the data might support. The end goal was thought leadership and awareness without taking sides.
Part of this challenge required Red Fan to identify the right thought leaders and leverage their backgrounds and experiences to match editorial targets and themes.
Candid sought coverage in nonprofit industry publications as well as mainstream media to educate the general public about the nonprofit sector based on their years of collected data.
Solution
Red Fan created a thought leadership and pitching campaign that identified and showcased three of Candid’s leaders and promoted findings from a nationwide diversity report. The work started with identifying the right thought leaders and leveraging their unique subject strengths.
- CEO Ann Mei Chang – efficiency, effectiveness and transparency in modern philanthropy.
- Vice President of Influence Aleda Gagarin–influencing trust and the evolution of the funder-nonprofit dynamic.
- Dr Cathleen Clerkin, senior director of research–Candid’s research agenda and data strategy.
Red Fan developed contributed article topics for each spokesperson and pitched to industry media outlets that best reflected those topics. Once approved and placed, Red Fan crafted bylined articles for their approval. We then built a five-month thought leadership roadmap for organizational news, media pitching and bylines.
In addition, Red Fan selected the most newsworthy elements of Candid’s latest diversity study and pitched trade and mainstream media for coverage.
