Working for Free: How AOR Does Pro Bono

Agency

Read Time: 3 Min

Day in and day out, agency people are pushing the limits of their brain power—developing marketing strategies, creating fresh logos, crunching bottom lines…the list goes on. In our jaded industry, we don’t often get opportunities to give our minds a break and work out our hearts. That’s why we love pro bono work ❤️. We thoroughly enjoy breaking out of the everyday cycle to help people. Offering in-kind services to mission-driven organizations has proved to be rewarding for AOR in a lot of ways. We receive an incredible value from these partnerships, from feeding our souls to developing long-lasting relationships.

Why Pro Bono?

Future Opportunities

We may think we’re pretty great, but we think our pro bono clients are even better. The relationships we build are the real magic behind our success. While pro bono clients may not pay for services, working with them puts us in front of the right people in a way that showcases our strengths and capabilities. A little pro bono work can go a long way in terms of future opportunities.

Getting Involved

We love being involved in our community. And the brand awareness is a big plus! All publicity might be good publicity, but AOR believes in partnerships with companies that share our core values and energy. We’re proud of the company we keep.

Our Recent Nonprofit Work

Cottonwood Institute

Cottonwood Institute’s mission is to connect underserved students to the outdoors and empower them to take leadership roles in their lives. Since 2011, we’ve fostered a wonderful relationship with the organization. The close understanding of each other’s goals and ease of communication create a perfect learning utopia for agency newbies to give account leadership a shot. Since we treat every project like a paying client, these types of accounts are the real deal for employees learning the AOR client service process—just with a cushy safety net. Check out the website design and development we did for them. We also design their annual Base Camp Bash collateral, which had a New Orleans twist this year.


Cleo Parker Robinson Dance

Cleo Parker Robinson Dance is a nonprofit dance studio, outreach center, ensemble, and theater with a focus on African American heritage. “It’s a great feeling to be able to give back to the community simply by doing your job, especially if it’s local like Cleo,” shared Alyssa, our Digital Director. We designed their Campaign for the Future materials and printed everything through our in-house print shop.


We Don’t Waste

We Don’t Waste is a nonprofit that gathers excess food around the community and redistributes it to underserved populations in Denver and across the Front Range. Along with designing and producing materials for their grand-opening event, they wanted to install a donor wall in their new office space. The project was a great example of another benefit to taking on nonprofit work: giving the designer more creative freedom to execute the vision and try out a new approach.

Our junior production designer Madison, who had the task of designing the wall, explained this relationship best. “I was able to push the boundaries when it came to designing,” she said. “You still want to be able to produce something that’s going to please the client, even with the lower budget you usually have with nonprofits.”

Over the years, we’ve learned the power of partnering with the right nonprofit organizations for AOR. Through these partnerships, we’ve been able to use our proven processes to create incredible work that truly makes an impact on our community. See more of our client work. And don’t hesitate to reach out.

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