GivingTuesday country movements carefully customize their branding to connect with local traditions while uniting people in generosity. This creativity and adaptation is a key principle of the global movement, which encourages innovation and embraces “unbranding”– the notion that assets and ideas can and should be adapted and co-owned by diverse communities, organizations, or individuals, and changed to reflect diverse identities. Since its launch in 2012, GivingTuesday has grown to include more than 75 official country movements around the world, each led by passionate local leaders, reimagining philanthropy and spreading generosity in their own unique ways.
At the 2021 GivingTuesday Virtual Leadership Summit, Liubov Rainchuk of GivingTuesday Ukraine and José Salazar of GivingTuesday Taiwan shared how they came up with logos that speak to their respective regions.
Infinitely Adaptable, Infinitely Fun
When Ukraine launched its first GivingTuesday campaign in 2018, they wanted a logo that can be made from materials on hand, is easy to use, and features human-centered design. Rainchuk came up with the “heart clip,” a riff on the GivingTuesday heart logo that anyone can craft from an ordinary paper clip.
In design form, the heart clip logo is modern, minimalistic, and easy to animate. It shows up in endless iterations by GivingTuesday Ukraine partners, who transform the heart clip into everything from baked goods (with the tagline “Bake Someone Happy”) to a dove holding an olive branch (“Give Hope”). It’s also used with GivingTuesday Ukraine’s cute animated hero, Droryatko (“good-deeder”), who’s shown holding the heart clip while sharing inspiration with kids.
GivingTuesday Ukraine also created a campaign starter package, including a brand book, visuals, stickers, social media frames, and more, that partners can use as-is or freely adapt for their campaigns.
A Crowdsourced Brand and Collaboration Across Countries
GivingTuesday Taiwan hosted their first event in 2017. Salazar said their early challenges included low stakeholder awareness and engagement around the GivingTuesday brand and concept. So they empowered the community to enter logo designs in a contest.
More than 80 submissions rolled in, with many representing cultural touchpoints like local foods, animals, and the national flag. Finalists went up for a vote on GivingTuesday Taiwan’s Facebook page, which also helped build engagement and awareness. The winning design features colors from the Taiwan flag and the GivingTuesday heart. (In the GivingTuesday spirit of community and sharing, one of the top 10 designs is now the logo for GivingTuesday Chile.)
Language was also a challenge: Local media outlets in Taiwan used different translations of GivingTuesday, which made establishing a unified identity difficult. To remedy this, GivingTuesday Taiwain created their own hashtag in Chinese that resonates broadly throughout the region, choosing “generous” as the Chinese word that best fits the GivingTuesday concept. Having their own brand identity also made it easier to hold in-person local events with community and corporate leaders.
GivingTuesday Taiwan meetup
Salazar pointed to the GivingTuesday summits and the core GivingTuesday values, particularly co-ownership and innovation, as helpful resources for establishing their brand. Here are his top three tips for overcoming challenges:
- Don’t take all the work on yourself; look for inspiration and support from the GivingTuesday network.
- Co-building the brand requires finding the right partner and sharing resources.
- When you face an obstacle, go back to the GivingTuesday values. This is a purpose- and community-led movement.
