How Bulletproof and children’s charity Vital are fighting poverty in India
Pig carcasses, the bodies of dead babies and mountains upon mountains of hazardous rubbish; this is life in Dhapa, India, home to one of the country’s biggest landfill sites on the edges of Kolkata. It's also home to around 30,000 people and one of places that children’s charity Vital is working to improve the lives of the impoverished children that live there.
How Bulletproof and children’s charity Vital are fighting poverty in India
Created by Yvonne (Vonny) Nueman in 2007, Vital is an exceptionally small charity – “It’s just me, myself, and I” – yet one that is running desperately needed projects for children not only living in poverty, but those who have been trafficked, are working in the sex trade or live in rural areas with no access to education.
Late last year the charity caught the attention of brand design and packaging agency Bulletproof and since March this year the agency has been working with Vital to inform on strategy, brand identity, tone of voice and how to approach sponsors to support the various projects that it runs in Kolkata (formally Calcutta).
On 10 November, the pair harnessed the momentum of The Drum’s Do It Day as a Fringe partner, and announced a new corporate sponsor document Bulletproof created to help Vital bring new corporate sponsors on board using a more professional, streamlined tone of voice and identity. During Do It Day, Bulletproof and Vital showed a video that gave updates as to the ongoing strategy work the two have been collaborating on as well as a refreshed website that is due to launch at the end of the month to give the charity a much-needed boost.
Bulletproof client manager Natasha Yovichich explained how the agency is helping Vital to raise its profile and, ultimately, funding.
“We wanted to support them strategically and use the best of the capabilities that Bulletproof have,” she said. “First of all we wanted to focus in on a single brand idea to make sure they were really focussed in their approach, what they stand for and what their core message is, because they are small and need to get the support from elsewhere. Also, we are helping with tone of voice, [making sure] that it is clear and professional so that when Vital do go and approach those donors they are communicating to them in the right way, especially with corporate sponsors we wanted to make sure the language was correct.
“We also helped them with a presentation that they can use and adapt to take to potential donors so if they are approaching one corporate sponsor or another they can start to tailor it towards them so that they have a nice professional template that communicates what they do.”
Meanwhile, founder Nueman is hoping that by being a part of Do It Day Fringe awareness of Vital’s work will increase. “We really just want to raise awareness and expand people knowing about our charity. 100% donations go to the project so everyone that visits [India to support the projects] has to pay their own way.”
To see all the other things we achieved at Do It Day, read our round-up here.