Life Skills Fundraising Campaign

For Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ 2022 year-end fundraising, I worked with the Development team to create a campaign that highlighted the life skills students gained by participating in the program. While it was easy for parents and supporters to hear students’ progress in concert, the “soft skills” they developed—perseverance, teamwork, a sense of belonging—was just as impactful.

Whether they continued in music or not, the impact of these invisible benefits affected students for the rest of their lives.

To illustrate these invisible skills, I gathered quotes from students, alumni, parents, and conductors to create the “CYSO is…” campaign. Each quote featured a different benefit students gained through their participation, printed in different handwriting to emphasize the personal connection. The text accompanying each image highlighted with a photo of the speaker or another CYSO student.

The campaign included printed appeals, emails, and social media posts and was successful in helping the organization reach their $55,000 fundraising goal.