Last year, a charity with an aging audience and an outdated visual identity introduced a vibrant, distinctive new brand. The Donkey Sanctuary’s rebrand, carried out by The Allotment, captured the heart of the charity through graphic representations of the donkeys and the work the Sanctuary does.

This year, the Donkey Sanctuary has continued its brand development with the introduction of a digitally-focused strategy. The premier product is an adoption programme that allows adoptees to interact with their donkeys via a mobile app. They are also sent an adoption pack in line with the new branding and featuring professional studio photography of each donkey.

Mark Cross, head of brand and design at the Donkey Sanctuary, says the project serves to integrate the new brand into product development. The challenge it faced in doing so was to attract new donors without alienating its existing base. He says “When you spend £50 on a charity, all you have is the brand. It’s purely an emotional thing.” By aligning the focus on heart and the visual structure to product development, the Sanctuary can capitalise on the conjunction between emotion and brand.

Using digital tools to implement the new adoption scheme allows the charity to target a younger audience and, as Cross says, gives adoptees the opportunity to make their donkey part of the family.