ICRC — Raising funds and awareness for a humanitarian impact bond

ICRC’s work is vital for helping the victims that are so often forgotten during wars, insurrections and other armed conflicts. Until now, they had worked purely on donations, but in order to increase their year-to-year financial stability, they introduced the Humanitarian Impact Bond.

The HIB was designed to pull in private funds, as well as governments, to invest in long-term infrastructure.

Though vital to ICRCs’ amazing work, information over financing can often be quite dry. Yet it would spell disaster for ICRC if they couldn’t get their message across. So we had to really ask ourselves: how do we make this crystal clear and engaging to not only investors, but a general audience too?

The first step was to throw everyone we had at the project – the entire team. No longer merely a brainstorm, this braintempest involved everyone: from project managers to creatives, to the founders themselves. Together, we searched for the heart of the project.

Meet Doodle :

At the end of the day, ICRC’s story will always be about helping people. One chapter of this saga of altruism is finding funding. We needed to explain finance as part of a bigger picture. ICRC’s bigger picture? Doodle.

We designed Doodle to be anyone. This little circle with legs had no race, creed or religion, yet they feel real. They feel human. The design was kept simple, because we wanted anyone to be able to identify with Doodle; after all, anyone can be a victim of violence.

All Doodle wanted to do was stop and smell the flowers; to enjoy life. One day, an explosion takes away their ability to do that. Immediately, the audience is hit with concern: we care about Doodle, and we want to help them. But how? ICRC.

ICRC steps in to aid Doodle, and hundreds of others. However, they need help to do it. That’s where the Humanitarian Impact Bond comes in.

Building a story:

We take our lessons from the best teller of stories in the world: PIXAR.

The Pixar-pitch is a schematic for the perfect story. In just six steps, an emotional rollercoaster can be shown in its essence. Let’s see how it worked with ICRC:

Once upon a time: There was a doodle, named Doodle. All they wanted to do was smell flowers and enjoy life.

Every day: Doodle would go out and search for the sweetest smelling flower they could find.

One day: Doodle’s city was attacked, and they were left seriously injured.

Because of that: Doodle needed help and turned to ICRC. ICRC helped many different people that had been injured in similar scenarios.

Because of that: ICRC needed more funds. That’s why they started the Humanitarian Impact Bond, calling upon private institutions and governments to help them help Doodles everywhere.

Until Finally: ICRC had enough stability and funding to continue their humanitarian work. Doodle was given a new lease on life. They could finally stop and smell the flowers, along with many other Doodle’s around the world.

We created a video that told a global, inclusive story where the main character was simple, instantly recognisable and could represent anyone.

With a soft, emotive voice-over, the video was truly able to move audiences, both investors and the public. All the while, ICRC’s message was clear: what the Humanitarian Impact Bond is, how it works and how it’s here to help.

Doodle’s story was shown at the World Economic Forum by representatives of ICRC. It was also kept on the phones of the ICRC team to be shown at meetings for a quick and clear explanation of the HIB.

The video was then shared all over social media and YouTube: reaching, informing and touching the hearts of thousands.

But that’s not all. The Cartoonbase team was the proud winner of the Belgian Corporate Video Festival’s award for Best Animation! We’re happy to say, Doodle was fairly chuffed.