Give Something Big

Give Something Big is a follow up to Inter Pares' 2007 holiday giving campaign called Solidarity Not Stuff! Although we personally liked its anti-consumer appeal and political bent, we decided to take a different tack. Convincing people to opt out of the holidays is a tough sell no matter how much we disdain the overt commercialism that turns gift-giving into the obligatory exchange of products. Instead we wanted to embrace the spirit of giving and offer people an ethical and environmentally friendly way to connect with the holidays that's in keeping with their values.

Click away to see the animated, musical cards you can create

We also wanted to do more than create holiday-themed cards that support social change via donation — we wanted to create cards that captured the essence of what a gift to Inter Pares represents. We spent some time trying to distil the core values of Inter Pares and came up with social justice, peace, and equality. Their work goes a lot further than that but these were the three concepts that showed up consistently.

We had a lot of fun creating characters that represented a good cross-section of different archetypes (but still feel like someone we actually know), and tried to imbue a charmful whimsy that would stand in contrast to the seriousness of the gift. We put together a "Do It Yourself" card engine where donors can make and send the animated card of their choice. Give it a whirl above by clicking on the gifts at the top and the characters at the bottom. Each character has a signature music piece that plays when they're selected.