As discriminatory anti-LGBTQ+ bills surged across the U.S., Lambda Legal, the civil rights organization behind nearly every landmark LGBTQ+ legal victory, faced a paradox - its work had rarely been more urgent, yet awareness lagged behind better-known LGBTQ+ organizations.
Lambda Legal came to Accompany with the challenge - how can we raise awareness among new audiences while also raising funds for the legal fights already underway. And as a nonprofit with limited resources, how could they do both efficiently.
Our challenge was to create something bigger than a fundraising campaign: a distinctive, long-term brand and advocacy platform, with an ownable voice and visual language Lambda Legal could build upon.
The objective was to unite brand building, advocacy and fundraising under one powerful idea. It needed to introduce new audiences to Lambda Legal and its impact; deepen understanding of the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights; mobilize supporters and donors in the short term; and build recognition and relevance over the long term.
In short, Lambda Legal needed one platform that could address multiple goals, while giving one of America's most consequential LGBTQ+ civil rights organizations a voice as distinctive as its legacy. That platform became All Rise.
Nonprofits are often forced to choose between two competing needs: building the brand for tomorrow or raising money for today. With limited resources and urgent legal battles ahead, Lambda Legal needed one idea capable of doing both, while also breaking through with an emotional connection while different from many other LGBTQ+ focussed non-profits.
We found it in the language of the courtroom.
All Rise transformed a familiar legal command into a collective call to action: stand up for LGBTQ+ civil rights and the people whose freedoms are being challenged.
It was inherently Lambda Legal, but bigger than any single case or issue. Lambda Legal's work spans transgender rights, marriage and family protections, employment discrimination, HIV, healthcare, youth rights and fair courts. Rather than build communications around one fight, All Rise gave the organization a platform capable of carrying them all.
For Lambda Legal's first media and influencer campaign, we designed one idea to work across the funnel. A hero film and multi-tiered influencer strategy introduced the organization and its mission to new audiences. Targeted short-form performance creative made specific threats to LGBTQ+ rights tangible, turning awareness into an immediate reason to donate.
We also built All Rise to live beyond media. Working with a political cartoonist and illustrator, we developed an expressive new visual language for Lambda Legal, brought to life through a brand film used on its website and at events. Drawing on the visual world of justice, the system extended into campaign collateral and merchandise, including a new nonbinary "Justicia" icon inspired by Lady Justice. Together, these elements gave Lambda Legal a more distinctive and ownable brand world it could continue to build upon.
The campaign launched during LGBTQ+ History Month across paid media, social and influencer channels. But crucially, All Rise was never designed as a one-and-done campaign.
Building on its success, we developed Letters of Love, a Mother's Day and Father's Day extension centering transgender young people and their parents at a moment when trans families were increasingly politicized. Instead of debating their existence, the films let families speak for themselves, showing parents doing something universal: loving their children and helping them become who they are.
From a national rallying cry to intimate family stories, one platform could build the brand, raise funds and continually find new ways to make Lambda Legal's mission matter.
All Rise proved that a nonprofit shouldn't have to choose between building awareness and raising the funds needed to create change. (many nonprofits struggle with this balance)
The campaign exceeded goals at both ends of the funnel. For awareness, video delivered a 25% view-through rate, while influencer content achieved a 6% engagement rate, four times benchmark.
That attention translated into action. Fundraising creative generated a 4.5% click-through rate, four times benchmark, and $4.27 ROAS, twice the campaign goal.
But perhaps the clearest evidence of impact was what happened next. The campaign's success led to an expanded Year Two engagement and the platform continued through Letters of Love, which brought Lambda Legal's advocacy into the cultural moments of Mother's Day and Father's Day. The work generated coverage across leading LGBTQ+ media including The Advocate, Them and GAYETY, extending its message beyond paid media.
What began as Lambda Legal's first media and influencer campaign became an enduring communications system:a distinctive idea, voice and visual language that could live across advertising, fundraising, events, digital, merchandise and advocacy. All Rise didn't simply generate awareness and donations. It gave Lambda Legal a platform it could continue to own, evolve and use to rally people around the fights ahead.
