Resource: Investing in Illustration and Animation for Your Year-End Campaigns

By Kirsten Downie

It might feel early, with the last warm days of summer still lingering, but it’s already time to start planning your end-of-year (EOY) campaign. 

Nearly a third of all annual donations happen in December - and up to 12% in the final three days alone. To capitalise on that, you need to stand out in a deluge of competing campaigns. Your creative can be the difference between standing out and being overlooked.

Creative projects almost always take longer than expected, and the best designers and animators are usually booked solid with year-end work. By getting your briefs in now, you give your creative partners the time to deliver thoughtful, impactful work that tells your organisation's story effectively.

Animated content consistently outperforms static visuals, driving 40–80% higher engagement. Combining strong visuals with authentic storytelling, allows you to create a powerful, emotional story.

The best results come from telling stories with emotional resonance - stories of real people and communities whose lives have been transformed by your work. 

Using animated or illustrated content allows you to:

• Avoid being constrained by what’s in your internal image bank. 

• Preserve the anonymity, privacy, and dignity of the people your work supports.

• Approach complex topics with sensitivity and respect. 

• Create uplifting campaigns without relying on heavy or intrusive live-action footage.

Stretching Your Budget with Smart Creative Choices

Many organisations assume that their budget won’t stretch to creating a full animated EOY ad but the real question is: what can you achieve with the budget you do have?

• The story is everything -  If your story is powerful, even a simple animation can have a big impact.

• Keep it short - An impactful animated ad should be short - ideally 45 seconds or less - and not all of that needs to be animated.

• Focus on your hook - The most important moment is the first few seconds. If your budget is tight, focus on the first few seconds, or just one or two emotionally resonant scenes - and then transition into content from your image bank.

• Learn to do a lot with a little - Employ sound effects, choose the right music, choose an animated style that is simpler and faster to produce. 

• Mix formats strategically - Consider animated collages, kinetic typography, or blended approaches (animation for the hook, then transition to live-action footage).

Talk to an Expert About Maximising Your Budget

If you’re exploring animation for your EOY campaign:

• Start with a moodboard to visualise the creative direction - this will provide  a start point for your creative to give you a realistic understanding of what you can achieve with your budget.

• Export hero frames from animations to repurpose as static graphics across email, social, and print.

• Use your creative resources wisely - Focus your senior creatives on creating the main content, then export reusable assets (characters, icons, backgrounds) so your in-house team can build extra content in Canva.

• Think about reusability - design without references to specific dates so content can be repurposed in future campaigns.

• Keep production simple - you don’t need a celebrity voiceover. Sometimes the most authentic voice is already in your office.

We’ve helped clients launch animations on modest budgets that grew into annual series - creative assets built upon year after year. The key is to track what works, refine your style, and invest steadily.

Creativity is Not a Cost - It’s an Investment

The most successful year-end campaigns use design and animation to stand out, connect emotionally, and inspire action.

Done well, your EOY campaign won’t just raise money - it will lay the foundation for a stronger, more distinctive fundraising brand for years to come.

Have a look

Some examples of the animation creative work we’ve been doing for our clients, showing how flexible and impactful animation can be.