Heal Animal Rescue: Social Media Strategy & Advertising Campaign
This portfolio presents my social media strategy and ad designs for Heal Animal Rescue. The campaign is a digital-first approach to increase adoptions, grow sustainable donations, and recruit more volunteers while strengthening brand awareness across platforms.
The site mirrors my pitch presentation and is divided into sections for the organization overview, campaign goals, audience and platform strategy, content and ad concepts, accessibility and crisis planning, budget and KPIs, and a sample content calendar and competitor analysis. It ends with a gallery of visuals and a reflection on what I would build next.
Project Overview
This project focuses on building a social media advertising campaign for an animal rescue nonprofit. The primary objectives are to increase pet adoptions, generate recurring donations, and encourage more people to volunteer their time. To achieve this, I developed a clear brand voice, a set of visual guidelines, and several ad concepts designed for Meta platforms (Facebook & Instagram).
The portfolio acts as both documentation and storytelling. It explains how I translated the organization’s mission into concrete goals, built a strategy around the audience’s needs, and chose tactics that make sense for a small nonprofit with limited resources but a highly engaged community.
About Heal Animal Rescue
Heal Animal Rescue is a Western Pennsylvania–based nonprofit focused on rescuing, rehabilitating, and rehoming animals while educating the community about responsible pet care. They rely heavily on donations, volunteers, and word-of-mouth support to keep daily operations running and to give each animal the time and care it deserves.
The rescue uses social media as a primary communication channel, but like many small organizations it faces challenges: limited time, inconsistent posting, and competing priorities between adoption promotion, fundraising, and volunteer outreach. My strategy aims to bring structure to that mix and help their channels work together in a more intentional way.
Campaign Goals
The campaign goals are based on the organization’s real needs and the opportunities available through digital platforms. They balance immediate actions (adoptions and donations) with longer-term brand health.
- Increase adoptions by highlighting individual animals and simplifying the next steps.
- Grow one-time and recurring donations with clear impact-driven messaging.
- Recruit volunteers by showing how people can contribute time, not just money.
- Strengthen brand awareness so Heal feels familiar, trustworthy, and recognizable.
- Improve engagement across platforms with more consistent, story-driven content.
Target Audience & Platform Strategy
Target Audience Overview
The campaign targets three main groups: potential pet adopters, local families looking to support animal welfare, and volunteers ranging from teens to adults. These audiences are united by a love of animals, interest in local community work, and a desire to see their support make a direct impact.
Within each group, there are different levels of readiness—from people casually following cute animals online to those actively searching for a pet or cause to support. The content mix is designed to meet each group where they are and gently move them toward adoption, donation, or volunteering.
Platform Focus
I prioritized Meta (Facebook & Instagram) as the core platforms because of their strong local reach, event tools, and robust advertising options. Organic posts build community and share ongoing stories, while paid ads help promote high-priority needs like long-stay animals or seasonal fundraising campaigns.
Other platforms such as TikTok or YouTube Shorts can support future growth with more video storytelling, but the initial strategy focuses on doing a few platforms well instead of spreading the team too thin.
Content & Ad Strategy
Brand Voice & Visual Direction
The brand voice is warm, hopeful, and honest. Posts use clear, simple language and focus on real animals and real people instead of overly polished marketing speak. Visually, the campaign uses consistent colors, typography, and logo placement so that posts and ads are instantly recognizable as coming from Heal Animal Rescue.
This consistency builds trust and makes it easier for followers to recognize Heal in a crowded feed. It also gives volunteers and staff a framework to follow when creating new posts or stories.
Ad Concepts Overview
The paid ad strategy is built around three core concepts: an Adoption Spotlight that features a specific animal, a Holiday Donation Appeal that taps into seasonal giving, and a Volunteer Recruitment ad that highlights the impact of volunteer work.
Each concept pairs strong visuals with a single, clear call to action and links directly to the appropriate landing page—adoption information, donation form, or volunteer sign-up—reducing friction for users who are ready to act.
Accessibility & Crisis Plan
Accessibility & Inclusion
Throughout the campaign, I prioritize accessibility: high-contrast text and backgrounds, readable font sizes, descriptive alt text for images, and simple layouts that work well on mobile. Captions are written to be understandable without complex jargon, and key information like event dates or adoption requirements is repeated clearly.
The content also aims to be inclusive by highlighting a variety of animals and adopters, and by avoiding language that could unintentionally shame people who cannot adopt or donate but still want to help.
Crisis Plan Overview
The crisis plan outlines how Heal would respond to urgent situations, such as an animal health emergency, negative publicity, or sudden facility issues. It identifies who should approve messaging, what channels to use first, and how to keep the community informed without causing panic.
The goal is to communicate quickly, honestly, and compassionately, while reinforcing the organization’s values and maintaining trust with supporters.
Budget Overview & KPIs
Below is a visual breakdown of the campaign budget and baseline KPIs compared to projected results after a December campaign push. These graphics were created to clearly illustrate expected performance changes, budget allocations, and high-priority tools and expenses.
Line-item breakdown of ad spend, tools, production, and seasonal materials.
KPI baseline vs. projected December results (engagement, reach, donations, applications).
Content Calendar & Competitor Analysis
December Content Calendar
This calendar outlines a full month of content for Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It balances educational posts, adoption spotlights, trending videos, behind-the-scenes content, and volunteer-focused messaging. The layout ensures a consistent posting rhythm that supports adoption, donation, and engagement goals.
Organized posting schedule for Reels, TikToks, informatives, and holiday content.
Competitor Analysis Summary
Competitor research focused on rescues and animal nonprofits in Pennsylvania and nationwide. Key themes: many organizations excel in emotional storytelling but lack consistent CTAs or structured volunteer recruiting content. Others run strong ads but lack human-focused community connection.
This campaign blends both strengths—high-emotion content and clear next steps—to create a more effective and actionable social media presence.
Visual Ad Gallery
Below is a collection of all visuals created for this project. This includes adoption-focused content, donation materials, volunteer recruitment ads, and additional campaign graphics. All images follow the same branding style to ensure a cohesive and recognizable presence across social media platforms.
Part of the general branding collection used throughout the project.
Additional branded graphic supporting campaign storytelling.
Reinforces brand tone and supports multi-platform posting.
First version of the social media ad mockup created for Meta platforms.
Donation- or adoption-focused creative built using consistent brand design.
Third ad mockup highlighting a different call to action or campaign message.
A preview graphic representing the downloadable campaign PDF or slide deck.
Process & Strategic Opportunities
I approached this project as both a designer and strategist. I began by clarifying the organization’s objectives, then created a simple framework that connects each ad and content stream back to those goals. From there, I sketched low-fidelity concepts, refined them into digital mockups, and iterated based on feedback about clarity, accessibility, and tone.
Looking ahead, key opportunities include more video content, stronger volunteer storytelling, and ongoing adoption success stories that close the loop for the audience. Seasonal mini-campaigns and deeper community partnerships could help Heal Animal Rescue keep scaling its impact while staying true to its grassroots feel.
About & Contact
I’m Ilya Abbasian, an aspiring digital strategist and developer interested in social media, design, and data-informed storytelling. If you’d like to see more projects or connect about internships, freelance work, or collaborations, feel free to reach out:
Email: ila18@pitt.edu