Case Study

AMC

The Care Behind the Care

A campaign and interactive annual report that helped the Association of Muslim Chaplains show its members what they've been building.

Campaign StrategyEmail MarketingSocial MediaCopywritingAnnual ReportWeb DevelopmentInterview ResearchData Visualization

The Challenge

The Association of Muslim Chaplains is the only national professional organization for Muslim chaplains in the U.S. Over 250 members serve across hospitals, prisons, campuses, the military, and community settings in 40+ states and Canada. They train chaplains, set professional standards, and connect a scattered profession into a real network.

Their problem: chaplaincy is invisible to most donors. Unlike a masjid or humanitarian org, AMC's work is indirect. They equip the helpers, not the helped. The word "chaplaincy" itself is unfamiliar in many Muslim communities. AMC had never run a formal fundraising campaign before, and with a new Executive Director just coming on board, this Ramadan was the moment to change that.

They needed the full package: messaging that could explain what chaplains actually do, content that would re-engage their membership base, and an annual report that would show members the value of what AMC has been doing. The goal wasn't just dollars. It was laying the groundwork for a long-term fundraising operation they could build on year after year. Eight weeks to build everything.

What We Built

AMC's first-ever coordinated campaign. The focus: show members what chaplaincy looks like at scale, and build the infrastructure to fundraise for years to come.

Campaign playbook
Messaging framework, donor personas, phased timeline
Full email sequence
Pre-Ramadan through Eid, story-driven asks
Social media content
Carousel posts for Instagram and Facebook
Board activation playbook
Scripts, WhatsApp messages, tracking spreadsheet
Campaign dashboard
Central hub for the whole team to find and share assets
AI-generated campaign artwork
Consistent visual identity across every touchpoint
Interactive annual report
Multi-chapter website with interactive map and photo gallery
Chaplain interviews
In-depth stories across corrections, healthcare, campus, and community
Chaplain locations map
Interactive map of 250+ members nationwide

The Campaign Playbook

Every campaign starts with a playbook. This is the strategic document we build before writing a single email or designing a single graphic. It gives the entire team a shared language, clear targets, and a phased plan they can follow without needing us in the room.

Campaign Playbook
Core Pitch
The 30-second version of who you are and why someone should give
Donor Personas
Who gives, what they know, what they need to hear
Success Metrics
Fundraising targets, engagement benchmarks, conversion goals
Messaging Framework
Primary hierarchy, phase-based emotional registers
Vocabulary Guide
Words to use, words to avoid, tone calibration
Proof Points
The three facts every touchpoint should reference
Campaign Phases
Launch, weekly asks, Last 10 Nights, Eid
Email Sequence
Full emails with subject lines, send dates, and preview text
Social Templates
Captions, posting schedule, hashtag strategy
WhatsApp Messages
Timed messages for peak giving windows
Donation Page Copy
Impact tiers, monthly giving pitch, confirmation messaging
Graphics Brief
Creative direction, color palette, photography guidance
Send Timing Guide
Optimal send times by channel and campaign phase
Board Activation
Outreach templates, expectations, and personal ask scripts
Implementation Checklist
Week-by-week action items from strategy to Eid
Every client receives a custom version built from their strategy sessions wavedepth

The Campaign Dashboard

A central site where the AMC team could access every campaign asset: emails, social posts, WhatsApp messages, the content calendar, and donation page copy. Built so they could self-serve without digging through email threads.

Campaign overview with 4-phase timeline and content calendar

All emails with subject lines, preview text, and direct links

Social carousel posts with captions and slide previews

The Email Sequence

Emails from pre-Ramadan through Eid. Each one built around a real chaplain story: a corrections chaplain advocating for incarcerated Muslims, a community chaplain working through trauma remotely, a campus chaplain at MIT guiding a student through a faith crisis. We conducted original interviews to source these stories.

Pre-Ramadan launch

Healthcare chaplaincy

Last 10 Nights

Eid

The Annual Report

Alongside the campaign, we built AMC's 2025 annual report as an interactive website. It covers letters from the Executive Director and President, membership data, a photography gallery from the 2025 conference and retreat, program highlights, and financial transparency.

The centerpiece: an interactive map showing 250+ chaplain locations across 40+ states and Canada. We turned AMC's raw membership spreadsheet into a visualization that makes their national reach tangible in a way numbers alone can't.

View the annual report

Annual report cover with conference and retreat photography

Interactive map: 250+ chaplains across 40+ states and Canada

Membership breakdown across five chaplaincy cohorts

Board retreat photography and field-defining work

Blue Ridge Mountains retreat with chaplain testimonial

Conference programming and 2026 plans

The Research

Fundraising for chaplaincy required explaining what chaplains do and why it matters. We conducted original interviews with chaplains and physicians who work alongside them. These stories became the backbone of every email, social post, and the annual report itself.

"I see people who society has thrown away. I feel like it's my job to be that supporting cast for them, to help build them back up."

Imam Dr. Salahuddin Muhammad, Corrections Chaplain

"It's the best thing I do. The thing that kept me coming back. Knowing that I could make a difference in somebody's life in this way."

Nada El-Alami, Education Chaplain at MIT

"Chaplains are story catchers. They collect some of the most intimate, deep, meaningful stories of people."

Dr. Ramy Salah, Palliative Care Physician

"89% of Muslim patients wanted Islamic end-of-life care. Less than 9% actually received it."

Dr. Aasim Padela, Emergency Medicine Physician and Bioethicist

How We Worked Together

Making the Invisible Visible

The biggest challenge was translating "we equip chaplains" into something a donor connects with emotionally. We solved it through real stories: a chaplain in a federal prison cell, a physician describing the care gap, a student at MIT questioning their faith. Every piece of copy led with a scene, not a statistic.

Interview-Driven Content

We conducted in-depth interviews with chaplains and healthcare professionals, then turned each one into a comprehensive analysis. The stories fed directly into the email sequence, social posts, and annual report. The research didn't just inform the campaign, it became the campaign.

Two Projects, One Identity

The Ramadan campaign and the annual report were separate deliverables, but we designed them to reinforce each other. Same color palette (navy and teal), same messaging framework, same stories. When a donor reads the annual report and then gets a campaign email, it all feels like one organization speaking clearly.

Building for a First-Time Team

AMC had never run a Ramadan campaign. The board activation playbook included scripts, WhatsApp message templates, and a tracking spreadsheet. The campaign dashboard gave anyone on the team direct access to every asset, with no bottleneck.

What We Delivered Beyond the Contract

The original scope was a campaign and annual report. We ended up conducting in-depth chaplain video interviews, researching direct mail vendors and pricing, writing a post-campaign report with next steps, and adding text message templates on top of the WhatsApp content. The work expanded because the campaign needed it.

Eight Weeks, Start to Finish

Week 1-2

Discovery and Interviews

Proposal accepted, kickoff. Conducted chaplain interviews. Researched AMC's membership data and donor history. Drafted the messaging framework and campaign theme: "The Care Behind the Care."

Week 3-4

Creative Production

Wrote the full email sequence and social carousel posts. Generated campaign artwork. Built the interactive campaign dashboard. Delivered the first round to the client.

Week 5-6

Annual Report

Built the interactive annual report with an interactive map of 250+ chaplain locations. Integrated photography from the 2025 conference and retreat. Built the chapter navigation and responsive layout.

Week 7

Feedback and Revision

Refined all copy based on client feedback. Polished messaging and visuals across the campaign and annual report.

Week 8

Deployment

Campaign dashboard and all assets delivered. Emails loaded and scheduled. Social posts delivered with captions and hashtags. Full handoff for Ramadan launch on Feb 21.

You are very much in my duas for making this Ramadan much easier for me.

Zakia Haque

Executive Director, Association of Muslim Chaplains

"I like the tone of the emails. I like the length of the emails. I like the flow of them. Happy to put my name to them."

Zakia Haque, on the email sequence

"The messaging is clear and it's strong. Every one of those lines is worthy of being used at some point."

Zakia Haque, on the campaign concepts

"I can't tell you the number of times that the need for such a thing has come up. It's really invaluable."

Zakia Haque, on the chaplain locations map

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