Case Study
Tanwir Institute
A Home for the Heart
A first-ever Ramadan fundraising campaign for the DMV's only seminary for working adults.
The Challenge
Tanwir Institute has been quietly building something rare: a seminary in Northern Virginia where working adults study classical Islamic texts, Prophetic tradition, and dhikr without leaving their careers or families behind. For seven years, 300+ students have come through their programs. The founders taught for free. No student was ever turned away for financial reasons.
The problem was that Tanwir had never run a formal fundraising campaign. The organization operated in survival mode, relying on word-of-mouth and a small base of recurring donors. Their leadership knew the work was meaningful, but they had no strategy written down, no messaging framework, and no system for asking supporters for help at scale.
As their founder Omar Popal put it during our first strategy session: "Our language does not match our aspirations." Tanwir needed more than a campaign. They needed someone to sit with them, help them articulate what they'd built, and turn that into something donors could understand and get behind.
What We Built
Tanwir's first organized Ramadan campaign: "A Home for the Heart." Strategy, messaging, content, creative, and infrastructure. All from scratch.
Tanwir's first-ever organized Ramadan campaign exceeded its goal. 561 total donations across the main campaign and volunteer-led peer-to-peer fundraising.
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.
The Donor Intelligence Dashboard
Tanwir had no visibility into their donor base. We built a custom analytics dashboard that pulls from their payment platforms and breaks down giving by segment, frequency, revenue trends, and platform. The dashboard gives their leadership real-time insight into who their donors are, how they give, and where the opportunities are for growth.
Dashboard overview: total revenue, unique donors, platform breakdown, and revenue timeline
Revenue trends, seasonality heatmap, and Ramadan performance comparison
Donor intelligence: segment analysis, retention insights, and giving patterns
The Campaign Dashboard
Tanwir's team had no prior experience running a multi-channel campaign. We built them a single site where everything lived: the full content calendar, every email with subject lines and preview text, social posts with captions, WhatsApp messages ready to copy, downloadable assets, and donation page copy. No hunting through email threads or shared drives.
Campaign overview with $100K goal, 4-phase timeline, and content calendar
All emails with banners, subject lines, preview text, and send dates
Social posts with carousel slide previews and ready-to-use captions
Full campaign calendar: launch, weekly, Last 10 Nights, and Eid
Downloadable assets: email banners, quote cards, and enhanced photography
The Email Sequence
Emails across four campaign phases. The sequence opens by asking donors to see what changed because Tanwir exists, moves through student stories and community spotlights, escalates during the Last 10 Nights, and closes with an Eid thank-you. Each email was written in the voice of someone who knows these students by name.
Pre-Ramadan: "What changed because Tanwir exists"
Launch: "Your Ramadan Starts Here"
Last 10 Nights: "The Last 10 Nights begin"
Eid: "Eid Mubarak from all of us at Tanwir"
How We Worked Together
Starting from Identity, Not Tactics
Before writing a single email, we spent two 90-minute strategy sessions with Tanwir's founder, board treasurer, and faculty. The goal was to figure out who Tanwir is in language their donors would connect with. We mapped their programs, analyzed their donor history, studied their Instagram presence, and landed on a 30-second pitch the whole team could use: "The DMV's only seminary for working adults."
Building the Ask They'd Never Made
Tanwir's founders taught for years without taking a salary. They'd never asked their community for money in an organized way. We built the case for support around what donors already valued: the accessibility of the programs, the warmth of the community, and the fact that no student had ever been turned away. The campaign playbook gave their leadership specific language and scripts for asking in person, over WhatsApp, and on social media.
Multi-Channel from Day One
Tanwir's community is active on email, Instagram, and WhatsApp. We built a campaign that reached all three with consistent messaging across each. The emails carried the longer stories and direct asks. Social posts built awareness and urgency. WhatsApp messages hit at the three highest-leverage moments: launch, Last 10 Nights, and Laylatul Qadr. Everything was timed and sequenced on a shared calendar.
Giving Them the Tools to Run It Themselves
The campaign dashboard wasn't just for organizing assets. It was built so Tanwir's team could execute the campaign without depending on us for every step. Copy-to-clipboard buttons on every message. Download links on every graphic. A donation page setup guide with step-by-step instructions. The goal was capacity, not dependency.
What We Delivered Beyond the Contract
When the founder needed slides for a fundraising presentation, we built campaign graphics, a budget slide, and a donation QR code for his deck. We wrote an extra email beyond what was scoped. We also compiled a "What has changed" content document by coordinating directly with Tanwir's leadership to gather the stories and updates they hadn't had time to write down.
The Donation Page
We wrote the donation page copy with specific impact tiers and a monthly giving pitch. Tanwir's team implemented it on their own site using our copy, campaign theme, and Zeffy setup guide.
View the live donation pageLive donation page at tanwir.institute/sustain, using our campaign copy and theme
From Zero to Campaign Launch
Deep Strategy
Strategy sessions with Tanwir's founder, board, and faculty. Analyzed their donor data, Instagram presence, and LaunchGood history. Built donor personas and identified the core pitch.
Messaging and Campaign Playbook
Developed the campaign theme ("A Home for the Heart"), tagline ("Seek knowledge. Increase remembrance."), and full messaging framework. Wrote the campaign playbook with donor segmentation, ask ladders, and board activation scripts.
Content Production
Wrote all emails, social posts, and WhatsApp messages. Generated campaign artwork and designed the visual system in Figma. Built the campaign dashboard with calendar, asset library, and copy tools.
Photo Enhancement and Design
Enhanced event photos from Tanwir's collection using AI upscaling. Designed student quote cards. Built the donation page copy and setup guide. Final round of revisions.
Handoff and Launch
Full campaign delivered. Dashboard live. All assets exported and organized. Tanwir launched their first Ramadan campaign on February 18, 2026.
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Social Media and Campaign Creative
Posts across the full campaign, including single graphics and multi-slide carousels. The visual language uses Tanwir's brand palette (emerald and gold) with floral motifs from their AI-generated campaign artwork. We also designed student quote cards that could be shared between scheduled posts to keep the feed active.
Carousel hook slide
First Fast graphic
Dhikr night highlight
Night 21 post
Student Quote Cards
Designed to fill gaps between scheduled posts and share on stories. Each card features a real student's words about what Tanwir has meant to them.