/work_/Trust Jamiat Talim ul Quran
Fifty years of teaching the Quran for free, across Pakistan. It needed a brand, and a way to be given to.
Free Quran schools since 1969, Karachi to Gilgit, and in prisons. In May 2022 I joined as fractional CMO: the whole brand, and the donations that fund it.
- Role
- Fractional CMO, consultant. Working alone, with one agency.
- Brief
- The brand. Donations, corporate and general.
- When
- May 2022 to late 2024. Two and a half years.
- Shipped
- Website and online giving, two campaigns, a children’s programme, donor assets for the board.
The campaign films
Five films from two years. They play here.
The light of the Holy Quran in the society
Allah se partnership
Live by the Book
Let’s live by the Book
Jamiat Talimul Quran
Made with TheAjency while I ran the brand and wrote the briefs. I did not direct or produce them.
/how-i-think_
A non-profit is a brand that has to ask.
No website, no way to give online, and a target of one billion rupees a year. Advertising teaches you to make people want something. A trust needs people to give, and keep giving. Same discipline: be clear, be present where the donor is, make the ask easy.
01
Make it possible to give.
A trust cannot grow on cash handed over in person. The first job was a website with a payment gateway in it, built with a technology partner, so someone could give from a phone in a minute.
02
Arm the people who ask.
Big donations are asked for in a room, by a trustee. So the brand had to be a kit a board member could carry to a corporate donor and put on the table.
03
Campaigns with a spine.
Two years, one brand, two registers. First a cast of characters and a promise: we will see a Quranic society. Then children making the case for giving, in their own words.
04
Build the product, not just the ads.
From a one-line brief, Justuju: a free after-school programme for grades one to five. The concept, the name, the brand, how it runs. Launched in 2023 at one of the trust’s schools.
/the-brand_
A 1969 mark, and one line to carry it.
The trust’s calligraphic mark stayed. Around it: lockups, a green it owns, and a promise every campaign returns to. We will see a Quranic society.
The mark
Jamiat Talim ul Quran, the dome, the year. Set into a system for print, screen and the side of a building.
The line
Hum dekhenge, aik Qurani muashara. On every invitation, film and form. Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, February 2024.
/the-ask_
What a trustee carries into the room.
The big gifts are asked for over dinner, by a board member. Two of the pieces that go with them: the pledge form, and the trust’s year on one sheet.
The pledge form
Three tiers and a line for any amount. Signed at the table.
The year on one sheet
Vision, programmes, and the numbers for 2022 to 2023. The 2024 brochure.
/justuju_
From a one-line brief, a programme with a name.
Justuju, the seeker finds. A free after-school programme for grades one to five: character, a love of learning, Quran, and games. The name, the brand and the launch.
The name and the mark
Justuju, the search. Four colours, one for each strand of the programme.
We will read the Quran well
The launch posts. A character for every promise.
We will learn to be good people
Character building, in the child’s own words.
Games too, good for the body
Play as part of the programme, not a break from it.
/where-it-landed_
One billion rupees a year. Two years running.
With the trustees and the donors who stood with them, the trust met its annual target in both full years I was there. General donations, which it had struggled with, rose significantly year on year, and so did corporate and major giving. A trust that had quietly done the work for half a century became one people could find, understand, and give to, by the grace of Allah SWT. The Quran schools, the teachers, and the work belong to the trust.
/you_
Run a non-profit?
If your organisation does real work and has never had a brand, or your board needs help asking, write to me.
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