Qgiv Partner Showcase: Oneicity

Wait, how do you pronounce that? Our partner, Oneicity, gets that question a lot! Oneicity is pronounced like electricity, simplicity, or elasticity. It’s a name they coined to express their desires to have oneness, connection, and relationship with their clients. 

Oneicity prides themselves on being different in a good way. When nonprofit organizations need help with fundraising, they hold many “beliefs” that you need to find people you trust, and people you think can deliver for you. 

Their “We Believes” are the “why” behind how they do what they do. These include fun things, like bringing dogs and kids to the office to the more difficult things, like telling you the whole truth, even if it’s painful. 

It all comes down to relationships, as all fundraising is grounded in relationships. We value our relationships and are proud to connect our nonprofit friends to our partner network in hopes this helps increase your nonprofit ‘s effectiveness and success.  

To learn more about Oneicity and their partnership with Qgiv, read our interview with their President, Ryan Thomas, below.

Q: Tell us a bit more about Oneicity 

O:

We’re a boutique ad agency providing marketing and fundraising for nonprofits, headquartered on Bainbridge Island, Washington—a 30-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle.  

Q: How did you end up partnering with Qgiv?

O:

Wow, that’s usually a softball question that’s tripped me up. We found Qgiv so many years ago (2011? 2012?), it’s hard to remember the circumstances. I’ve slept since then (although with two young kids, not nearly as much as I’d have liked). 

We were searching for an online giving platform that had what one of our clients needed, without all this other stuff that they didn’t need.  

After some sleuthing we came across Qgiv, got a demo and the rest has been history. Not all of our clients are on Qgiv, and experiencing other platforms always makes our team thankful for the ones who are on Qgiv.  

Q: What makes Oneicity different?

O:  

Great question. Well, first, we’re a family-owned agency, which makes us pretty unique. Many of us have done decades of work at large firms, so we’ve been there and done that, but wanted to get out of the “fundraising factories.”  

We’re the perfect balance between a big giant conglomerate and a one- or two-person shop. Our team is small, but not too small. We’re very selective about who joins our team to work with our clients. We’re small enough that clients always talk to someone who knows them and their organization, and who is equipped to solve their problem. But we’re big enough that we can handle anything they need. 

Stability is something we value. We have a number of clients we’ve served for over a decade. And the “new person” on our team has been with us for almost five years. Nonprofits have enough going on without constantly having to deal with someone new at the agency working with them and about the time they learn all the details of that organization, they leave. 

And if you want to talk to the owners, no problem. We have regular, standing calls with CEOs and Executive Directors. We are available, and not just for emergencies.  

Q: What types of organizations do you work with?

O:

We don’t have a set type of organization. Mostly our tribe is Christian ministries and nonprofits, but that’s not something we set out for, it just happened. We work with a couple of nonprofits who aren’t faith based, and we consult for a few for-profit service companies (HVAC repair companies, plumbers, etc.). That’s a fun side of the work because it sometimes lets us encounter new ideas in the for-profit world that we can apply to our nonprofit clients. 

Q: Why should nonprofits consider working with you?

O:

We deliver fundraising and marketing that fits our client and produces results. We’re on budget. We’re on time. We know what we’re doing. We know how to connect donors with your cause.  

Q: What is one of your success stories?

O:

It’s hard to narrow down—it’s easy to say, “online results are up,” but lots of people are seeing that. It’s tempting to talk about the incredible income numbers and great metrics from our online strategies that our clients are experiencing. 

Instead of that, here’s a success that might seem unexpected but epitomizes one of our key tenets and is pretty typical of what happens when our team deploys our digital strategies.  

The CEO of one of our clients got stopped in the grocery store by a donor one evening and she said “Thank you so much for emailing me today. It was so uplifting to hear about that in the midst of your busy day.” (It’s hilarious because that’s part of the communication stream we do for this client, so he had to really think about what email she was talking about). 

Oneicity focuses on strengthening the connection between a donor and the leader, and a large part of that is making sure every letter, newsletter, or email sounds like they sat down at their computer and typed it up themselves. People give to people, and when donors believe this email personally came from that leader, it forges a strong connection for that donor to that nonprofit.  

It isn’t easy to capture the “voice” of a leader, but the hard work of doing it pays off.  

Q: Is there anything interesting coming up in 2022?

O:

Lots of nonprofits have struggled to adapt to changes in the social media and digital ad world. We began testing concepts last year which we’re rolling out to clients this fall. If you’re using Facebook, Instagram…really any social media platform you can’t use strategies from a few years ago (Okay, really, you can’t even use last year’s strategies). Things have changed. There’re still opportunities ahead but you have to shift to the current landscape. This is what our team does constantly: review results, analyze opportunities, and adjust strategies for our clients.