Services for the UnderServed (SUS) has been helping individuals and families faced with a wide range of challenges—mental illness, developmental disability, physical disability, AIDS, homelessness, poverty—since 1978. Despite this organization’s great work, overall awareness of SUS is low. Because many individuals come to SUS with severe challenges, they require a high level of personalized service which is incredibly hard to find, and expensive. Public support is SUS’ lifeblood, and it needed an infusion during the busy holiday season. SUS needed to connect with busy New Yorkers, tell its story and drive donations.

SUS’ core mission is to transform the lives of the people it serves. To play on this, we transformed the most stereotypical symbol of American homelessness, the cardboard box, into something beautiful—something that would cause passers-by to stop, take a picture and share it. With the help of a local artist and current SUS residents, we used the cardboard to create a life-sized replica of the housing SUS provides to its members, down to the last detail. And, thanks to “text-to-donate” tags, we were able to monetize the moment visitors pulled out their smartphones to snap the picture.

During November, the installation traveled across New York, hitting popular locations like Times Square, the Veterans Day Parade, Bowling Green Park and City Hall Park. Hundreds of thousands saw the exhibit, including local politicians and other influencers. The local press (including The Gothamist, which reaches 250,000 readers), marketing trades and bloggers covered the project, resulting in hundreds of thousands of media impressions. The impact was immediate. During the one-month push, traffic to SUS websites increased 1600% and donations rose 437%, allowing SUS—for the first time ever—to provide a holiday gift to every one of the 3,500+ people it serves.