• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, March 3, 2008

Talk about putting a face with a cause.

The Denver Rescue Mission, a non-denominational Christian charity, launched its first capital campaign in more than 10 years to raise $12.5 million by June 30.

The campaign intends to help thousands of homeless people in the Denver area. The ultimate goal is to decrease the number of homeless individuals and families.

Phase one of the campaign uses billboards that spell out the word homeless using pictures of 143 homeless men, women and children in the area.

Cultivator Advertising & Design, the agency that created the campaign, visited several shelters in the area to take pictures of the homeless people used in the campaign. The billboard contains the URL GiversNeeded.org, where donations are accepted. The Web site doesn't include how much money has been raised to date. I'd like to see a section online where the progress of funds raised could be tracked on a weekly or monthly basis.

Two weeks later, billboards will be replaced with half of the faces missing in the last four letters of homeless. In the campaign's final phase, all the photos in "less" will be removed, leaving the word home, the Denver Rescue Mission's ultimate goal for the homeless. See the ads here, here and here.

Explore Communications handled the media buy, which also includes ads at 20 bus stops. An estimated 30% of Denver residents will see at least one ad on any given day.