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We’re taking a little break from the regularly scheduled Field Guide to have some fun today. I want to talk about stickers. Which, if you know me, is apparently all the invitation I need to start talking about people.
I’ve spent plenty of time walking the sponsor and partner areas at church and nonprofit conferences all over the world. There are always pens, notebooks, stress balls, and coffee mugs. But put a really good sticker on the table and watch what happens. People reach for it. Turn it over. Pick out another one for a friend.
I do it, too. I’ve collected a whole bunch of them. Some have a phrase I love. Some don’t say a word. Just a symbol, an illustration, or a brand mark that makes me think, “Yep. That’s coming home with me.”
But the part that interests me most happens after the conference, when someone gets home, opens their bag, and decides where that sticker belongs.
A small window into somebody else’s world
Imagine the laptop across from you at a coffee shop. There’s a national park, a programming language, a band you’ve never heard of, and a little illustration you can’t quite figure out. One sticker is peeling at the edges. Another has been carefully placed over something that used to belong there.
You could look at all of that and see a computer. Or you could wonder about the person behind it.
Did they grow up near that park? Was the band somebody’s first concert? Does the little illustration mean something, or did it just make them laugh on a day when they needed it?
You don’t know. There’s a whole life on the other side of that screen.
That’s the idea behind our name, Sonder: the realization that every stranger has a life as full and complicated as your own. The passerby, the person in the next seat, the one waiting for their coffee. Each has memories you’ll never share, people you’ll never meet, and reasons for being who they are that you couldn’t begin to guess.
A sticker collection gives you a few small openings into that life. Enough to be curious. Enough, maybe, to ask.
Nobody else would arrange them quite like you
Coders cover their computers. Surfers and skaters put them on boards and cars. Students, creatives, and office workers find room on water bottles and notebooks. I notice it especially with younger people, but I don’t think any of us really outgrow wanting our things to feel like ours.
And the combinations are wonderful. A church retreat next to a punk band. A nonprofit next to a very good drawing of a frog. Something deeply meaningful sharing three inches of aluminum with something completely ridiculous.
People are allowed to be all of those things.
Give two people the same handful of stickers and they’ll choose different ones, leave different spaces, put different things beside each other. Then life keeps happening. Another trip. A new community. A cause that becomes personal. The collection changes.
It’s a little like a tattoo for your stuff: something you’re willing to say about yourself without committing your actual arm to the decision.
We spend a lot of time trying to find the right words in this business. I love that sometimes a little drawing gets there first.
When your brand becomes part of their story
Of course, I run a branding and marketing agency. At some point, that part of my brain was going to join the conversation.
When someone puts your sticker on their laptop, they’re choosing to carry your brand into the rest of their life. The coffee shop. The classroom. The office. A water bottle goes to the gym; a car decal goes all over town. Your artwork starts showing up in places your organization might never otherwise reach.
We casually call that “free advertising.” You’ve paid for the design and printing, of course, but you don’t have to buy another impression every time somebody sees it. Over time, a familiar mark can become a recognized name. And “Where’d you get that?” can be the beginning of somebody discovering your work.
What makes it interesting to me is the choice involved. Somebody might love your organization and still have no desire to carry around another coffee mug with your logo on it. But a sticker? They can give it a little space on something that already belongs to them.
That space is an invitation. Treat it with some care.
Make a design that can hold its own. A symbol people recognize. An illustration they enjoy. A phrase that means something to them. You can probably leave the mission statement, founding date, web address, and next six events off this particular piece of real estate. Please let the poor sticker breathe.
You might print a thousand copies of the same design. Every person who takes one puts it into a different story.
Something to belong to. Something to stand for.
For churches, nonprofits, and ministries, those stories often meet around a shared experience or a shared hope. A retreat that helped someone feel less alone. A neighborhood people want to care for. A cause that became personal because of someone they love.
A sticker can give that connection a visible form. “These are my people.” “This place matters to me.” “I want to help.” A small symbol can be something a whole community rallies around, even when everybody’s reason for caring is a little different.
Picture a student putting a youth retreat sticker on the laptop they’ll open at school on Monday. A volunteer taking a water bottle to work with a design from the organization where they spend their Saturdays. A supporter carrying an illustration of the river their community is working to protect.
Each is carrying a little piece of a larger story into an ordinary day.
If you’re looking for church giveaway ideas, a sermon series, camp, anniversary, or community event can give you a meaningful place to start. Think about what people will want to remember when the room is empty and the event is over. Let the artwork grow from that.
For a nonprofit, an awareness campaign could introduce a design connected to the work and the people behind it. For a parachurch ministry or conference, a giveaway could include the people following along from home. A local business can do this, too: give people something that expresses why they feel connected to you.
The useful question is personal: what would someone be glad to make room for?
A little generosity, with somewhere to go
This is where a giveaway fits. You’ve made something people might want to carry. Now you can invite more of them into the story behind it.
Sticker Mule is our main supplier for custom stickers. We love them. Their give platform offers a way to make that invitation online. Check out the Sticker Mule’s Give page. You can choose a product you’ve ordered or one from its marketplace, set the number of winners, and accept entries by email or through engagement on X. For a drawing, they randomly select the winners and automatically ship the prizes.
That could give a small team a manageable way to share a new design beyond Sunday morning or the conference booth. Tell people why you made it, invite them to enter, and give them somewhere to learn more about the work. You can explore Sticker Mule Give to see the current options.
Before launching, decide what you’d like the invitation to lead to. An event? A story worth reading? A chance to volunteer? Keep the entry details clear, check the platform’s current terms and costs, and let people choose whether they want to receive ongoing emails from you.
Then pay attention to the people who respond. What drew them in? What did they ask about? What would help them feel welcome? There’s a person behind every entry, with a whole life beyond the few seconds they spent on your giveaway page.
Leave a little room
The next time you see a laptop covered in stickers, take a second look. Somebody chose all of that. The meaningful ones, the funny ones, the one they’ll probably never explain to a stranger.
You’re getting a glimpse of what they’ve carried with them, and what they’ve decided to keep.
That’s why this feels like such a Sonder conversation to me. Our work starts with paying attention to people. What they love. Where they’ve been. What makes them feel known. If we’re going to make something they’ll carry, we should care about the life it’s going into.
If your church, nonprofit, or ministry has a story you’d like help bringing into the world, let’s talk. Or if you’re looking for more creative church giveaway ideas, we’re here for that too.
And if there’s room for it beside somebody’s favorite band and a very good drawing of a frog, I’d call that a pretty lovely place to begin.
Let’s Reach More People Together,
-Matt Wish
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