Jan. 1—In 2023, Hamilton business LemonGrenade Creative will provide free creative services to nonprofits as a way of thanking the community.

The idea for the Free LemonAid program was originally created during the coronavirus pandemic to assist organizations and businesses with free graphic-design help. As a result, LemonGrenade Creative provided free branding assistance to 37 Hamilton businesses.

"We did a very successful program during COVID. We didn't do it to get publicity, we just felt like it was the right thing to do at the time. We gave away a bunch of free design work and we called it the 'Free Lemon-Aid' program for companies that weren't advertising during COVID," said Thommy Long, owner of LemonGrenade Creative.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses lost money and were spending less. The LemonAid program helped companies update their websites, strengthen their social-media presence and better the way they marketed themselves. LemonGrenade spent about 100 design hours creating more than 100 ads. After receiving the help, some companies saw increased sales and new business.

"People that reached out to us were not clients already, so our team got to work on a lot of really cool brands. And a lot of feedback we received from these companies was like 'Wow, we've never seen our brand done this way. It looks so cool' and a lot of the people we gave free work to became clients in 2021 or 2022, because they liked the free work we had done for them," Long said.

LemonGrenade Creative is a full-service marketing and design firm located in downtown Hamilton. The Free LemonAid program has been created exclusively for nonprofits as a way of saying thanks for the work they do.

"Free LemonAid was so successful. So, as a community outreach for this year, for 2023, we decided to bring the program back, but it's a little different this time. What we're doing is we're picking one nonprofit to basically give them a $12,000 design grant, $1,000 a month to spend on whatever they want for creative needs, marketing, graphic design, or any service that we provide, and it's zero charge for them for the whole year. So, basically, we're adopting a nonprofit for the year," Long said.

The winner will be announced Jan. 10. For more information, or to apply, go to lemongrenade.com/lemonaid.

"We're hoping to get 30 or 40 applications," said Long. "We are accepting applications all the way up until that date as well."

When applying, some nonprofits have expressed a need for social media help, while others have said they need assistance with messaging or imagery.

"We're at a place in our company history where we've been successful the past few years. We have been doing community outreach and sponsoring things like Hamilton Pride, the Corn Stand Jam, and other events in Butler County, but we thought it would be really cool to take one nonprofit, one organization that's struggling with marketing and budgeting, and let's just do everything they need for the year, free of charge. So, it's like we're their partner for the year, and let's do it every single year, and let's pick a different organization every single year," Long said.

Long graduated from Fairfield High School in 1994 and from the Art Academy in Cincinnati in 1998. He was named Hamilton's Small-Business Person of the Year in 2020.