THE CHALLENGE
How can we better communicate our mission to donors?
HUB helped Child Aid find its voice, and its confidence.
Since it began working in Guatemala in 1993, Child Aid identified a troubling and strange problem: kids were attending school in record numbers but learning nothing. By tackling the problem from multiple angles — training teachers, providing books for classrooms, and promoting good policy — Child Aid saw remarkable improvement in the schools where it worked.
Despite these great results, Child Aid didn’t know how to talk about their work... or ask for donor support. So they asked us for help. We wanted to help Child Aid find the confidence and clarity to present its work in the most rousing and effective way possible so they can do even more good in the world.
Listening for Differentiation
Defining the challenges and stakeholders involved proved essential to understanding how we could make this process fruitful. We met in-person with the Portland office and remotely with the Guatemalan team to learn their unique perspectives to the rebranding effort. Getting to know the team and the work they do helped us understand the core of Child Aid’s work and passion. Their commitment to working with indigenous communities has made them successful in ways other top-down agencies have not. Our design studies began from the definition of a brand system: a name, logo, and tagline that work harmoniously to quickly and elegantly communicate Child Aid’s brand essence.
Audience and Engagement
Strategically, we further developed our target audience personas and began to define how we would interact and reach them at various stages of their journey learning about and sharing with others the great work Child Aid does.
Expanding Reach
Tonally, we explored several different options that would guide future copy, taglines, and the general point of view of the brand. After much deliberation we chose “A new chapter for education” as the grounding tagline for the organization. The system we defined for Child Aid goes beyond surface-level changes to fundamentally shift the way the organization presents and talks about itself: confidently and as a world player in the movement to end poverty through education.
A Playbook to Success
We knew this had to be bigger than a new look and feel. Child Aid needed a brand that would deliver long-term sustained value and growth. So we developed a communications playbook for social media, web, and events to help Child Aid increase recognition and following. To systematically and quickly test the success and reach of particular marketing efforts, we suggest a systematic execution of “plays” from an implementation playbook for the next year. These plays target specific audiences over all channels to test what kind of content has traction with whom. The outcomes can be used to develop a more intentional and strategic plan for the coming years. Carry out one play at a time for a period of 6-8 weeks each before assessing and moving on to the next play.
DETAILS
Designed in Partnership with Child Aid
Brand Strategy, Communications, Marketing, Design