The best way to tell a nonprofit’s story is directly through the people actually impacted by the nonprofit.*
One of my favorite jobs in my career was working as the Director of Marketing & Communications for The Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership (INHP). INHP is an incredible nonprofit that helps low- and moderate-income families learn how to become successful long-term homeowners. The nonprofit teaches money management and homeownership classes, works one-on-one with its clients before and after they purchase a home, and provides access to tools and mortgage products (their own products and lender partner products).
In a nutshell, INHP changes peoples’ lives through homeownership and improves Indianapolis neighborhoods by seeding them with homeowners prepared for the longterm and who care about their neighborhoods.
In my work there, I needed to reach two very different audiences with two very different calls to action under one unified brand: 1. The potential new clients who could benefit from INHP’s programs and 2. The new and existing donors and partners who keep INHP’s programs running through funding and in-kind support.
INHP already had some nice photography, strong assets, an advertising budget, loads of available client and donor data, and solid community name recognition. But they had stalled on a tired marketing approach.
In partnership with Publicis, I first turned INHP’s brand identity into a story itself. Starting with the logo, which went from this gold square:
To this:
The branding work was intentional and grounded in research. Plus, the “I” becomes a person and the “H” is obviously a house. There’s far more to it, but not for this portfolio example.
The tagline, which I created, is the story of a client’s journey through the program: They dream about homeownership, they prepare for homeownership through INHP’s programs, and then they succeed for the long term.
I reworked our branded items, and the website was already going through an overhaul, so it got a brand update as well.
And then one of our counselors introduced me to her client, Brittany.
When I met Brittany, I knew her story would resonate with both prospective clients and donors. She was an open book, unafraid to share what she and her husband didn’t know, and she was honest about the experience she’d had—including missteps and setbacks along the way. I asked her if she would be willing to keep a journal and write short blog pieces for us periodically, and, if she’d be willing to be as candid in her writing as she was talking to me. She agreed. I knew it was a risk. Not all of INHP’s clients make it through the program.
Brittany’s blog turned out to be not only a nice addition to our revamped website, it also became a storyline I threaded with snippets through INHP’s annual report (at the time, a major donor communications piece), the featured videos at our annual donor breakfast event and other materials, all carrying the new Dream. Prepare. Succeed. tagline as a theme.
Take a peek at her story here. I directed the photography and design and wrote all the copy except Brittany’s blog snippets.
At the annual donor event (The INHP Community Breakfast, a formal breakfast event), the event opened with a video teasing the theme with the “Dream” component, featuring several INHP client families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78FIi3gnX2s
And then, later, this video brought it all home with the “Prepare. Succeed,” components, heavily featuring Brittany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDSJpmlvN48
Brittany even served as a spokesperson and attended our INHP “Block Party” promotional events to talk with other clients, and she appeared in my media coverage. She wanted other people to know what she had learned.
INHP has introduced many new programs and expanded in Indianapolis. These are older work pieces, but this is an example of a few things: Branding, storytelling, media relations (I did a LOT of that at INHP), writing, creative strategy, and even donor relations. At INHP, I had the rare opportunity to be both strategist and tactician at a nonprofit with a mission I believed in, working alongside incredibly talented, smart people who care deeply about the mission and the people INHP serves.
*There is a VERY important distinction to make in telling a person’s story accurately, with their consent, and dignified as a human being rather than exploiting them as symbolic of “the issue.”
Read my personal blog, Wanderlust here: WanderfulThoughts.com
