Cheer New York
Rachel Sullivan
Messaging Rebrand Strategy for a 501c3 nonprofit
Optimizing digital messaging to maximize organic inbound traffic, online fundraising, booking, and recruitment.
My role was to form a messaging strategy and synthesize information from all joint strategic marketing initiatives in order to re-write all content across organization materials, both internal and outward-facing, and across digital interfaces, social media, print and external collateral, media statements, fundraising statements, donation letters, sponsorship materials, booking materials, write official organization statements for press and media, write talking guidelines for distribution among our 90+ active members for how to ask for donations as a 501c3 in our capacity as volunteers, fact sheets about our beneficiaries of the New York Spirit Fund, FAQ information for perspective members, terms and conditions for fundraising raffles, official letters for corporate donations for team members to use to request participation from employers in charitable events, joint statements with local venues and partnerships on events, social media advertisements, link building as part of a larger SEO strategy, keyword integration based on rebrand in order to optimize for organic inbound traffic while taking advantage of Google's nonprofit partnership program, alt image descriptions across digital imagery, and information of the manner in which the team could be booked for a variety of events holding our own 501c3 status.
I held a leadership position as one of the Directors of Marketing on the Leadership Board from 2014-2019, and I was a volunteer performing member on the team in addition to holding a leadership role from 2013-2019.
Branding Workshop
⭐ Branding workshop with nonprofit leadership to determine new brand house, or the North Star, for all messaging. It rests on a foundation of values, personality, tone and presentation. Upon this foundation, the pillars can form determining points of distinct structure that all must be present, but strategically spaced out, in order to hold up (and hold true to) our mission statement.
The organization's mission statement had not been updated since 2001 when the organization was founded. As Cheer New York grew over the course of 19 years, as did the organization's capacity to expand its mission and effect the change from its humble beginnings. The aspirational vision is the roof above the organization's head, reminding all members the higher purpose and cause towards which we strive. A more vague statement, and a vision of hope. A north star to guide us in our mission-driven actions, but a north star determined from a bottom up exercise based on tangible means to effect community change.
Brand House workshop conducted following A Lightweight Branding Exercise
Writing a new tagline
Taking the worksheets and whiteboard synthesis (stay tuned for more information on this!), my next task was to update our tagline. The importance of the tagline for the team is its prominence across our team merchandise, mainly the recognizability on t-shirts, in cheers, on prizes given out to fans, etc.
Since 2001, the tagline had been
Cheer for a cause, not for applause
Fast forward to 2018, I felt this, though true to what we aimed to accomplish, did not hold the same type of tone that we'd established in the very foundation that upheld our brand.
Going further up our brand house, I questioned, did this communicate anything about our vision? Our larger guiding purpose seemed absent, and this tagline felt like one of a younger organization.
How could I succinctly communicate
- We are an adult cheerleading team and we are unapologetic about the pom poms, cheer uniforms, shouting cheers in central park, flipping down Fifth Ave to fundraise, knowing how to hold a smile for a debatably scary number of hours
- We all do it for a mission, and we are a massive group of 90+ members of the NY LGBTQ+ and ally community who is proud to have cheer in pursuit of equality
- The importance of having pride and Pride itself in working toward our vision of equality for the LGBTQ+ community
- No tea no shade, the importance of fitting the tagline on the back of a size range of t-shirts while remaining readable from a distance
- With a redesigned logo, the recognition factor within a larger brand strategy--Cheer New York's logo had not been updated since 2001
Tagline Writing Meets Product Strategy Within a Rebrand
Design by my fellow Marketing Director, Creative
Website Full Copy Overhaul
