case study - a report that tells an impactful story
Peter Alfond Foundation
The Peter Alfond Foundation (“PAF”) was looking for support in creating a printed document that captured the journey they have been on as an organization since Peter’s passing in 2017. Under the leadership of his children and friends, PAF had stepped into a new era while still being anchored his vision and values. So much thoughtful work had happened during the transition that now was coming to life through their updated giving strategy, that it was hard for the core team to know how to distill it down. They wanted help in how to package and tell the story, as well as bring it to life through fun, playful visuals.
Working together with the leadership team from Intentional Philanthropy, we created a 30-page Impact Report for 2019-2024, showcasing the depth of their work in Puerto Rico and Maine as well as their theories of change. The collaboration involved a listening session, internal materials review, and lots of synthesis to work together to figure out what were the most important pieces to include and at what level of detail. The report tells the story of this transformative period while creating a template they can use in future years and a series of new language and visual tools to use across other platforms to continue to tell their story.
case study - a website to showcase important work
Quimby Family Foundation
We had the pleasure of working with the Quimby Family Foundation to update their web presence. They wanted an updated look and a revamped content structure that made the site super intuitive to navigate for current and potential grantees. We connect deeply with their mission: Growing Human Wholeness by fostering stronger relationships between people and nature, and were thankful to have a great library of content and design work from their initial site to build upon from Adam Burk + Co and Toderico and Co.
Our process began with a deep dive into user needs and content gaps, including their desires for the role the site would pay in their grant making process. We also love taking existing brands and expanding their visual language. We offered some slight refinements to their logo and expanded their color palette to reflect their commitment to getting outside and exploring the landscapes of Maine. Then we collaborated on a complete content refresh, leaning into the clarity they had after 5 years of living out their updated grant making strategy. We had lots of fun reviewing and pulling aligned images from their image library, and adding some infographics to tell the story of their impact and focus.
case study - a website as a tool
317 Main Community Music Center
317 Main is a Yarmouth, ME based non-profit focused on bringing the power of music-making to people from all skill levels and backgrounds. As a small but mighty team, they had outgrown their existing website and were looking for an updated version that presented the many different ways they show up in the Maine community more clearly, showcased their purpose front and center, and brought their visual brand to life in a playful but still polished way.
Over the course of 5 months, we worked closely with their internal marketing team to create a new site with them from the inside out.
Through a combination of a community survey, user persona analysis, and internal interdepartmental working session we learned that the top website need was to find out information on current programming (when was it, who was it for, how much is it and how do I register). We also learned that a top frustration with the existing site was ease of navigation - in some areas too much information, and others not enough.
To help guide visitors to the content they needed, we broke programming into two buckets based on core user groups - youth and adults. We also added intro paragraphs to each section grounding new visitors in the overall suite of offerings, worked closely with the Registrar to streamline registration language, and prioritized imagery of real students and classes to help bring the 317 Main experience to life.
Across the project, site accessibility was a priority in both design and content choices, making sure it translated well to mobile and was created with key users needs in mind.
A secondary key need was for users to be able to find ways to donate and to understand what they were contributing to. Re-worked copy streamlined a variety of different ways to support, and leaned into content highlighting the deep purpose behind their work.
case study - creating tools for support
Portland Public Schools Food Service
The Food Service department at Portland Public Schools is a stand alone, self-funded department serving the largest school district in the state (over 6,500 students). Their work had evolved greatly, featuring a new vegan line of meals, regularly incorporating local ingredients, and partnered with a diverse group of community organizations, yet the branding tools they had were limited and did not reflect this new vision.
We worked together to first help bring to life core values-based messaging capturing the evolution they had gone through. These tools were developed to both create clarity externally and drive meal participation across the district, but also to drive awareness internally of the broader impact each food service team member’s individual work was serving.
From this foundation, and with the support of a Farm to School grant received by Cumberland County Food Security Council, we worked with the Food Service team as they pivoted rapidly to adapt to COVID and serve their community. Together, we navigated the balance between planning for now when they are working very differently, and to plan for a future when students are once again gathering in cafeterias. We developed a visual brand identity in alignment with the existing Portland Public Schools brand guidelines, a communications plan, and a suite of visual tools to use to share this new brand with their community that they could use both. The work brought to life a playful, polished brand with tools the team can continue to use in their day to day communications.
We provided the PPS team with comprehensive brand guidelines, an editable “Food Service 101” slide deck for new hires and internal presentations, and a suite of Canva templates to execute their communications goals.
We created a variety of assets that could be used as printed assets like posters and postcards, or as virtual assets on the website and for social media.
This included a family of custom illustrations that help carry the brand across items like letters to parents and menus.
case study - getting the word out
Maine Women’s Business List
Last fall the Women’s Business Center at CEI approached us about supporting them with the launch of the Maine Women’s Business List, Maine’s first public directory of woman owned businesses across the state. A response to consumers and commercial product sourcers wanting to purchase from enterprises across the state that are owned by women, the goal of the directory is both to increase visibility for female entrepreneurs as well as gather much needed data about the role of women in business in Maine.
With the bones of the database, name, and general design direction in place, we focused on an awareness campaign that leveraged the deep relationships of the WBC and made it easy for partner organizations, participants and CEI and the Women’s Business Center to spread the word.
We created a standardized logo for the directory, a suite of social media assets for each audience and custom posts for the WBC. A deeply collaborative effort, we worked together with the team at the WBC to finesse the language and user flow on the website to showcase three clear calls to action: SIGN UP, SHARE, and SHOP, as well as tell the story of why shopping woman owned is so powerful. We crafted copy to include in announcements in newsletters from the WBC and CEI as well as a template for 1:1 outreach to partner organizations. We collaborated with PR maven Christen Graham to brainstorm ways to get the word out about this resource, and put all the pieces together into a roadmap for the WBC team to carry forward through execution.
We’re proud to be a part of spreading the word about this great resource, as well as members ourselves. Whether you’re a business owner or looking to support women in business, the directory is free to join and easy to search.
We created tool kits for partners and members to use to share the directory. These included assets for social media, emails, and a badge for embedding on a website. We also provided CEI Women’s Business Center with a suite of promotional materials to share across their channels.
“Working with Leah and India provided exactly the support I needed as a small business owner. They work seamlessly together as Leah helped me shape the larger purpose and value of our client service offerings and India artfully interpreted these concepts into beautiful visuals for our website and external marketing materials. In addition to being insightful and talented, they are also super fun to work with! They have a way of helping me cut through a sea of ideas and clarify those that matter most.”
— Elizabeth Ross Holmstrom, Founder, Mindful Employer