Result: Talk to people at The Mission Society today, and you’ll get a cohesive, consistent message about this non-profit organization and its purpose. It’s a message they’re delivering with confidence, and it’s earning them not only high praise, but also more fund raising success than some believed possible. In fact, in just one year, The Mission Society increased the money it raised at a key meeting by more than 50 percent.
The client’s need: The Mission Society – a Christian non-profit which supports missionary work around the world – first came to Point of Vision looking for new collateral. But as we all began talking about the collateral project, everyone realized that to help this client communicate successfully, we needed to do some deeper, more strategic thinking.
Prior to our involvement, all the communication vehicles at The Mission Society were produced in silos. That’s not unusual in a large organization. Unfortunately, as usually happens, this disjointed communication had resulted in a fragmented message. The challenge was to get everyone to use common themes to talk about the organization.
How we did it: We interviewed some 30 people, some within The Mission Society and some who encounter the organization from the outside. This allowed us to isolate the essence of the Mission Society brand.
With this brand understanding in mind, we began to tackle our assignments:
- We developed a new messaging strategy, identifying specific points to emphasize in communication with each key audience.
- We designed a new identity system, including a new logo, which reinforced the organization’s brand.
- We helped the client prepare for an important meeting of stakeholders and encouraged them to ask for a significant increase in contributions – a calculated risk that resulted in raising $1.9 million, up from $1.3 million from the same meeting the previous year.
- We created a two-year communication plan with more than 20 strategies and tactics, from online advertising, to tradeshow collateral, to pursuit of speaking opportunities.
In the client's words: "For the first time ever, everyone can tell our story. Everyone understands who we are and what we do."
