Nonprofit Strategy
I establish myself as a team leader in communications projects, ensuring that long-term collaborative work results in superior deliverables.
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For my Writing in the Public Interest class, my team was given the task of helping the American Diabetes Association (ADA) more effectively reach their audiences—including participants, supporters, and influencers—with my individual focus being their Instagram account. To do this, we considered how to ensure that the ADA’s goals could be accomplished in a way that appeared professional and engaging to the audience. We conducted a rhetorical analysis of four separate areas of communications (the 2021 annual report, job advertisements, volunteer campaign materials, and the ADA’s Instagram account) and created four communications templates that put our findings into practice and could be used by the ADA. My analysis showed a lack of clear strategy and overall consistency on the ADA’s Instagram page, which I worked to remedy by creating three Instagram templates that would allow the ADA to more effectively advertise their children’s camp, Camp He Ola Ke Keiki. This project allowed me to improve my design and nonprofit marketing skills and taught me the importance of a clear, universal communications strategy.
The steps in this project were:
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Deliverables: 3 Instagram templates, 1 apology letter, 3 annual report pages, and 3 job postings.
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To learn more and view this project, scroll down. You can also click the links above to view each individual step in the project, or click the following link to open a folder containing each: Folder​​
Team Work Contract
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Before beginning, my team met in person to complete a Team Work Contract outlining roles, expectations, and modes of communication for the duration of the project. After discussing our strengths, we decided that each group member would have an equal role in working on each step with the exception of the final deliverables, which we split up as individual tasks. Although we did not set an official team leader at this meeting, I saw the need for a team member to oversee progress and ensure consistent communication between group members, and I took this role throughout the project.
Studio Agendas​
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At each in-person team meeting (six total), I took responsibility for completing a Studio Agenda, which included notes on our objectives, work to date, questions, tasks for that meeting, and plans for future work. These documents allowed my team to take stock of our progress and organize our short-term and long-term goals, ensuring that we remained on the same page and were able to meet deadlines.
SWOT Analysis​
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My team collaboratively conducted a SWOT Analysis, right, on the ADA's current communications channels. This analysis, which focused on the nonprofit organization's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities for Improvement, and Threats, allowed us to get a better sense of the current landscape and the areas we should focus on.
Communications Brief​
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My team compiled all of our research into a Communications Brief, left, with the audience for this document being ourselves and anyone interested in our process. Here, we gave a background summary of the ADA, an overview of the project goals and drivers, an explanation of deliverables and deadlines, and a description of our audiences, competitors, voice and tone, messages, tech requirements, and project scaffolding.
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This document allowed my team to synthesize our research and conclusions into a more concise format and think critically about our work processes.
Rhetorical Analysis​
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We then conducted a rhetorical analysis of a few of the ADA's external communications, right, intended for ourselves and our professor, who was acting as our supervisor during the project. I was responsible for overseeing the completion of this document, as well as filling out the Instagram section (beginning on page 10). This section included information on the ADA's Instagram account audience, the current visual and textual rhetoric being used, the functions of ethos, pathos, and logos, strengths and weaknesses of the account, and key takeaways.
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Completing this analysis allowed me to gain a concrete idea of the strategies I should use moving forward, and helped my team stay informed about the individual work completed by each member.
Status Report​
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About halfway through the project, each team member was responsible for submitting an individual Status Report to our supervisor. My report detailed the work I had completed so far, provided a timeline for future progress, and summarized my specific goals and plans for the remainder of the project. This gave me the space to evaluate the effectiveness of my process and make changes, which allowed me to be more efficient and focused throughout the rest of the project.
Deliverables​
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Our main goal for this project was to create deliverable templates that would help the ADA accomplish their goals for external communications. I was responsible for designing an Instagram campaign, including posts and full captions, to advertise their annual children’s camp, Camp He Ola Ke Keiki. When designing the new Instagram templates, I focused on ensuring that the ADA’s mission and values came through as much as possible, which would allow the audience to form a connection with the organization that would be consistent across channels. I also centered my designs on people, especially children, which makes a strong appeal to pathos and encourages the audience to engage with the post and with Camp He Ola Ke Keiki.
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Template 1: Advertisement
The first template that I designed (right) is focused on advertising Camp He Ola
Ke Keiki as a whole. It features a photo of smiling children, which appeals to
pathos by showing the audience the positive real-world impact of the camp. I
also applied the wave shape that is often used in ADA posts, and I designed the
post with ADA’s brand colors and font (Helvetica) throughout. These decisions,
along with the use of the ADA’s logo in the top corner of the post, enforce the
brand identity of the organization, allowing audiences to easily recognize and
connect with them. In the image itself, just enough information is provided to
connect with the audience without overwhelming them or losing their attention,
and a call to action is present, which clearly tells the audience what they should
do. I also decided to keep the original caption from the ADA’s previous posts,
as it gives an effective amount of information and calls to action, as well as making good use of hashtags, tagged accounts, emojis, and capitalization for emphasis. Finally, the location tagged on the post is the location of the camp, which further enforces a main selling point of Camp He Ola Ke Keiki, which is in Hawaii.
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Template 2: Testimonial (Image)
The second template that I designed (left) uses many of the same strategies as the first. It is similar in appearance, branding it both as an ADA post and as part of the Camp He Ola Ke Keiki series, and it features a photo of a specific child, which appeals to emotion. The name and age of the child further allow the audience to form a connection with him, and the short introduction establishes credibility by assuring the audience that he has experienced ADA camp. Again, I decided to keep the ADA’s original caption, as it is effective for their Instagram audience.
Template 3: Testimonial (Reel)
The last template that I designed (right) is for an Instagram Reel, which is
essential to appeal to Instagram’s video-heavy algorithm. This post features an
interview with a smiling child, which establishes a personal connection with the
audience, and the ADA logo, which further enforces the ADA’s brand presence,
but it lacks many of the elements from the previous two templates. Notably, this
post has no words or graphics, which makes the video more immersive and
better connects with the audience on a unique level. All of the important
information about the camp is present in the caption of the Reel, which uses a
friendly, informal tone that is consistent with the previous posts and further
appeals to pathos.
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Presentation​
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Following completion of all deliverable templates, my team gave an in-person presentation to our class, with an imagined audience of ADA communications team executives. In the presentation, we each described the rhetorical choices that we made when writing and designing our templates. We were also able to answer questions and receive feedback from class members after the presentation, which was a valuable opportunity for us to consider the strengths and weaknesses of our work and how we might improve our process.
Case Study Memo​
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To wrap up this project, I drafted an individual Case Study Memo for my supervisor and anyone else interested in the project's process and outcomes. This document summarized each step in the process and included the following sections:
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Background
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Introduction and Key Problems
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Solutions
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Challenges
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Process and Outcome
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Key Takeaways
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Reflection and Goals
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Not only did this document provide relevant information to my supervisor, it also allowed me to think critically about the work I had done. In writing this memo, I was able to articulate the importance of each step in the project and recognize the specific skills I had gained in the process.