The Brand that Took Flight
Hope Alive is a ministry where women and those they love can receive affordable counseling. Their mental health, recovery and residential services were making a big impact already, but they wanted to stand out even more to catch donors’ attention and therefore raise more funds. Specifically, they wanted help repositioning themselves as more than just a transitional housing ministry and focusing on their mental health services. Big was ready to help their brand take flight.
Discover
Our first step is always to talk to as many people that are close to the brand as we can. For Hope Alive, we surveyed staff members and donors to get a better feel for how both audiences perceive it. Because donors are so essential to keeping Hope Alive running, we wanted to better understand what motivated them to give. We made a donor experience map tracking their journey from first hearing about the ministry to growing in interest to actually donating. Basically, what takes them from awareness to advocacy?
Develop
As we developed their brand, we really dove into Hope Alive’s history—learning about their founder and their beloved butterfly symbol. Their story was so inspiring, we knew we had to find little ways to incorporate their sentimental symbols and figureheads through their brand story, logo and new tagline, “Where hope takes flight.” We like to call this a brand “evolution” rather than “revolution.” While we did significantly change their brand messaging and visuals, their original identity still shines through.
Deliver
Big not only helped Hope Alive reposition themselves as the mental health advocates they are, but we also delivered a dynamic, robust brand that reflected the beauty of their past while meeting their present goals. Since their launch event with donors (which of course we made signage and videos for), they’re already making exciting connections within the community and raising awareness. Because many ministries and nonprofits like Hope Alive can’t afford to use agencies like Big every time they need something done, we provided them with easy-to-use templates, graphics and color schemes on Canva so they can keep their brand consistent on a budget.
Big gave us the tools to tell the Hope Alive story in a compelling way. We learned a lot about branding and ourselves throughout the process and are already seeing the results from the work.
Dawn Etzel, Executive Director