Communications Strategy + Brand Launch
For Forward Justice
Opportunity
Solution
Change the South, Change the Nation
Forward Justice is a regional leader that touches countless of people’s lives through its partnerships and support for human rights movements across the South. As a law, policy, and strategy center, it is dedicated to civil rights, racial justice, and social and economic change in the South.
The organization must be many things — a trusted resource for policy formation, a legal partner for intervention, and an advisor and supporter for countless partners, affiliates, donors, and movement builders. Critical strategies to achieve their vision of ushering in a Third Reconstruction also include: 1) shifting narrative, culture, and values and 2) raising political consciousness and building the base of movement partners.
Our Work
In its first year of existence, Forward Justice experienced remarkable growth and gained a great amount of clarity on its role in serving movements across the South. When we began supporting Forward Justice in May 2017, communications and online online engagement had understandably not been given a lot of attention. The newly formed nonprofit organization had built a strong, sustainable organization, but was at the point where it needed a new brand identity and engagement strategy for sharing with its audiences.
Over the course of several months, guided by staff strategy sessions, we created a comprehensive external engagement plan to guide the organization’s work moving forward. Our starting point was clarifying all goals — communication, marketing, development primarily — and ensuring we aligned all future efforts with overall organizational goals. The resulting plan included ways to reach more people and start more conversations about Forward Justice’s work, with purpose and value that enhances its mission of creating a more just, equitable, and free South. Additionally, it honors its unique strategic approach Forward Justice employs, prioritizing lifting up partners and building their capacity, ensuring they receive spotlight, attention, and support they need to do their best work.
As we created the strategy, we managed the brand identity process which launched from a creative brief which explained goals, inspiration, target audiences, brand tone/personality, and desired direction to explore. The final brand identity was designed by Jason Clary of Sollos Creative. Using new brand identity as a guide, we redesigned each page of Forward Justice’s website to reflect its mission, vision, and values. This included all new copywriting, donation page, email newsletter integration, and graphic design to highlight critical information.
In December 2017, Forward Justice invited its expansive community to a launch party to learn more about who they are and what they do to support movement partners. With our support in getting communications and marketing materials ready for the event and bringing the brand alive in the event space, this event was an opportunity to showcase its fantastic, meaningful work and set a tone for how the organization and its network support one another.
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