Communications strategy for an advocacy organization in transition
Role: UX Designer, UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Keynote, Google Sheets
Methods: Stakeholder interview, competitive audit, touchpoints map, recommended features report, annotated mid-fidelity prototypes, video walkthrough
Background and Opportunity Area
CURE, or Clean Up the River Environment, is a non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1992 centered around environmental and economic justice in rural Minnesota. The organization has grown in size and scope considerably since its inception - what began as a single issue (clean water) shop with a very local focus has evolved into a statewide organization that focuses on social and economic issues as well as environmental stewardship. This is precisely where the opportunity arrives - as many of the CURE “OG” membership ages, CURE must find new ways to promote its mission in an increasingly digital age where new strategies are required to organize communities and promote the mission. My design team and I were tasked with evaluating CURE’s existing digital presence and offering suggestions for improvement in what I would simply term a communications strategy.
Research and Strategy
Our team began work with a competitive audit of 10 other non-profit organizations, national and Minnesotan, that work on social justice or environmental issues. Our research found leaders in the space employed a steady drumbeat of positive messaging about their organizations, recent wins, a sense of urgency, and multiple touchpoint for engagement, turnout, and financial support. This strategy makes sense - non-profits rely on foundational dollars and individual donors to keep the lights on, and social change isn’t a “product” where the same consumer factors that can motivate buyers to purchase $5 footlongs or get people to buy sneakers because a popular athlete endorses them. In non-profits and social change, people show up and give their time and money to organizations they believe are effective or align with their values, period.
To the right you can see best practices exemplified by Rural Power Coalition, a national organization that, as you can see, is fighting for the future of America’s rural electric cooperatives, and ISAIAH, a multi-faith Minnesota organization fighting for racial and economic justice. Rural Power Coalition’s front page has three different Take Action buttons, and content that allows people to join the email list (the power of non-profit or political organizations is very based on the “the list” of supporters they can reach), or learn more if they wish (beyond the very bold and clear mission statement). ISAIAH’s main page couldn’t be more clear - their mission of racial and economic justice is conveyed with a clear statement as member stories cycle in the background. Initiatives, Our Stories, Membership, and Donate (bold) are the only options on the main page.
CURE’s site follows some of these best practices, but has a lot more going on through the main page. There’s not a single driving issue, and blog posts receive equal billing to a smaller contact form. The information is there, but it’s not all crystal clear from the main page. There are social media integration buttons, but that’s it. The site doesn’t make it clear these other avenues to connect are a priority based on the site’s content and hierarchy.
Our team devised a strategy that recommended the following:
More events and clearer calls to action with greater urgency. People get involved with organizations they perceive to be doing the most.
More social media that is aligned with younger generations, such as TikTok
Greater website call to action clarity, as well as more direct email
Utilizing greater text message communications, again always steering members into action opportunities.
This strategy was also corroborated by our stakeholder interview with two CURE staff. They also couldn’t have been clearer about their desire for a more youth aligned (digital) strategy: “Our gap is engaging members in a new way. We have a base of members that come from [the founding of the organization in 1992] and we’ve moved beyond that. We want to open up new opportunities to connect with people.”
Before our team moved to prototyping, I was tasked with creating a touchpoints map to visualize how potential members could better interact with the organization.
The pathway was clear: multiple touchpoints leading to interaction for younger people to get more involved with CURE. My colleagues set to work with prototyping our plan.
Recommended Features
Our team’s first recommended feature was increasing engagement through increased mobile application functionality. Younger activists who may want to get involved with CURE will likely be researching the organization through a mobile device. As such, our prototypes increased functionality through cleaner UI, more sign-posted options to get involved or take action, and higher focus on getting users to sign up with the email list, an area of great importance for non-profit organizations to build their reach and base.
Our team’s next feature recommendation was increasing engagement through better email and texting options. As in the first recommendation, CURE has an interest in increasing engagement with younger activists. A cleaner welcome email that immediately encourages members to get involved can drive more traffic to the website, events, and other opportunities. A more robust direct texting platform can likewise engage younger members.
Conclusions
I had a blast working with CURE for this project. The work took me right back to my years working on campaigns and doing advocacy work at various non-profits. For CURE to be most successful, my overall communications strategy recommendations would be:
Continue to leverage as many digital tools as possible. Action-based emails, robust text messaging strategies, and social media could all be utilized more and more. These strategies are the most likely to reach the demographic of younger activists CURE needs to continue building its base.
Action, action, action. The communications tools, no matter who polished, are only effective if CURE is hosting events or partnering with community allies to accomplish activists’ goals of making a difference in their communities. Canvassing and targeted issues that national organizations might miss are big opportunities for CURE.
Build the base. Overall, CURE’s strategy to focus its efforts on building a younger activist base is the right call. As the impacts of climate change become more profound and income inequality has risen, younger Americans, especially in Greater Minnesota, are more likely to put their energy into an organization like CURE than at its inception.
