Project Bread / Walk for Hunger
Project Bread / Walk for Hunger
Making the case for a fresh approach to ending hunger in Massachusetts
Project Bread, the only statewide anti-hunger organization in Massachusetts, works to break the cycle of hunger and poverty by devising, funding, advocating for, and facilitating solutions that change lives across the Commonwealth.
To advance its work, it needs to attract upwards of 45,000 people (many of them high school students) to its annual Walk for Hunger; engage major donors; and get—and keep—the attention of civic, religious, and educational leaders.
Through a comprehensive rebranding initiative, we collaborated to solve pressing organizational issues, not the least of which was redressing the brand imbalance between the organization and its signature fundraising Walk.
We worked to clarify areas of focus, roles, and attributes, and developed a modular messaging framework, new visual language, a new approach to direct mail fundraising, and a complete print architecture.
The new system reinvigorated not only Project Bread’s year-round communications with diverse constituents, but also the visual and verbal messaging for each Walk. For each of five Walks, we integrated print, web, environmental media, and social media to spread the word and attract walker-donors.
We also launched a school food website and collaborated to plan the strategy and execution of major fundraising galas.
Objectives
- Raise the money and mindshare needed to support the organization’s mission to end hunger in Massachusetts
- Reposition Project Bread to better compete with traditional, better known emergency-food-focused organizations
- Bolster diversified streams of income; too dependent on revenues from the Walk for Hunger
- Promote non-emergency, sustainable, innovative programs to resonate with prospective major donors
- Elevate the Project Bread brand so it is not lost under the Walk for Hunger brand
Collaboration
- Increased visibility for Project Bread brand
- Developed tagline to support refined mission: “A fresh approach to ending hunger”
- Advanced differentiated messages: ”healthy not just full” and “good food is a basic right”
- Built a visual system to provide continuity and change: the Walk needs to be fresh each year and also build equity and recognition year-to-year
- Created all print, digital, and environmental materials for five Walks
- Planned and designed completely new website
- Conceptualized, wrote, designed, and produced the first major donor solicitation materials and successful annual fund campaigns
- Helped secure funding for (and subsequently built) a microsite—”Transforming school food”—to educate public school staff on how to provide healthier meals for students
- Provided strategy, design, and event consultation for first two fundraising galas
Scope
- Broad stakeholder investigation
- Internal and external audits
- Brand architecture
- Distillation of brand promise, attributes, storylines, messaging
- Visual system
- Marketing communications
- Major donor acquisition materials
- Event-specific materials
- Copywriting and editorial support
- Planning and design of two complementary websites
- Social media campaigns
- Documentation and knowledge transfer
- Staff and board training
Creating a bold new brand for a grassroots anti-hunger organization
Project Bread’s logo and tagline—“A fresh approach to ending hunger”—began to tell the organization’s story, while marks for the yearly Walk for Hunger events reinforced the Project Bread mark, look fresh each Walk season, and built equity year-to-year.
A full new visual brand built on the mark with a vibrant palette, distinctive typography, signature design gestures, and approaches to imagery that helped diverse constituents both see themselves and understand the challenges of food insecurity. The system is tunable to the needs of different communications, audiences, and opportunities.
Walk for Hunger campaigns
In addition to designing a consistent (and updatable) “Walk for Hunger” mark, we collaborated to create hundreds of different communications elements and environmental initiatives—including transit shelter panels, bus and train banners and wraps for the MBTA, and Walk route graphics—for the Walk each year. We also developed a bespoke social media campaign each year to lend meaning and resonance to the Walk, and to provide participants and donors with different “ways in” to Project Bread’s work.
Food insecurity, especially in many parts of the Commonwealth, can be easily overlooked. This campaign asked prospective Walkers to look around—and help out their neighbors.
This campaign elevated food security to a basic right; different groupings of people helped prospective Walkers to find people “like me.” T-shirts projected a series of more specific messages.
This campaign took a more holistic approach to alleviating food insecurity: it’s about more than just having a full stomach. It’s about eliminating food deserts, enabling children to learn, and offering a helping hand.
Project Bread never lacked for vision, or for innovative new ways to combat hunger in the Commonwealth. But the organization’s value was largely hidden by disjointed communications that underrepresented our impact and professionalism. Often, our signature event, the Walk, was thought to be all we did. Our work with Sametz Blackstone connected our Walks with our less visible initiatives and made the case for year-round participation and support.”
Ellen Parker
CEO Emerita
Engaging constituents year-round
Project Bread’s quarterly newsletter is an important point of contact with many of their constituents, including their faithful Walk community, current and prospective donors, and their community partners and advocates—including sister organizations, lobbyists, and state and municipal leaders.
We did a top-to-bottom makeover of the piece, including: a new look in the revamped Project Bread brand that would enable each issue to build on the last while still building equity; a new editorial structure and strategy to make content creation more efficient, and a new size and paper weight to add impact and gravitas.
The newsletter was distributed to immediate acclaim, with one local leader commenting that, “I read it as soon as it arrives because I know it will be full of great thinking in a great package.”
Brand-building data graphics
We created punchy presentations with clear infographics that Project Bread representatives could use when recruiting in schools and churches—and when courting major donors.
Major donor brochure
Project Bread had not directly courted major donors at any point in the organization’s (at the time) nearly 50 years in operation. We developed a targeted case and brochure to speak directly to high-value donors, encouraging them to invest meaningfully in an organization with a long track record of impact in Massachusetts.
Launching their first gala
Project Bread had never hosted a gala-style fundraising event in their then-nearly 50 years of fighting hunger in the Commonwealth. The inaugural Fall Harvest Fest provided donors with a high-touch experience complemented by a full suite of on-brand, event-specific materials: invitations, wayfinding signage and event décor, a presentation for the Fest guests, and a take-home jelly jar tchotchke.
Our engagement with Sametz Blackstone generated results both internally and externally: together we elevated the Project Bread brand; positioned the organization as the innovative leader in our field; professionalized all our communications; developed a verbal and visual strategy that was both compelling and teachable within our organization; and raised the visibility and money we needed to do really innovative work—work that positively changed the lives of many adults and children.”
Ellen Parker
A user-focused website
A new website with increased functionality and a vastly improved user experience brings the “Fresh Approach to Ending Hunger” tagline to life online. The site elevates people as the heart of the food system; humanizes the issues Project Bread works to combat; more clearly defines and communicates the breadth and depth of Project Bread’s work; provides “ways in” for users ranging from those in need of help to donors, partners, and policy makers; and—for the first time—truly puts the Walk for Hunger in context.
Transforming school food
A separate microsite, “Transforming school food” provides invaluable resources and support for those who fund, plan, cook, and serve school meals—to increase the health (and capacity to learn) of students.
Building a fluent corps of ambassadors
Each year, Project Bread recruited (and had to train) a new class of volunteers. We created the Messaging Fridge to support this training—and make it fun.
Rolling over, say, a chicken, a fish, or a bowl of jello, brings up a new topic and attendant messaging.
