Pratham USA
Promoting the Largest Educational Organization in India
Pratham USA wanted to strengthen its image and give its 15 chapters the communication tools they needed to be more effective in raising money for the organization. Red Rooster Group was brought in to develop a comprehensive brand, marketing strategy, and fundraising materials.
Services
- Discovery
- Workshops
- Communications Assessment
- Communications Plan
- Marketing Plan
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Architecture
- Core Fundraising Messaging
- Case for Support
- Donor Brochure
- Donor Presentation
- Annual Report
- Website
- Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Building Marketing Foundations for Success
Pratham has taken on one of the worst problems in the world — literacy — with innovative yet proven tactics. It is one of the few nonprofits in the world that invests in Randomized Control Trials, an expensive but accurate way to assess effectiveness.
Pratham’s methods are used in 14 countries on three continents. The results guide government policy as well as help ascertain the best methods to teach reading to children.
Pratham USA raises money to support these efforts. Because the challenges are so great — 300,000 children in India cannot read — Pratham needed a marketing and fundraising strategy to get the word out about Pratham’s impact and expand its base of supporters.
We developed a marketing strategy as well as fundraising and communications plans and marketing materials to drive their outreach efforts.
Conducting Research
To find out why fundraising had plateaued and laid the foundation for their marketing and fundraising strategy, we conducted the following research to identify the challenges and opportunities.
- Researched similar organizations in the sector.
- Conducted a survey of donors.
- Conducted workshops for national and chapter leaders.
- Reviewed the past year of email and other communications with donors.
- Determined marketing priorities.
Communications Plan
During our research, we found that communications with donors were sporadic and visually inconsistent. We developed a 24-month communication plan that coordinated the outreach of the national office with that of all the chapters. The communications schedule ensured that donors were not hit with multiple asks and that all events and campaigns were well-publicized. In addition, we provided templates for each chapter so their outreach would be visually consistent as well as timely.
We strengthened their brand, updated their messaging, and gave each chapter the tools needed to fundraise effectively.
Unifying the Visual Identity
Pratham lacked guidelines for their logo, which resulted in different typefaces, colors and layouts being used, as well as inconsistent treatments for the names of chapters and affiliates.
While Pratham has a clear mission, a logo, and brochures, the organization conveys a very fractured image. This can confuse donors and represent a lost opportunity to build equity in the brand. Another factor is that Pratham in other countries convey their brand slightly differently as well, with different typefaces for the logo and different designs for the website.
BEFORE
AFTER
During the brand review, we assessed that the logo was used in a wide variety of ways in the marketing materials, creating a fractured image for the organization. And chapters were setting their names in different typefaces and colors, undermining the professionalism of the organization.
To address this problem, we developed a comprehensive brand architecture for the organization that defined the relationship of the logo and tagline, created consistency for the chapter names and their treatment in the logo, and determined how international affiliates should be styled. We then developed versions of all the logos (15 chapters plus international partners) with and without the tagline in formats for print and web use.
Message Development
A core part of the strategy for Pratham USA was articulating Pratham’s global impact in developing and validating new tactics to increase literacy. To help Pratham and all the chapter heads tell their story in a compelling way to appeal to donors, we developed the following messaging tools:
- A Case for Giving that describes the problem that Pratham addresses, how Pratham helps, Pratham’s impact, and ways donors can get involved and make a difference.
- Brand Story that summarizes the case for giving.
- Boilerplate that can be used to remind donors of Pratham’s mission and impact and urge them to donate.
Brand Story
At a time when half of the children in India cannot read, Pratham provides a low cost method to address the problem effectively on a large scale. Pratham is the only organization that empowers individuals through education as well as driving systemic change through a bottom-up approach. By training 60,000 volunteer teachers in 21 states, we are able to provide support for educating the entire population.
Pratham’s successes break the cycle of poverty for families in villages and cities and contributes to the economic and political vitality of India. Pratham has successfully reached more than 34 million children across India. Millions of children who could not even recognize the alphabet when they began now read fluently and with passion. Pratham’s methods have been recognized by leading foundations, including Skoll, Gates, and Hewlett, as a model worth emulating. Pratham’s methods are now being employed to help other countries facing similar educational challenges. Pratham USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a four-star rating (the highest possible) from Charity Navigator, accepts tax deductible contributions from U.S. donors. We depend upon generous donors like you to create educational reform throughout India and the world.
Boilerplate
Pratham is one of he world’s leading non-governmental organizations working to provide quality education to underprivileged youth. With a budget of less than $15 million, we use very low cost and scalable methods and work in collaboration with the government, local communities, parents, teachers and volunteers across the country to educate hundreds of thousands of children every year. Pratham USA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a four-star rating (the highest possible) from Charity Navigator, accepts tax deductible contributions from U.S. donors. We depend upon generous donors like you to create educational reform throughout India.
Case for Support
We developed their Case for Support around what the donors need to know:
- The Problem: What is the problem that the organization is addressing? We humanized the problem of widespread illiteracy in India by telling a story about one girl’s plight. We also provided a visually demonstrated the problem by creating a graphic showing the cycle of poverty that plagues many in India.
- The Solution: What is Pratham doing about the problem? We describe Pratham’s programs to build literacy and create systemic change for education in the country
- The Impact: How effective is the organization in addressing the problem? To demonstrate Pratham’s success, we presented a chart showing the results of Pratham’s signature program, Read India II, in 21 states across India.
- The Appeal: How can donors support Pratham? We describe the different ways that people can support and get involved with the organization.
We designed the document to be easy to read and support Pratham’s brand, with photos that help to help people understand what Pratham does — overall a clear and compelling case for supporting Pratham.
Brochure
We created a brochure that could be handed out widely at galas and other events for fundraising purposes. The brochure makes a bold statement about the the vast scope of illiteracy in India, and describes how Pratham is addressing it.
Annual Report
We redesigned the organization’s annual report as part of an overall brand refresh for the organization. The theme of Raising the Bar on Hope was aimed at reinvigorating interest in the organization’s donor base which was experiencing some fatigue with Pratham’s message.
Marketing Templates
We created a consistent brand look for all materials so that donors can recognize them as Pratham’s. This reinforced the brand in people’s minds and made it easier for staff to create collateral materials, such as:
- Email Newsletters
- Email Blasts
- Print Newsletters
- Gala Invitations
Clarifying Roles & Responsibilities
Plans are only as good as their implementation. We helped Pratham USA put the structure in place that would facilitate implementation.
- Identify the required roles and clear assignment of marketing tasks.
- Determine what can be handled in-house and what needs to be outsourced.
- Establish accountability for delivery.
- Develop procedures for creating, reviewing, and approving fundraising materials.
Board Development
Pratham had not fully utilized the board as brand and fundraising ambassadors. We suggested ways in which board members could improve their fundraising effectiveness by giving them succinct messaging and collateral materials to guide them as they talked with potential donors. During our time, Pratham USA attracted Fareed Kazaria to its board.
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
We promoted their readathon by creating materials for recruiting local hosts, as well as promoting the readathon locally in the community through digital and print materials. We increased the average donation from $76 to $102 over the prior year’s event.
RESULTS
36% Increase
Over Prior Year
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