GuideStone Financial Resources

Helping retired pastors avoid deciding between heat and medicine

GuideStone Financial Resources is a leader in investments and retirement plans specifically for churches and their staff. Their brand position is represented by the Innis Maggiore-created tagline, “Do well. Do right.” One of the first accomplishments of our relationship (one thats lasted over a decade as GuideStone’s nonprofit advertising agency of record), the line illustrates the balance of the need for a family’s economic security with the dedication to living a higher calling.

As GuideStone’s agency, we have produced print, direct marketing, videos, and websites dedicated to their multiple divisions (including retirement plans, property and casualty insurance, investments, and their own charity called Mission:Dignity, which provides help for retired ministers and their spouses who through no fault of their own are forced to decide between necessities like medicine OR electricity). Over a five-year period, the charity has experienced a 55% increase in the number of donors making a gift and a 56.9% increase in new donors; a 55.7% improvement in dollar value of gifts; and a 35.5% increase in the number of gifts each year.

Proving the client’s quality of humility and dedication to doing well while doing right, GuideStone CEO O.S. Hawkins took time to write us an unexpected personal expression of appreciation, in part which reads:

I could not let another moment pass without pausing to send you a note to thank you for the tremendous work your team at Innis Maggiore has done for us in the redesign of our various websites. It is a tremendous joy to once again work with you and your talented professionals in enhancing the marketing efforts of GuideStone. The website is the front door many people will walk through, making the first impression on many scores of pastors and decision-makers. You have helped ensure that our first impression is a strong, positive one. For that we are most grateful.

Second Harvest Food Bank

Helping a community help their own

To increase financial donations to the area’s largest community food pantry supply house, Second Harvest Food Bank uses an innovative letter messaging and donor list strategy. Innis Maggiore’s direct appeal approach targeted those most likely to donate continuously. Direct response donor data helped us target mid- to high-level donors from other large fundraising organizations. Our long-copy letter packages focused on hunger and poverty statistics and success stories of individuals within the Food Bank’s target geography. In addition to direct appeal DM, we also developed and executed quarterly newsletters, public relations activities, and event development to increase community awareness and advocacy.

In the first campaign, Second Harvest Food Bank increased its donor database by 21%! Since the campaigns inception in 2003, this success led to an increase to 8 mailings per year and a boost in active donor database of 211%. The resulting average gift among active donors is over $40.

Innis Maggiore also worked with Second Harvest to initiate face-to-face, telephone, and written communication opportunities with the Mahoning Valley’s media outlets ranging from print to broadcast. Several years into the campaign, Second Harvest distributed more than three times as much food than originally accomplished. The donor database had grown by more than 500%, donation dollars were up 1,500% (2015 over 2003), and volunteerism had doubled.

Second Harvest also turned to their nonprofit advertising agency of record when Innis Maggiore initiated a quick-turnaround COVID-19 emergency direct response mailing that resulted in a record-setting, single-day total of 300 donations for the food bank.

Stark Community Foundation

Helping the community, one fund at a time

Stark Community Foundation is an amalgam of trusts and funds designed to honor the wishes of donors who may not otherwise be able to afford the overhead of maintaining individual trust funds, as well as taking advantage of tax opportunities and other financial benefits. Innis Maggiore’s longstanding relationship with the foundation began when they asked Innis Maggiore to create their annual report and review their overall messaging.

Given that the benefits of the Foundation work are in the more neighborly “community” rather than a geographically defined “county,” we recommended a name shift from Stark County Foundation to the Stark Community Foundation, along with the new themeline “For Good. Forever.” We then promoted that new image and messaging through brand redevelopment and a re-imagining of their logo, while providing a sales kit to aid staff and volunteers in soliciting new gifts.

For the three-year period preceding our involvement as their nonprofit advertising agency, the SCF received $8.2 million in contributions. The three years after our initiative yielded contributions of $26.3 million, or a 319% increase. Greater awareness and a more tightly knitted message grew the foundation significantly. Assets under management grew 30%; donor advised funds increased from 16% to nearly 20% of monies under management; and new funds from organizational endowments have grown 75%; so that today Stark Community Foundation ranks in the top 10% of all community foundations in the US and continues its annual grant awards of $2 million to neighborhood associations.

Stark County Health Department

Protecting our most vulnerable

Amongst many services provided to our community, the Stark County Health Department offers two home visiting programs which provide free, confidential, support services for pregnant mothers, as well as moms with infants under the age of one.

One is called THRIVE Home Visiting, which consists of a community health worker making monthly visits at the home or another place of the parent’s choice. They assist in connecting the person with resources such as access to transportation, health insurance, prenatal care, housing, crisis services, counseling services, items to prepare for the baby’s arrival, and help with early education for the baby.

The second is called Moms & Babies First, Ohio’s Black Infant Vitality Program. It consists of outreach services and health education for pregnant, African American mothers in Stark County. This is especially crucial because African Americans in Stark County have an infant mortality rate more than double that of Caucasians.

As Stark County’s leading advertising agency and standout nonprofit advertising agency, Innis Maggiore has helped our health department on a variety of endeavors. This particular project was to share the message that free resources are available on a confidential basis toward the theme that “every child deserves to celebrate their first birthday” with a campaign targeting statistically vulnerable African Americans.

We created a take-one brochure and series of social media posts targeted to the defined audience. Together with the client, we felt that the best strategy would be a balance of urgency with hope, informing prospective and new mothers about the necessity to act due to the troubling realities. To set the stage for that balance, we picked out a particularly concerning statistic, followed directly by the staging of hope:

“9 babies out of 1,000 never reach their first birthday. We want them to hear ‘Happy Birthday’ sung by loved ones.”

The piece talked about the most important ways to help babies, including prenatal care, avoiding smoking and drinking while pregnant, and safe sleep practices for infants. Proof that the program has been helping further bolstered the hope side of the messaging — from a 35% decrease in infant deaths and 50% decrease in African American infant mortality to a 40% improvement in infant mortality racial disparity.

The social media campaign was about a broader definition of help ready for those in the community, though all targeted mothers and expectant mothers.

These targeted Facebook ads also were created in a balance of concern with hope. We accomplished this by pairing provocative headlines in the form of a question — “FEEL ALONE?” | “CONFUSED ABOUT PRENATAL CARE?” | “NEED HELP?” | “DON’T KNOW WHERE TO TURN?” — with powerful photos depicting those in need. This was balanced by identifying the forms of help available (e.g., housing, food, clothing, and parenting classes; prenatal resources; infant mortality reduction programs; and healthy pregnancy assistance).

Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority

Turning perceptions around creates a positive impact

Formed in 1933, Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority was one of the first public housing authorities established in the United States. The housing authority provides low- to moderate-income residents of Mahoning County a chance to become more self-sufficient and to prosper. But YMHA was facing some credibility issues in its home market, with a common misperception of poor people living in “projects” who were drug users, lawbreakers, or both. Innis Maggiore’s challenge was to get the good word out about the housing authority and tell the community about its abundance of success stories.

A community relations initiative — from news conferences and special events to feature articles in the local papers and a video — used case studies about individual success stories, to gain more positive coverage by the local media and favorable community response. This in part helped achieve a $20 million HUD grant as well as Executive Director Eugenia C. Atkinson’s recognition by the Chamber of Commerce as the most influential female leader in the community. As she later remarked when discussing their nonprofit advertising agency, “Innis Maggiore helped us improve the public perception about YMHA. They have helped us share our successes and unveil the tremendous accomplishments of our residents and staff members.”

Greater Stark County Urban League

Pillars for success make a difference for all

This well-established nonprofit does tremendous good in the community, but their website didn’t live up to its reputation. Our mutually developed strategy was to create a welcoming, inspiring and uplifting website with greatly improved user experience and SEO.

The Greater Stark County Urban League has a long and distinguished history serving communities throughout the county. This affiliate of the National Urban League was founded in 1921. They came to Innis Maggiore as their new nonprofit advertising agency because they were not happy with their then-current website, feeling it did not portray their mission and values, nor represent the positive work they do in the community. Other issues were that it was not user-friendly, lacking in intuitive UE or easy navigation. Furthermore, the platform didn’t allow for easy updates.

The mission of Greater Stark County Urban League is to enable African Americans and the underserved to reach full economic, social, and health parity to enrich their lives and the lives of their families. The organization uses a 5-pillar strategy to help meet local needs and implement its mission: Workforce Development, Education, Health, Housing, and Social Justice.

Over the course of our relationship with the nonprofit, Innis Maggiore has helped them with materials and direct mail for their annual fundraising events, public relations, a workforce development campaign, and Facebook advertising.

However, their website was always a nagging issue. It didn’t reflect the quality of their work in the community, and it wasn’t easy for the visitor to find what they needed or for the client to make updates.

The main goals of a new website were to improve brand perception among the community and increase donations. A major consideration was that they needed to effectively reach multiple audiences: the people they serve (African Americans both male and female, and typically low income) and the people who give (individuals and businesses that donate to the cause, who could be any age, gender, and income level).

The mindset of the primary audience is, “I need help. I can’t do this by myself,” whether it’s finding a job, getting more education, finding housing, improving health, or assistance with social justice. The main message to that primary audience is that the Greater Stark County Urban League is a trusted source for making connections to the assistance they need.

Though the original site touched on their Five Pillars of Purpose and some of their programs, the client believed there was further opportunity to define these services in greater detail and provide more interactivity and engagement. The News, Contact Us, and Donate pages needed to be enhanced, both visually and interactively. They desired a fresh appearance, an improved user experience with intuitive navigation, to be developed on a CMS platform to enable easy updates and routine maintenance. We recommended the new site to be built on the latest version of Silverstripe, with integration coding to include a payment gateway for processing donations as well as social media links.

Innis Maggiore started with a website scan, research, and keyphrasing development. Prototyping followed, with the new website structure reflecting a new navigation and information architecture.

Our creative team started with a fresh home page design and messaging. The creative strategy was to come across as a welcoming place where visitors can go to find help from those who understand their situations. Warmth and trust were the two driving words that inspired the visual and copy styles.

The main theme we developed — “everything is possible” — set the tone for the entire site, as did the brand promise of “better jobs and a better home … bolstered by stronger education, health, and justice.”

We welcomed visitors by stating, “You’re among friends,” and defining the Greater Stark County Urban League as “the home for hope. Lasting hope. We love the word yes and the direction up. African Americans are welcome, and the underserved are fulfilled. This is your Urban League, and it is your place for joy.” The visual style was wonderful and distinctive, combining a rich appearance and sophisticated style with a deft combination of perfect choices in stock photography, ambient videos, and motion effects.

As the agency got into the heavier content portions of the site, we were guided by the client's desire to expand the descriptions of services and include actual examples of how they help in each category, with whom they connect people, testimonials, and more. We realized the burden that could place on the client. After all, we knew they were out in the community, actively helping. They wouldn’t have time to write input, so we took a more unusual turn, grabbing some time here and there for our public relations director to conduct informal interviews to gather content points little by little. Once completed, that allowed us to flesh out the remainder of the website, after which all content had an SEO review and was sculpted to new keywords as identified during the SEO audit.

We’re as proud of the resulting work as the client is with the impact it has on their visitors, both the people they help and the people who give.