Promoting nonprofit news
Roles: creative direction, creative strategy
With the decline of local and independent journalism, growing news deserts, and increased consumption of spurious, murkily-sourced, and/or algorithm-friendly online “news,” nonprofit news is emerging as a viable alternative.
The Institute for Nonprofit News is the leading advocacy and support group for the category, spearheading a network of over 400 outlets which are held to high standards of transparency, editorial integrity, and accountability. It’s this rigor that makes the work they do so valuable, but to make it more effective, we need to start building the “brand” of nonprofit news.
Simple headline/visual driven print style ads set up the premise using photography from INN Network members. The photo credit subtly reinforces the idea of the person behind the image.
A full page ad in the New York Times promoting NewsMatch, a collaborative fundraising program sponsored by INN, helps drive awareness and funding in complimentary media.
To begin to create a halo effect around the individual members, we created a simple sub-brand with INN as the connective tissue employing the blue ‘blocks’ mark from the core INN mark:
The blocks and extended INN color palette form the basis for a simple graphic system symbolizing interconnection/symbiosis.
A cobranded lock-up badge for members to deploy visually links them to the network, building a collective brand around nonprofit news, and linking back to new campaign splash page at inn.org/network fleshing out the collective argument around how the network builds the case and viability of nonprofit news, and giving potential funders, supporters, and future members opportunities to engage.
An adaptable Google Slides presentation deck gives members and affiliates a tool to help present their organization in the context of a bigger story around nonprofit news.