YWCA of Greenwich: 100 Years of Compassion, Commitment, and Courage

Preview the 2020-2021 Annual Report

An animated, colorful new style of Annual Report released December 29, 2021. The web report, developed as a new online experience was illustrated, designed and programmed by Create and Associates.

  • Erica Schreiber
    I am reaching out from YWCA Spokane to let you know that our team has been in awh of your annual report. It is beautiful and powerful and engaging! Can you share with me what tool you used to create such a dynamic presentation?
    Erica Schreiber
    Director of Communications & Philanthropy | Media, YWCA Spokane Contact

Solution

Beyond raising awareness about the institution, Create saw an opportunity to deepen understanding of the YWCA brand. Create began work by digging deeply into historic print journalism coverage, a review and analysis of all available past annual reports and newsletters, a review of the photograph and document archives of YWCA Greenwich, a document review of materials held by the Greenwich Historical Society, printed interviews made available by the Greenwich Library Oral History Project, and interviews with current YWCA Greenwich staff and board members.

Create was able to help YWCA Greenwich emphasize its legacy, practice, and vision of social and racial justice as the through-line of everything it says and does—has ever done and will do. This came to life through an illustration style and pictorial narrative that seamlessly meshed historical photographs with current ones. Create also develop the campaign logo and tagline, “In Greenwich for Good,” to reinforce the place and the purpose of the institution. The line was elaborated upon on the cover of the annual report to include YWCA national values: “1919-2019: 100 Years of Compassion, Commitment, and Courage in Greenwich.”

The most visible and ubiquitous change is the website. The success of the new look and feel of the YWCA Greenwich brand established for the 2017-2018 annual report provided a strong base to build on. For the website, Create first approached change-making from an operations vantage point. Working with YWCA Greenwich, Create was able to integrate finance, membership operations, and development to arrive at a set of site functions that could not have been implemented before.

Key capabilities:

Challenge

In 2019, this heralded institution approached its 100th year of service to the people in and around Greenwich. This milestone presented a unique and timely opportunity for YWCA Greenwich to tell its story and engage the community in a new and fresh way. Create was brought on to five things:
  1. Realign YWCA Greenwich with the YWCA national brand but in a distinct and ownable way.
  2. Research the 100-year history of the heralded institution and depict it in an engaging information graphic.
  3. Reimagine, design, and write a new brand-aligned annual report.
  4. Create a new brand for the 100th anniversary to be used for development, fundraising, and awareness campaigns.
  5. Reimagine, design, write, and produce a new and technologically advanced website—one that would enable membership and program registrations as well as personalized calendaring.

Result

The result has been a refreshed visual identity for YWCA Greenwich, a greater emphasis on the brand strategy in all communications and behaviors, and a more widely and deeply understood organization. The identity is now not only closer to the national YWCA brand but has enabled YWCA to project a more distinct and authentic identity in the highly competitive Greenwich membership services and nonprofit fundraising markets.

The website achieves the following:

  1. Vastly enhance the user experience through aesthetic appeal and the application of calendars.
  2. Reduce management costs and streamline the program registration process and donation. Fully integrated into the back-office software.
  3. Streamline and expedite the online donation process.
  4. Simplify the management of digital content across platforms

To learn more about how we always design with your goals in mind, contact Cecile Rothschild at Create & Associates today at (914) 273-2949.

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