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Uniting a Community
The team behind Dream BIG Baltimore had their work cut out for them when they decided to create a new nonprofit—a resource that would unite Baltimore residents in support of the neighborhoods most in need of help.
From the start, we admired Dream BIG Baltimore’s ambitions. The organization was founded by a Baltimore resident entrepreneur with the aim of leveraging expertise and capital to do serious good. With the right direction and support, Dream BIG set out to make the most of their influence, skill set, and resources.
Companies like these are companies we want to work with—the kind that think big and give back. Many factors attracted us to Dream BIG Baltimore’s project, but their principles were front and center.
Plan of ATTCK
Dream BIG Baltimore’s goal was to create a new nonprofit organization, and what they needed was our expertise in digital communication and strategy. But everything changed with the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020. With no way to be with their community physically, the organization’s communication strategy and short-term goals would need to change. How could they best support their struggling community, virtually?
We shifted our strategy to help Dream BIG rapidly adapt its messaging and strategy to the crisis. As the group refocused its efforts on Cherry Hill, a particularly hard-hit community in southern Baltimore, we knew their website would need to evolve with the latest events as well. The ability to adjust and update would be paramount. Agility would be key.
Along the way, we helped Dream BIG communicate who they are, and we helped guide their messaging during uncertain times.
Discovery
First things first. ATTCK’s president and executive director headed from New York to Baltimore to conduct an all-day workshop and discuss how Dream BIG Baltimore could use its digital platform to reach potential donors. At sessions like these, we ask questions to help our clients formalize their own vision of themselves and of what they can do. This enables us to balance technical considerations and crucial brand decisions from the start.
Discovery
With expertise in business consulting and management, it seemed like a natural fit for Dream BIG to help other Baltimore nonprofits and community centers to organize. We helped Dream BIG zero in on the specifics: their audience, their goals, and the sort of digital platform that could help them reach both. By balancing technical considerations and crucial brand decisions from the start, we helped the group chart an ideal course.
Strategy
The result of our workshop: plenty of deliverables and plenty of insight. We took the feedback we’d gathered in real time and produced more specific guidance for our client, considering how their digital platform could structure their communications. Our offerings included a site map, user flows, journey maps—the works. These helped Dream BIG align their identity as an organization with their digital presentation.
Throughout the project, we would continue strategizing, determining how Dream BIG could structure its messaging in terms of information architecture, content strategy, brand identity, and more.
Concept and Brand Identity
When we create websites, we don’t follow templates. We custom-build experiences for our clients. For Dream BIG, this meant focusing on community and human-centered stories. We prepared mood boards and brand identity options to help determine everything from the color scheme and typography to logo concepts and graphics.
As part of this process, we created a custom set of icons. Surrounded by repeating concentric outlines, they seem to expand—growing bigger, as it were. Special touches like these—elegant when seen, meaningful when considered—are what help set our work apart.
Visual Design
There are few decisions as consequential for a new business as its logo. In the case of Dream BIG, the organization’s mission was deeply personal, so we aimed to align the logo with the board members’ values. We created two options. The first, in which the inner portion of the G is shaped like a flexed arm, suggests empowerment but still looks friendly and approachable. The second, with its colorful bubbles suggesting thoughts and dreams, is modern and playful.
These are the things that bring life to our websites and make them distinctly belong to our clients. Our process allows us to identify the core principles of the organizations we work with. This, in turn, enables us to create custom solutions. At ATTCK, our work isn’t off the shelf, it’s handmade.
Integration
Strategy comes in many forms: content, technology, communication. For Dream BIG, our integration strategy included finding a donation service to facilitate financial transactions. Our method of choice: Classy, a trusted fundraising platform that enables nonprofits to accept donations, keeping transactions—and clients’ data—safe. Giving and collecting are a breeze.
Powered by WordPress
Our infrastructure strategy also included leveraging WordPress, our content management system of choice, and one of our agency partners, WP Engine. Why WordPress? It’s ideal for sites that are robust, scalable, and streamlined, offering custom experiences that are remarkably easy to adapt, while still maintaining brand identity and visual integrity.
The website itself was built using FLEX, our proprietary layout system, which uses an intuitive visual layout and drag-and-drop functionality to make inputting content confusion-free. This empowers our clients and helps prevent costly errors.
Development
The flexibility afforded by WordPress and FLEX proved crucial when the pandemic hit. Dream BIG’s full-featured website needed to be pared down and hyper-focused. The group originally underscored that they wanted to be physically integrated into the communities they served, so we built a bespoke authoring platform to let them share intimate stories from a local perspective. In the wake of the outbreak, however, priorities and messaging needed to shift.
Until Dream BIG is able to get back into the community, their focus will be on the pandemic and the economic and public health tolls it’s taken. All of the site’s original functionality is still there, of course—just hidden. Dream BIG can quickly change both their content and their messaging while still offering rich, compelling experiences.
Marketing and Communications
The goal of marketing for any client is to get their messaging in front of the right people. The strategy phase of our process helps us identify who the right people are, but it’s the marketing phase that helps us identify the right methods to reach them. Communication strategy helped us transform Dream BIG’s website into a vehicle for conveying their message.
Companies can’t just rely on Google searches to reach their audience. The message needs to be pushed, and that starts with defining what should be said to whom. Landing pages can be tied to other forms of outreach, like newsletters or social media posts. CTAs correlate to highly targeted pages. As Dream BIG’s strategy has continued to evolve, we’ve continued to help them promote their message.
What stood out for us in working with ATTCK was their flexibility and patience, particularly as recent events forced us to make significant changes to our site. They took so much care with our project, and it made all the difference. We’re extremely grateful.
Stephanie Amponsah
Vice President, Dream BIG Baltimore
Rising to the Occasion
We’ve always made a priority of doing great work for groups that do great things. In recent months, as many of our nonprofit clients have overcome obstacles and adjusted their strategies to help those in need, we’ve also pivoted our work to support our clients in these efforts. We can’t travel to Baltimore to volunteer, but we’re fortunate that we can help by doing what we’re best at, right here and now.
We feel particularly proud of our efforts to help Dream BIG Baltimore make a difference, and we intend to continue working with them as a partner, helping them help their community. If you’d like to see a great website and make a difference too, visit DreamBigBaltimore.org. Donations are matched, dollar for dollar.
Credits
Producer
Chris Oz
Dennis Plucinik
Gary Gertz
Designers
Masahiro Naruse
Karen Chow
Developer
Oka Tai-Lee