Lutheran World Relief

background:

Lutheran World Relief supports a wide variety of local development groups around the world and provides emergency relief response. Their model of “accompaniment” sets them apart from other development organizations, as does the close involvement of their supporters—many of whom donate hand-made quilts for LWR’s relief efforts. LWR relies on individuals, congregations and bequests for the vast majority of its funding, but also pursues government and foundation grants. Historically, its biggest supporters have been older, Lutheran women and church groups.

challenge:

With the bulk of their donor base well past retirement age and focused in Lutheran congregations, LWR realized that in order to grow—even sustain its current programs—it needed to appeal to a younger and broader base of potential donors.

They also needed to revamp their website, which had grown unwieldy with pages upon pages of buried information. As LWR’s first point of contact with the public, the new site had to establish a more succinct, accessible and modern voice for LWR.

obsession:

Coaching them through an intensive brand discovery process, we got to know LWR from the inside out. It’s an organization with many limbs, but we dug in to identify their heart and soul—what they were really about. Then we crafted a new logo and tagline to better represent their identity. We conducted an organization-wide training with LWR staff to roll out the new look and discuss ways that staff could “speak” their brand. Meanwhile, we re-thought, re-organized, streamlined and rewrote their extensive website, lwr.org, to establish a voice for the new brand.

Campaign elements included logo design, branding elements, graphic standards, website, newsletter.

results:

We’ll let you know the measurable impact of LWR’s new brand when their next annual report is ready. Meantime, the new logo and tagline have been well-received, and the website earned the Best Faith-based Website award in the Web Marketing Association’s Internet Advertising Competition. Our biggest reward on this project, however, was a happy client’s words: “We’re very grateful for the above and beyond efforts you’ve put in to help us out.”