THE CHALLENGE
Help Rowan-Salisbury Schools develop branding and marketing collateral that fit the school district’s cutting-edge innovation and attract donors to support their work.
THE RESULT
A suite of polished, modern materials that Rowan-Salisbury Schools (RSS) can leverage to clearly demonstrate their commitment to innovative education. The campaign won NSPRA’s coveted Blue Ribbon Best of the Best Award.
MEDIA
The Flexibility of Renewal (Video)
The Renewal School System Microsite (Website)
The Renewal School System (Brochure)
The Renewal School System Community Video (to be released)
Teachers, parents and school districts all want kids to feel engaged.
But how does a school district actually create (and sustain) an engaged community — one that honors and supports individual learners?
That drive to create a truly engaging school district is why RSS ranks nationally in the top 10 for pioneering use of technology in schools. It’s also what inspired Superintendent Dr. Lynn Moody to ultimately request — and receive — a charter-like flexibility for her district from the NC state legislature in 2018.
That’s how RSS became a school district with not only big dreams, but also the freedom to pursue them.
Their challenge? No additional funding came with the regulatory freedom. To implement the innovative strategies they were now empowered to carry out, they needed to find a way to attract donors from foundations that could help RSS fund the new, data-backed programs they dreamed of.
To attract donors, RSS wanted to translate their innovative work and newfound freedom into clear, compelling materials — and convince funders to support their initiatives.
RSS needed added capacity to accomplish this, and came to Forthright with a question: how can we attract investment and ensure everyone understands what being a Renewal school system truly means?
Together, RSS and Forthright embarked on a journey to develop a suite of collateral that shows funders — as well as their local community — the incredible ways RSS is engaging with students.
Through its signature research, Forthright discovered that foundations look for impact and outcome — and want to feel like they know the people they’re supporting.
From there, it was clear storytelling would be important, which is why Forthright incorporated it into every piece of collateral moving forward, starting with brochures.
Together, RSS and Forthright built a strategy around effective print collateral. Forthright coordinated printing, pricing and design options. The team collaborated to draft content and print Renewal-related marketing brochures that would speak directly to funders, staff and parents.
Next step, developing a microsite. The Forthright team and RSS collaborated to hone in on messaging clarity, so that their target audience — funders — who visited the microsite would know exactly what RSS stands for, and exactly what this innovative district is doing.
When the Forthright team built the modern, interactive microsite to showcase RSS, they interviewed both teachers and students so funders could "meet" them through stories featured on the website.
Forthright also incorporated on-trend tactics like quizzes, animation, video and infographics to ensure the website reflected the district’s modern and cutting-edge approach.
To develop videos for the microsite, Forthright vetted several videographers to find the right look and feel for the RSS team. From there, Forthright developed a storyboard, wrote copy for the video, and created questions for interviews, working alongside the video crew every step of the way.
The result? Two top-quality, beautiful videos that convey RSS’s innovative strategy: one for the community (we’re looking forward to its release!), and one aimed at funders.
Today, RSS has targeted, award-winning print marketing collateral and a digital platform they can use to connect and engage with their community and funders in a way that empowers their innovative work — and the teachers and students who make it all possible — to truly shine.
“Our Rowan-Salisbury marketing team worked with Forthright on everything from our strategy to creating a website, to producing videos and even a marketing brochure. One theme that shines throughout all of our work together is the thoughtful research they would bring to every project.
The team consistently delivers the data behind every recommendation, ensuring every decision is grounded in research. It leads to results that exceed our expectations, every time. With the high quality of products produced, we definitely look forward to working with this extraordinary team again in the future.”
— Rita Foil,
Rowan-Salisbury Schools
(Public Information Officer)
