Toolkit Design for YWCA Minneapolis Racial Justice Program

The Situation

For more than 125 years, YWCA Minneapolis has been building stronger and more open-minded communities. From health access to racial justice, YWCA Minneapolis has long been at the forefront of change – but they identified a lack of awareness in their diversity, inclusion and racial justice consulting services.

The Communications Challenge

A marketing piece had to communicate several different messages, which meant the organization, content and format of the piece was extremely important in order to ensure that readers could easily learn about the organization and its services.

The Strategy

Knowing that the piece had to both establish credibility of the organization and promote awareness of their services as a way for folks to overcome equity issues in the workplace and in communities, we created a full-color kit, including a vibrant folder and five staggered informational inserts, that:

• Communicates that eliminating racism has always been in the very DNA of YWCA Minneapolis
• Raises awareness of the organization’s diversity and inclusion consulting services and racial justice program
• Positions YWCA Minneapolis as a leader in racial justice work
• Empowers readers to advance equity, generate action and facilitate widespread change in their workplaces and communities by putting YWCA Minneapolis’ services to use

We also understood that shelf-life was important. The kit, designed to stand against the test of time, maintains relevancy for years to come – removable inserts mean that the entire piece does not need to be re-printed each time a single segment of the kit requires a content update.

The Results

The kit successfully aligns with the YWCA Minneapolis brand and made its debut at the organization’s annual Forum on Race event, “It’s Time to Talk,” which drew together more than 1,000+ community leaders and corporate managers, facilitating dialogue about advancing equity in communities and workplaces.