Legal Services Issues Branding and Creative RFP
To do better for our clients and our community, we are looking to refine our messaging and create a set of communications tools that will help us:
- Recruit more private funding. Only 2% of our annual budget is raised from individuals and private corporations. Only another 4% is raised from private foundations. We need to do a better job of reaching and wooing potential donors.
- Improve our systemic advocacy. CLS looks to improve its clients’ lives and strengthen Connecticut’s communities both through individual representation in civil cases and through systems-level advocacy to increase fairness in the justice system and build the social supports that lift people out of poverty. Effectiveness at systems-level advocacy, which often happens at the state legislature, requires conveying our message clearly to policymakers, media, and advocacy partners.
- Effectively convey our impact through data, images, and narrative. To recruit more private funding and to improve systemic advocacy, we need to better convey our impact for Connecticut and its most vulnerable communities. We need to be able to tell our clients’ stories, visually and through compelling narratives, and also to present hard data on our work and its value.
- Welcome and engage our clients and partners. Frequently, our clients find us through partner organizations – like domestic violence shelters or senior centers – that refer people in need to our offices. Sometimes, clients find us through the internet and other digital media. Our light is always on for current and potential clients, and as a community-oriented organization we want our website and other communications tools to be our virtual plate-glass-window – a welcoming portal for service-providers and clients to find us as partners and advocates.
- More clearly establish our brand identity. At least three key elements of our brand personality need to come through more clearly in our branding and all of our communications work:
- CLS is a law firm of expert advocates who take on difficult cases on behalf of some of Connecticut’s most vulnerable people. Our work is important, and our clients are in crisis. We need to convey that fundamental seriousness through our branding: Our clients, and everyone else who comes into contact with us, should appreciate our professionalism. And we want the media and policymakers to see us as serious-minded experts with experience and integrity.
- Our seriousness is not dispassionate. We care deeply about our work and our clients. We are fierce advocates for the things we believe in. We need to convey our passion and the essential warmth and humanity that motivate our work.
- While serious, our branding cannot be stodgy. We need our branding to speak to our creativity and drive to innovate – the drive that we believe can make us a national leader in our field.
Background:
Connecticut Legal Services (CLS) is Connecticut’s largest private, nonprofit law firm, dedicated to improving the lives of low-income people in Connecticut by providing access to justice. We provide free civil legal services to low-income people in 122 communities statewide. Our work ranges from protecting the elderly from wrongful evictions to standing with domestic violence victims as they seek restraining orders and divorces to fighting for educational opportunity for children with learning disabilities.
Scope of Work:
Project Deliverable
- Brand study and marketing consultation to clarify CLS’ audiences, brand positioning, impact for key stakeholders, and best approaches to branding and messaging. anticipate that the discovery component of this process will be significantly shortened if the designer leverages information gathered by the consultant who will be facilitating our strategic planning process inthe second half of 2018.
- Consultation with CLS’ strategic planning consultant to coordinate information gathering/discovery efforts, minimize redundancy, and ensure that CLS’ strategic plan informs and advances our rebranding work.
- Logo suite, with the following specifications:
o The logo will work well both in color or black and white;
o The logo will work well both in print and online, whether on CLS’ website or on social media;
o The logo will work well across a range of application, including as signage in CLS’ offices;
o We may wish to discuss the possibility of at least one logo variation to be used with CLS’ various projects or departments.
- Brand standards manual detailing CLS’ logo suite; brand components, including a primary color palette and a secondary color palette that can be used for data visualizations, and typography; usage guidelines; identification of interior paint specifications consistent with brand color palette; and any printer information needed for branded items.
- Suite of print collateral, including:
o Letterhead, both digital and suitable for printing;
o Envelopes;
o Business cards;
o Program brochure.
- New website, with the following specifications and functionality:
o Content Management System (CMS) that supports CLS’ staff (non-programmers) in making content-based edits, either WordPress or Drupal;
o Donation/Payment System integrated with Blackbaud, CLS’ Constituent Relationship Management platform, and possible integration with a peer-to-peer fundraising platform;
o Event calendar with event registration;
o Responsive page layouts;
o Document upload (via CMS) and download (via links);
o Email newsletter signup integration;
o Map integration;
o Tutorial/orientation for CLS staff in the use of the website’s content management system;
o It is important that the website be designed in a way that allows us to convey the impact of our work – both through telling our clients stories and through visually- compelling presentations of data. We seek a design that uses visuals effectively and does not rely too heavily on text.
- Other materials, including:
o A template for an e-newsletter;
o Email template;
o Facebook cover;
o Twitter page.
- Consult on a content strategy for CLS’ website and social media accounts.
Due Date:
June 9
Address:
PR firms with legal experience includes 5WPR and Rubenstein PR.
