KIPP is the country’s largest network of public charter schools, educating early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students. KIPP brought in Storytelling for Good to engage in deep listening across all aspects of the network, and then to develop a new brand suite and tagline that would better represent the organization’s commitment to social justice, and a more inclusive definition of post-high school success.
We knew that KIPP needed to express its evolution externally in a way that honors who KIPP is today, what it aspires to be and what KIPP stands for. Storytelling for Good engaged hundreds of students, alumni, families, and educators — coast to coast — to better understand what KIPP’s new direction means in their words. Our process involved Stakeholder Mapping and Engagement, a Landscape Analysis, Stakeholder Interviews, Brand Workshops, Brand Positioning, a Brand Platform, Naming, Brand Architecture, a Visual Identity, a Brand Guide, Rollout Counsel, and Brand Ambassador Training. Reflecting all that we learned from the KIPP community, we created a new narrative and brand that serves as a powerful depiction of KIPP today: identity affirming, joyfully challenging, and united in opportunity and purpose.
Then, KIPP engaged Storytelling for Good to provide strategic counsel and thought leadership support for its new CEO, Shavar Jeffries. Our process included facilitating media training sessions, drafting and editing talking points and Q&A documents, developing press releases and media advisories, and building communications strategy documents that ensured we were engaging in pitch development and execution throughout the year while remaining nimble, should opportunistic media stories arise. Our work resulted in top-tier, local and trade news interviews and coverage in outlets including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, MSNBC, Yahoo! News, Scripps News, The 74, Philanthropy News Digest and Real Clear Education.
