Inspire Washington
In 2019, two large professional membership and advocacy organizations – Cultural Access Washington and Washington State Arts Alliance – were on the cusp of an opportunity to merge and create a more robust cultural advocacy coalition. Team Soapbox worked with the new coalition, Inspire Washington, to develop key messaging and communications strategy to support the launch of the merger and annual communications plansfor outreach to both internal coalition members and external public audiences.
As a first step in message and strategy development, we reviewed how CAWA and WSAA had communicated about past programs and initiatives, including their communications materials and approach. We also interviewed staff, board and stakeholders, who provided context for us on past and current advocacy initiatives and reviewed cultural advocacy initiatives/organizations from other states, including their messaging, and insights about what arguments in advocacy communications they foregrounded for sector-level partners and the general public. We also conducted an extensive stakeholder phone interview process to inform messaging and communications plan development, including feedback from internal and external stakeholders who worked in communities across Washington State.
Based on our audit of materials, peer survey, and stakeholder interviews, Team Soapbox developed an identity framework, including key messages segmented by audience groups, and a robust two year communications plan with recommended priorities for tactics and approach. We are continuing to work with Inspire Washington to develop specific campaigns and projects around the state, including a recent advocacy campaign to support cultural access legislation(Go, Tacoma Creates!) and programs at the city and county level.
Inspire Washington: Community Meetings Support (2020)
Services: messaging, communications strategy and planning, materials development, event support
Inspire Washington is a professional membership and advocacy organization serving arts, science, and heritage non-profits across Washington State. Coalition building is one of Inspire Washington’s key activities: holding regular meetings and events with its members and coalition partners to help determine advocacy priorities and address needs within the field.
In 2020, Inspire Washington and its partners were considering support for a possible King County ballot measure in the general election called Access for All, that would provide additional funding to the cultural sector via a new sales tax. Team Soapbox worked with Inspire Washington to develop an outreach effort to inform, educate, and engage its constituents on Access for All.
We helped develop messaging about the ballot measure opportunity to help Inspire Washington constituents understand the benefits of Access for All and that their input could help shape next steps. We counseled Inspire Washington on a strategy for setting up and hosting input meetings, including aligning voting districts with current organizational membership. And we developed meeting materials – including invitation emails and a robust presentation on the ballot measure – and an event run of show to support Inspire Washington staff in hosting the events.
During the planning period, the coronavirus pandemic derailed in-person meetings. Team Soapbox helped Inspire Washington pivot event planning to a virtual format and expand the presentation content to include COVID-19 response as well as Access for All engagement.
As the result of planning and prep support, Inspire Washington was able to host dozens of meetings in spring and summer 2020, engaging its constituents during the crucial early days of the pandemic. Eventually, Inspire Washington used our materials and meeting framework to expand constituent meetings beyond King County to the rest of Washington state.
Inspire Washington: Membership Outreach (2020 - 2021)
Services: messaging, communications strategy and planning, materials development, databaseand email inbox maintenance/monitoring
Inspire Washington began a major membership recruitment effort in 2020, seeking to expand its community of dues-payment members directly investing in the organization’s education, advocacy, resource development and coalition building work.
Team Soapbox worked with Inspire Washington’s board membership committee to review and update the organization’s membership program, and develop a strategy for recruiting new members.
We researched membership programs and best practices from Inspire Washington peers, including interviews with organizations in multiple states about the development of their membership outreach over time. Team Soapbox then wrote membership messaging and developed outreach materials (including an email outreach template, and membership recognition letters).
In 2021, we supported direct outreach to new and returning Inspire Washington members in Western Washington through phone and email. We also maintained and monitored the membership list in Insightly, Inspire Washington’s CRM database. As the result of our efforts, Inspire Washington was able to jump start its membership program, bringing in more than 30 new members and thousands of dollars in new revenue in just the first few months of coordinated membership outreach.
Inspire Washington: Arts for All (2023 - 2024)
Services: messaging, communications strategy and planning, branding and graphic design, materials development
Inspire Washington, Arts WA, and OSPI hired Team Soapbox for a strategic communications planning project to support Arts for All, an arts education advocacy initiative.
Arts for All (A4A) is a statewide coalition working to ensure a high-quality arts education for all K-12 students. Through activities including development of arts education data, supporting educators and teaching artists, and training youth arts leaders, the A4A Coalition is working to ensure a vibrant and creative future for all students in Washington State.
Team Soapbox helped A4A develop a strategic communications plan for their 2024 work, focused on the release of new arts education access data. We attended Coalition meetings and worked closely with A4A’s administrative team to assess communications opportunities, identify priority audiences for engagement, and build a plan aligned with A4A’s capacity for outreach activities. Part of plan development included creating a message framework to support outreach, including sub messaging about arts education data release.
We also refreshed the A4A logo and brand identity, creating a design that was easier to read and more flexible in usage across A4A materials. Our branding work included reviewing brand guidelines for each of the A4A administrative partners and generating a new A4A color palette that was better aligned with the identity of the coalition’s core partners.
In addition our team updated A4A’s existing “About Us” flyer, applying the new branding, incorporating more photography, and generating a QR code to support a call to act by signing up for the A4A mailing list.
