In 1982, California’s school system experienced major budget deficits. Classes long considered foundational to K-12 education – classes like art, music, home ec, workshop, and even PE – were being cut from classroom instruction.

In response, a group of local educators, business leaders, parents, and community activists gathered to devise their own funding solutions for Petaluma area schools. The outcome was the creation of the Petaluma Educational Foundation (PEF), a privately funded, non-profit organization committed to creating diverse, creative, and impactful education opportunities for our city’s youth.

Today, PEF supports more than 13,000 students annually across 38 K-12 public, private, and charter schools. Join us and become part of the PEF legacy supporting the students of yesterday, today, and tomorrow to build a brighter future for generations to come.

Learn more about PEF

The Challenge

With the organization’s 40th anniversary approaching, Executive Director Maureen Highland wanted to refresh PEF’s website to reflect the nonprofit’s growth and impact over the past 4 decades.

While the old site had served them well in the 90s, by 2022 standards:

  • the design was outdated.
  • navigating the site was confusing.
  • the 2 menus were unintuitive.
  • the use of stock photos felt inauthentic
  • it was very text heavy, and yet…
  • it didn’t tell PEF’s powerful story!

Or highlight all of the students, teachers, parents, and community members PEF had impacted over the years.

Another challenge was social media. As a nonprofit, PEF’s employees wear many hats. Without an intern to help pick up the slack, the burden of content creation, graphic design, website updates, and social media management all fell on Maureen.

She wanted to revamp PEF’s social media profiles to reflect the same look and feel of the website refresh. But she didn’t know where to begin. PEF had so many stories to tell – so many events and updates – that posts were often done on the fly, meaning the profiles lacked a uniform aesthetic or consistent messaging.

PEF outdated website
PEF's modernized website with brand storytelling

The Solution

An engaging, modernized website with an impactful brand story

We began with a complete website overhaul.

First I conducted a Brand Audit: I combed social media, marketing materials, press, and the website to paint a complete picture of the brand identity and messaging to date. Based on these findings, we:

  • determined what gaps in the brand identity/story needed to be filled,
  • what key messages needed to be communicated for PEF’s distinct audiences,
  • what specific marketing tactics we would employ across all content channels.

After this discovery phase, I created a wireframe for the new site in Figma and laid out the core content blocks for approval. Working closely with a web designer, I refined this wireframe to the client’s specifications, then the writing began.

Deliverables included:

  • A sleek, 6 page website that was dramatically downsized from the 30+ page behemoth
  • Mobile-friendly web design
  • A brand story that brought PEF’s accomplishments over the past 40 years to life
  • Compelling copy and an intuitive layout that vastly improved user experience
  • A formal Brand Messaging Framework (see more on this below)

The Solution

A Brand Messaging Framework to connect at each stage of the buyer’s journey

Without a strategy to guide your messaging, you run the risk of sounding inconsistent at best – incoherent at worst.

The Brand Messaging Framework builds on the findings of the Brand Audit to clearly define an organization’s:

  • Brand archetype
  • Brand positioning
  • Target audience(s) & buyer persona(s)
  • Pain points
  • Competitors
  • Key differentiators & benefits
  • Key messages to use at each stage of each persona’s journey

With the framework in place, the marketing team can confidently create on-brand content for each stage of the buyer’s (or donor’s) journey.

PEF's social media makeover

The Solution

A simple, scaleable social media strategy

With the new website up and running, we turned our attention toward developing a comprehensive (yet manageable) social media strategy.

Focusing our efforts on Facebook & Instagram (where the majority of the PEF audience resides), we identified 6 content categories to streamline our content creation efforts.

In conjunction, we created 12 graphic templates in Canva (2 for each category) that we could use for recurring social posts. Coupled with a straightforward editorial calendar in Google sheets, these tools allowed us to batch produce and schedule varied, engaging content in advance – so Maureen could get back to her meaningful work and the marketing am could focus their efforts on engagement. 

Some of the steps included:

  • Conducting a social media audit to establish visual and messaging consistency across all social channels.
  • Identifying 6 content categories (including things like donor testimonials, featured impact grant/scholarship, event announcements, featured sponsor, etc.).
  • Creating branded social media templates in Canva to portray a unified aesthetic across all channels.
  • Developing an editorial calendar with an annual overview for marketing campaigns, as well as monthly tabs to map out content.
  • Establishing a quarterly newsletter and automated email sequences to streamline their e-commerce communications.
  • Setting up a link.tree to feature multiple links in social profiles.
  • Setting up a social media scheduling tool (Publer) to batch schedule posts.
  • Developing a custom content creation workflow and content calendar to systematize production & posting.
  • Reporting social media analytics quarterly to continuously improve our content strategy.

The Results

The website launched in the spring of 2022 and was warmly received by the entire PEF community.

Slowly, engagement and follower counts began to trend upward on PEF’s social media profiles. Regular posting helped create buzz around the nonprofit’s annual gala, which would be bigger than ever in celebration of the org’s 40th anniversary.

Some key digital marketing results include:

  • 20.9% increase in Facebook page reach
  • 37.6% increase in Instagram profile reach
  • 36.8% increase in Instagram followers
  • 96% increase in messenger conversations
  • 3.1% increase in Facebook engagement

Almost one year later (April of 2022), PEF is reporting …

Hillary Lyons copywriter & brand strategist
Like what you see?

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  • Get clarity on your brand’s voice & vision?
  • Have your message land with the right people?
  • Build a brand community with engaging content?
  • Drive conversions and boost sales?

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