STRONGHEART
A Human-Centered Design, Leadership, and Advocacy Nonprofit
OVERVIEW: Before I joined Strongheart — the startup nonprofit team was piloting projects in two different issue areas: child marriage and tuberculosis. It treated these projects as entirely separate entities and lacked an organizational narrative. Strongheart needed a clear theory of change and messaging in order to: effectively onboard new team members, find funders that supported Strongheart’s approach holistically instead of in piecemeal grants, and to center around internally as the organization moved forward. I led all of Strongheart’s communications and organizational branding, enabling it to grow from pilot projects into a new chapter of work known as the Strongheart Change Agent Program.
I began as a freelance grant writer before taking on a full-time communications and research role on the small startup team of 5.
SKILLS:
Program design, communications design and content writing, landscape research
ROLE:
PROCESS
ECOSYSTEM MAPPING
Stage 1:
Stage 2:
STAKEHOLDER RESEARCH
Stage 3:
DEEP LISTENING AND SYNTHESIS
WORDSMITHING
Stage 4:
VISUAL DESIGN
Stage 5:
FEEDBACK
“It was a total game-changer when Erica joined our core team where I collaborated with her on our rebranding and social innovation projects for nearly two years. Her commitment to her work, ability to quickly understand and capture the essence of the team’s goals and needs, develop those into valuable insights and then connect them to the big picture catapulted our organizational development and project work to the next level, enabling us to grow and expand our reach.”
“
”
- Ashley Enning, Strongheart’s former Global Health Project Director