STEPUP

The Problem: StepUp is a nonprofit organization founded in response to a single statistic: female validictorians in low-income urban areas are just as likely as their peers to fail to finish college, and to become single parents, while female valedictorians from more wealthy, non-urban families have significantly rosier outlooks. StepUp aims to bridge this gap through mentoring, networking, and professional placement for promising at-risk teens, to give them professional women to look up to and to help them reach their full potential. Like all nonprofits, StepUp is in constant need of support from volunteers and donors; the internet is one of the best places to meet supporters, but resources are tight and programs for these girls must take priority.

The Solution: JAR is deeply invested in the promise of equal opportunity for all young talent to grow up into confident women and powerful, creative members of America’s workforce. With great pride, JAR helps StepUp on a pro-bono basis with the challenge of spreading awareness of their cause, and attracting gifted young women and professional mentors (as well as donors) to the organization through social strategy and outreach. This is a deeply personal partnership, involving careful strategy sessions and utilizing not only JAR’s professional skills, but our personal resources, connections, and ability to mentor StepUp’s girls.

The Strategy:

• Integrated Digital Marketing Plan: Every Year, JAR sits down with the StepUp marketing team to do a big picture assessment of the nonprofit’s major initiatives, goals, existing strategies, and how to integrate online efforts to make it all more successful. We try to identify potential new opportunities to take advantage of tools available to nonprofits, for example Google grants, and other online resources outside of their staff’s wheelhouse to bolster StepUp’s visibility, support for their programs, and successful outcomes for the girls they foster.
• Social Media & SEO: JAR manages StepUp’s social media profiles and consults on outreach strategy to keep stakeholders engaged and reach out to new mentors and students. We make sure email strategy keeps donors up to date, and promotes excitement around fundraising events and the programs themselves. JAR also works to keep the StepUp website optimized for paid and organic search, tackling the dual messaging challenge to reach both girls who could benefit from their services, and the professional women who could mentor them.
• JAR Internships: Every summer, JAR hosts two high-school interns involved in StepUp programs, often providing them with the first paychecks of their lives. We train them in social media, digital marketing, and any other expertise we can share, and do our best to make the prospect of working at a professional firm post-college a compelling reason to stay in school. We also leverage personal relationships to facilitate professional placement for StepUp participants whenever possible.