The Client

Phoenix Collegiate Academy is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) A-rated charter school located in South Phoenix. PCA's mission is to prepare students in grades 4-10 to succeed in college and be leaders in our community. They create hope and fulfill dreams by changing the future for their families and the face of our community for years to come. Because of their amazing mission, we were super excited to work with them on building enrollment.

The Problem

PCA knew that to succeed in boosting enrollment, they needed to reach South Phoenix families with school-aged children. One of the biggest challenges they faced was the fact that many parents didn’t understand that a charter school education is FREE. Who doesn’t love FREE?! In order to share the PCA story, families and students were invited to attend a series of open houses. At the events, PCA planned to communicate the unique opportunities available at the school in order to enlighten parents to the resources available for their children at no cost. Most importantly, parents and families had no idea that, because of the close-knit, family-like environment, students were succeeding in every subject. PCA felt strongly that if the parents and students would come to an open house the likelihood of registering was close to100%. We couldn’t argue with a stat like that! So, we set about in search of the perfect solution — and it turns out, that solution was all about the feels!

The Solution

What better way to get more enrolled students than to tug at the heartstrings of their parents? Specific and emotionally laden messaging concepts were developed in alignment with PCA’s mission. The designs were created to inspire parents’ dreams for their children and families. The theme of My Hopes, My Dreams, My Family was illustrated with a PCA parent’s testimonial and photograph. The story and tagline themes were consistent on all of the campaign elements. In addition, a branded email masthead was developed for online communication and follow-up. The open house invitation letter was created in both Spanish and English and was highly personalized by student name, grade they’re entering and year of potential college graduation. Additional campaign collateral materials were also created, including building banners, bumper stickers, fact sheets, handout recruitment flyers and yard signs.

A second and more urgent direct mail follow up was sent to non-responders. This direct mail piece was also highly personalized. This time the personalized elements included exactly how many seats were left in the student’s grade level. The parents were also invited to choose from three open house dates. Branding was consistent and all copy was intensely personal, emotionally appealing, recipient oriented and benefit driven.