Tag: Member Stories

At the height of the pandemic, Goodwill Industries International faced a pretty significant challenge. People knew the Goodwill® name, and our physical presence was strong — but there was a disconnect. Despite a 94% brand recognition rate, there was a gap in mission awareness.

Goodwill is a 120-year-old social enterprise; one of the oldest, legacy 501 (c)(3) nonprofit brands and the leading nonprofit workforce provider in North America. People knew about our donated goods retail stores, but most were not aware that the revenue from the sale of those donated goods goes toward providing skills training, support services and employment placement, enabling people to empower themselves and create their own economic mobility. 

Meanwhile, the pandemic lifted the veil on many inequities that exist in our society. It was time to tell our story and increase our visibility as a solution. Goodwill operates under a federated model, with local headquarters and leadership operating their own stores, donation centers and employment services in their communities. Each has a unique lens as they have boots on the ground, are embedded in their communities and know the needs of their local labor markets. 

So Goodwill leadership joined forces with social good strategic communications firm, BerlinRosen, to embark on a listening tour of local Goodwill organizations, partners and funders. Our aim was to reach people who could tell the Goodwill story and help provide expanded services. 

Our key takeaways from this effort revealed where we could put a stake in the ground:

• Goodwill’s long history makes it well-positioned to persevere through the pandemic. 
• Goodwill is uniquely flexible in meeting the needs of job seekers and employers.
• Goodwill is a premier nonprofit organization for workforce development.
• Equity is a growing priority for Goodwill.
  

Recognizing that the pandemic accelerated a massive transformation of our economy and workforce, we created a five-year strategic initiative called Rising Together™, which establishes a system that enables faster and more equitable economic recovery. The goal is to equip 1 million individuals with sustainable jobs by 2025. This involves a two-fold approach:

1. Leveraging media and PR to gain public support for the initiative.

2. Partnering with like-minded organizations with funds to expand services that create the right infrastructure to support job seekers and career advancers.

Rising Together™ provides the needed skills and supports to job seekers through a combination of holistic workforce services and support, as well as builds and expands upon Goodwill programs that address systemic barriers in the workforce. 

Our strategic partners in the Rising Together™ initiative include Fortune 50 companies, and global philanthropic and business leaders. To address an ongoing skills gap in the workforce that prevents many people from competing for available jobs and earning a sustainable wage, each of our partners made a specific commitment and provided dedicated resources to help people skill up for the available jobs. Read their commitments.  

To create can’t-miss news for media, we launched Rising Together™ and announced our partnerships in advance of Mother’s Day 2021 to tie into the she-cession hook.

To gain B2B support, we began an integrated campaign. We conducted a radio tour that garnered more than 23M media impressions. We strategically focused on markets where these partnerships existed as well as larger Goodwill markets. Native ads appeared in several leading publications, including US Weekly, Reader’s Digest, Essence, US News and World Report, TIME, Associated Press and others, which generated 150,000 impressions. A series of digital ads ran on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, resulting in more than 2.4M impressions.

Goodwill organizations and partners use a toolkit of resources to amplify the message, including a draft pitch note, social media graphics and messaging, and a content calendar for data and success story sharing.

Recently, Goodwill also commissioned a poll, in conjunction with PerryUndem and using YouGov’s online panel, to understand the challenges faced by job seekers ages 18-65 and to leverage the results for PR and thought leadership opportunities, including a recent op-ed in The Washington Business Journal. The poll revealed that the majority of adults, more than 54%, are not in an ideal job with opportunities for growth, and most say skills training would help. 

The Results

Goodwill leadership have been guests on television, including Cheddar, ABC and FOX, highlighting their positions as thought leaders and opening the door to ongoing opportunities.​ We received notable coverage through a steady drumbeat of responses to the monthly jobs reports and the news of the day in business and top-tier media, adjusting our story and storytellers as needed — educating our target audiences of donors and stakeholders about Goodwill.

We leveraged relationships with reporters who are contributors and influencers in their respective spaces. For instance, we secured a New York Post piece by Vicki Salemi, a Monster career expert, author, keynote speaker, and regular contributor for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, USA Today, Business Insider, etc. This relationship has staying power, as she plans to now include Goodwill in her upcoming book about employment. We also worked with Jack Kelly from Forbes, who founded two recruiting firms, has his own podcast and is well-known on Twitter.

Goodwill thought leaders are connecting and engaging with business audiences in a personal and meaningful way. When a potential partner hears our stories and experiences, they learn there are real people behind our brand, which allows Goodwill to earn trust and authority.

With the increased awareness, we have secured additional partnerships and resources to support our critical work in helping people earn jobs.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

• Prioritize media requests from various outlets, not just top-tier media like The New York Times or The Washington Post.
• Allow ample time to review communications materials ahead of major announcements.
• Communicate internally consistently to ensure clarity and visibility for strategic planning and related coordination.
• Identify spokespeople who can be available for media requests ahead of announcements.
• Create a digital and social content calendar to share with key stakeholders and potential partners to leverage cross-posting opportunities.
• Plan to track impact data to highlight and break into the news cycle.
• Uplift real people and human-interest stories and those with lived experiences.

Rising Together™ started as a communications vehicle with a national focus. As it continued to take shape, it quickly led local Goodwill markets across North America to create programing on their own that coincides with the coalition goals. While Rising Together™ was created to drive national and local coverage and fundraising, it has now become the strategic narrative for policy, sustainability initiatives and more.

Lauren Lawson-Zilai is the former Senior Director, Public Relations for Goodwill Industries International, North America’s leader in workforce training and development, job placement and other support services for people looking for employment or career advancement.  As spokesperson for Goodwill®, she was quoted frequently in news media publications and networks, including the Associated Press, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Forbes, MarketWatch Radio, The New York Times, The NonProfit Times, PEOPLE, PR News, and USA TODAY. 

She recently transitioned from Goodwill to join Shatterproof, a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the U.S. Shatterproof harnesses the models of business, the rigor of science and the power of a national movement to create change and save lives through three pillars of work: revolutionizing the addiction treatment system, breaking down addiction-related stigmas and supporting and empowering our communities. 

Lawson-Zilai is Past President of WWPR, the founder of the Emerging Leaders Awards and a former member of the Advisory Council. She is also a WWPR PR Woman of the Year honoree.  

Tell me about your background and what drew you to SRB Communications.
I’m a true “PR girl” at heart! I’ve been attracted to this industry since I was in high school and knew this field is where I would ultimately start and build my career.

After graduating from Hampton University with a degree in Public Relations and Marketing, I realized that, while I love PR, it wasn’t going to be enough for me. I had larger aspirations to become a business owner in this industry one day. I realized I needed to find a job that would allow me to become a well-rounded professional in the larger field of communications and marketing, while also getting to fuel my passion for PR—and that is what led me to SRB Communications.

Reading about Dr. Sheila Brooks, our President and CEO at SRB Communications, and the journey she took over the years to get the agency to where it was when I first started at the company in 2016 was beyond inspiring. The impactful client work and hundreds of awards for that work also caught my eye. This all instantly let me know the team was serious about their work and it was clearly leaving an impact on others.

What is a typical day like in your current role as Vice President of Marketing and Communications?
I always laugh when I get asked this question because there is truly no typical day. That’s the beauty of my job! I can’t ever get bored at SRB Communications.

My role is to work as the right-hand to the CEO by leading the agency’s account team and the day-to-day work with our clients. I drive a broad range of communications, PR and marketing strategies, both internally and externally, to help proactively meet and exceed our clients’ needs, while ensuring the SRB story is told at the same time. It’s so hard to think about yourself when you serve major clients each day. However, I make it a point to always put on my PR hat for a little each day to see how we can amplify SRB’s work or share agency milestones with our unique target audiences.

My day could include anything from leading client meetings, pitching our CEO or the agency to the media, planning a client event, conceptualizing paid, earned and owned media strategies, writing communications plans, assisting with business development efforts, supporting the team by reviewing or approving campaign assets, and more. Oh, and I can’t forget a routine trip to Starbucks in between!

What do you enjoy most about working at SRB Communications?
I love the fact that I get to wake up each day and go to work for a 31-year-old established minority- and women-owned business. As a black woman who aspires to be a CEO one day, what better experience than to be at a company where the Founder, President, and CEO is someone you can look up to, learn from and grow with? Being at an agency that puts diversity, equity and inclusion at the forefront is such a fulfilling feeling. Many agencies can say that they do multicultural marketing, but at SRB Communications it is a part of who we are. We are a fusion of creative and diverse talent and everyone has a seat at the table here.

What advice would you give to women looking to advance their careers in an agency?
Don’t pigeon-hole yourself into just one area of expertise. The more diverse your portfolio and career experience is, the better. It’s one thing to be extremely well-versed in public relations, but it’s another thing to be extremely well-versed in “public relations and…” (you insert the second, third or fourth skill). That’s what is attractive when you are coming to the agency world. It’s what can make you more marketable, along with the proven ability to multitask, be accountable, and thrive in fast paced environments. Believe me when I say, agency settings are like no other.

Also, this is a small additional piece of advice, but one that has been so impactful for me. Always seek ways to improve your skills. Join a new organization, attend a conference, take an online course, etc. Your learning doesn’t stop when you secure a new job. As my CEO always says, “you must be a lifelong learner.” Trends are always changing, and, in this industry, we all have to stay abreast of them to succeed.

What do you love about WWPR?
The things I love most about WWPR are the networking opportunities and the professional development events. WWPR allows me the opportunity to connect with and learn from so many influential leaders in this region and that knowledge is truly priceless. It’s a great feeling taking a strategy that I have learned from someone in WWPR and incorporating that into my work at SRB Communications.

Finally, but most importantly, it feels so good seeing such a diverse group of women—who come from all walks of life, who are in various levels of their careers—come together and are connected through our love for public relations. Women supporting women, that’s the way it should be.