The leadership component
The CUPS Calgary Society has been a staple non-profit in Calgary for more than 30 years, and since 2017, MLC has proudly served them with integrated communications support.
As a non-profit organization, their team of more than 150 staff work to help vulnerable community members become more resilient in the face of life’s challenges.
From establishing more substantial, supportive space for Indigenous conversations, to championing single parents in their quest for a better life for their children; it's the people that really demonstrate the impact.
But how often do we get to know the leaders whose often significant, yet largely invisible impact, resides mostly behind closed doors?
This is why we feel it's so important to highlight the thoughts of these instrumental executives as often as possible with Leadership Communications.
Working closely with their team to serve up engaging stories that best demonstrate the work they have done over the past year for the launch of their third Digital Annual Report earlier this month, we knew that a key element would be the Executive’s letter.
We feel it's essential to create connection to leaders like these by inviting them to use their authentic voice in projects like this.
Streamlining the process
Engaging storytelling is a priority focus for us and together with CUPS, we successfully transitioned the entire Annual Report to a digital platform in 2020, a trend we continued this year.
Establishing a clear project plan from the beginning with timelines, deliverables and checkpoints, along with one main point of contact really helped things flow on a successful timeline.
Our team works strategically, ensuring that all content is approved and signed-off before it goes to design. This ensures that by the time we're in the final review stage, we're not going back into the weeds with copyediting — we're simply reviewing the final look and feel while making last minute changes.
Our friends at FirstUp Creative then took the content and elevated the impact even further through digital design. From a smooth flow of transitions to the moving data bubbles, the CUPS Annual Report is one that will be used throughout the year to share stories, data points and key information for partners, donors and stakeholders.
The final product saw its carefully placed Thought Leadership element nestled comfortably alongside those who work the front lines, but not in a way that overshadowed the central data and stories that make up so much of the project as a whole. It was just enough so that the names and faces of the leading executives invite a closer conversation with the very real people who head this very important and special organization.
We feel that sharing the level of commitment to the work that they do, in their own words, with not just their team but also clients, helps make both the executives and the organizations themselves feel that much more accessible and human