Launching a national initiative: promoting community colleges.

Achieving the Dream and a Lumina Foundation for Education founded an initiative to help community college students succeed and launched and expanded its demonstration program into a nationally recognized effort reaching nearly 1 million students to date. This formal introduction called for a fresh identity and compelling marketing materials based on in-depth research.

 
 

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Community colleges in the United States enroll nearly half of all undergraduate students. Yet too many students are unprepared and unsuccessful in earning their postsecondary degrees or certificates. Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count (ATD) is a national initiative, founded by Lumina Foundation for Education, to help more community college students reach their educational objectives.

Specifically, ATD uses data to drive change in state and federal policy and within community college campuses. ATD’s team of coaches and data facilitators works with a college’s leadership to implement an agenda for student success. This includes on-campus coaching; technical assistance; classroom innovations; strategizing faculty, student, and public engagement; plus finding networking opportunities and resources to help address other barriers that schools may face.

In 2008, after a four-year demonstration phase, Lumina and the seven national partner organizations that comprise ATD turned to Lipman Hearne to launch the initiative nationally. This included identifying and implementing communications and public affairs strategies and tactics. But first, extensive internal and external research determined awareness of and market receptivity to ATD’s principles and services.

Lipman Hearne conducted several phases of qualitative and quantitative research:

  • One-on-one interviews with community college presidents and senior administration staff and faculty
  • A survey of ATD college representatives
  • An audit of ATD communications vehicles, documents, and messaging
  • An assessment and analysis of ATD’s competitive marketplace

Based on this foundational information, Lipman Hearne created marketing and communications materials to build awareness and create momentum. The first major publication from the partner organizations gives current and prospective colleges a better picture of ATD’s guiding principles and framework, including examples that demonstrate the initiative’s effectiveness. All pieces feature a new, cohesive visual identity brought to life by Lipman Hearne’s creative team.

Lipman Hearne is working on interactive solutions and additional marketing collateral to be implemented in 2010. Public policy tactics will help build support for student success and community college reform at state and federal levels. A comprehensive marketing and communications plan is also in development.

Positioning ATD as the leading community college student success initiative has helped it become recognized as a national thought leader regarding “best practices” and “promising practices” for sustainable and effective student success efforts. So far, the ATD and Lipman Hearne partnership has helped create a highly visible initiative that now includes a network of 102 institutions in 22 states serving nearly 1 million students.

 
Informed rebranding: We developed a new visual identity and publications based on in-depth research.
A work in progress: Achieving the Dream has already grown into a network of 102 institutions in 22 states serving nearly 1 million students.
Digging deep: A comprehensive communications audit and extensive market research helped determine the business model, cost, and services to maximize participation among community colleges.
Our extensive research and coordinated efforts with partner organizations has helped Achieving the Dream build national awareness, garner press coverage and create momentum for a student success agenda.