Aspire’s new brand reframed literacy as a launchpad for life, uniting two organizations into one powerful force embraced by students, donors, and civic leaders alike.
Will a merger be seen as a positive? Can a new name carry the same weight of the organizations that preceded it?
When LIFT Instruction for Texas merged with the Aberg Center for Literacy, they had an opportunity to capitalize on the prior successes of each. It was also time to redefine the value of their work to attract more program participants and public support.
The two organizations merged for operational and mission efficiency, to deliver literacy in deeper ways to more people. The two organizations also shared a similarity in their brands because both were built on providing the same core service: literacy. But research showed that current and potential donors wanted more.
The bold opportunity we presented to elevate their work wasn’t just focused on literacy itself. It was focused on what literacy can do. For students, their families, and communities at large, literacy is a gateway to a better life.
Their most important audiences are students, donors, and civic leaders. What do they all have in common? They share a belief in a brighter future for people through the power of literacy, so we created a new name to signal that literacy delivers on those aspirations: Aspire
With a new tagline, Ready to Learn, the brand strategy, messages, new logo, and website we created reinforce that Aspire believes learning turns obstacles into opportunities, and walks alongside its students as they make the brave decision to change their lives.
While many nonprofit mergers fail to inspire and engage their communities, Aspire’s brand fired up the board and staff from both organizations, as well as the students, donors, and civic leaders who share Aspire’s goal: Help students feel confident as they fulfill the promise of learning.
