Awareness for Nonprofit Program Rebuilding Detroit Neighborhoods

The Michigan Department of Education received a Federal grant to inform parents of the importance of early learning from ages zero to three when 80% of brain development happens. The grant was also to inform parents of the small steps they should take during that time to greatly improve their child’s chances of success in school and later in life.

The nonprofit organization Lemonade Day is a program that started in Houston as a way to teach kids entrepreneurial skills to help them lead better lives in the future. When Detroit wanted to launch its own branch of the parent organization, Lemonade Day Detroit, Huntington Bank agreed to be the name sponsor.

The Michigan Department of Education received a Federal grant to inform parents of the importance of early learning from ages zero to three when 80% of brain development happens. The grant was also to inform parents of the small steps they should take during that time to greatly improve their child’s chances of success in school and later in life.

A large K – 12 school district had a sinking fund initiative on the ballot they needed to pass. If approved it would generate nearly $8 Million over the course of ten years. The first thing we did was to do research to find out the attitudes of voters in the district towards the district and the idea of passing a building and site sinking fund to support it.

To identify, reach and engage the local union association membership with messaging that would drive them to action. Namely, to both register to vote via absentee ballot (as the law had changed in Michigan allowing for no-reason absentee voting), and to turn out to vote “Yes” for the enhancement millage during the Democratic Primary. To achieve these ends, we used a mulit-platform approach to prod the membership to share these messages within their sphere of influence via digital canvassing.