Case Study: YWCA of Seattle • King County • Snohomish County

The client: The YWCA serves more than 35,000 women and families in King and Snohomish counties each year with critical services aimed at ending homelessness, creating self-sufficiency, caring for youth and providing safe havens from domestic violence.

The objective: Moore Ink. was hired in November 2001 to develop and implement public relations strategies for a $39.2 million capital campaign. We were retained following the successful completion of the campaign to continue to provide strategic communications support.

The strategy: Emphasize the unique character of the YWCA campaign to generate media attention, focusing on “women helping women” and leveraging the YWCA’s broad support in the philanthropic community.

The tactics: Developed a strategic communications plan, identified media story ideas and generated media coverage, wrote and managed the organization’s 2003 (PDF, 2.1 MB) and 2002 (PDF, 1.7 MB) annual reports (PDF) to maintain a connection to the campaign, helped ensure that all communications to all audiences maintained consistent messages.

The results: The campaign exceeded its goal by nearly 10 percent, raising $42.7 million. Media stories included more than 15 in-depth features in the Seattle Times, Seattle P-I, King County Journal, Puget Sound Business Journal, KOMO-TV, KING-TV, KIRO-TV, KCPQ-TV and Northwest Cable News.