SMC x Midtown Metro

Overview:

SMC worked with Midtown-Metro Achievement Centers, a non-profit operating after-school and summer programs for low-income urban youth in Chicago, to improve their digital marketing strategy. This project was led by Senior Project Director Ishaan Agnihotri; Project Directors Hailin Do and Ethan Carley; and Consultants Michael Im, Ella Tran, Kareena Pathak, Mike Soares, and Zeynep Ozgun. 

Problem:

Midtown-Metro sought strategic guidance on audience segmentation to effectively communicate distinct messages to its three key audiences: families, donors, and volunteers. Midtown-Metro also sought insights on its volunteer retention funnel, asking SMC to design a framework to transition volunteers into long-term donor relationships and help increase recurring donations.

Solution:

SMC completed an in-depth audit of Midtown-Metro’s existing practices, including an analysis of their current website and social media platforms. After conducting this analysis, our team presented Midtown-Metro with a comprehensive discovery report, identifying pain points in their current strategy and laying a foundation for our team’s recommendations. We then presented Midtown-Metro with a framework for effectively segmenting their audiences and transitioning volunteers into committed long-term donors. This included new audience-specific messaging, website design, search engine optimization (SEO) recommendations, mock-ups and templates for social media posts, and a content calendar tool to facilitate the implementation of our team’s solutions.

Impact:

Midtown-Metro fully implemented SMC’s strategy recommendations, including our proposed messaging, volunteer-to-donor funnel, website and SEO recommendations, and content calendar. Within a month of implementing our recommendations, Midtown-Metro told us that they were already starting to see greater success in increasing recurring donations and attracting new volunteers. After working with SMC, Midtown-Metro felt they had a clearer vision and structured plan to guide their marketing and communications strategy moving forward.