Atlohsa Family Healing Services

Case Study

THE RE-BRAND

CHALLENGE

Atlohsa Family Healing Services (Atlohsa) is a non-profit, charitable organization in SW Ontario, dedicated to strengthening community through Indigenous-led programs and services that offer holistic healing and wellness.

Overly reliant on core funders, Atlohsa faced annual deficits and struggled to secure unencumbered funds. Support and donations from the non-Indigenous community were extremely low as brand awareness was nearly non-existent. Needing the support of the community, it was time to re-imagine how to engage community, build awareness, trust and loyalty, and ultimately increase revenue.

SOLUTION

We made it our priority to raise the profile of Atlohsa through its social enterprise, Atlohsa Gifts and strategic fundraising events. To do so, we established a marketing strategy and implemented the tools to record engagement.

The goal was two-fold:

Build the brand and increase awareness across the non-Indigenous community.
Grow community engagement, and raise funds through Atlohsa Gifts to support programming & services.

We rebranded Atlohsa Family Healing Services, refocusing their efforts to target the non-Indigenous community. Until then, they were primarily marketing to the Indigenous community and social service sector.

We began with Strategic Planning, by fully immersing ourselves in every facet of the organization. We dove deep into Discovery to understand the business needs, aspirations and identified the target audiences (Indigenous and non-Indigenous), insights, challenges and opportunities.

Through a series of stakeholder engagement sessions with Board Members, donors, participants and staff, we built a new Brand House, establishing a new vision, mission, value proposition and pillars.

AFHS: RE-BRAND

To increase awareness and engagement among the non-Indigenous community, we developed an Integrated Marketing Communications plan leveraging existing social media, adding new platforms, media buying, e-mail communications and a brand new website redesign including an ecommerce website for Atlohsa Gifts.

Now it was time to engage our new audience. To increase awareness among the non-Indigenous community, we developed an Integrated Marketing Communications plan leveraging existing social media, adding new platforms, media buying, e-mail communications and a brand new website redesign including an ecommerce website for Atlohsa Gifts.

ATLOHSA GIFTS

In 2019, Atlohsa Gifts online was a single dormant page on the website with no activity. The store itself had limited foot traffic, inventory was low and SM followers were under 500. To complete the rebranding and continue to grow engagement, we led with a robust digital development strategy. Initiatives included:

Building a new Atlohsa Gifts website (Atlohsa main site to follow).

Enhancing the in-store and online shopping experience with new and improved ecommerce capabilities and new POS technology.

Implementing a fulsome social media strategy.

Developing a National Orange Shirt fundraising campaign (on & offline).

Developing a community and volunteer engagement strategy.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & GALA FUNDRAISING EVENT

The Atlohsa Peace Awards has become Southwestern Ontario's Premier Gala Fundraising Event– honouring eight Indigenous and non-Indigenous people/groups who had made outstanding contributions in the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation. Partnering with Bell Media as the lead sponsor, we amplified Atlohsa’s key messages.

To set the tone and mood for the Atlohsa Peace Awards, we created the video that kicked off the event and helped those in attendance, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, “feel” connected to Indigenous culture, and our pursuit of the good life.

Such a beautiful uplifting event. The opening video was so incredibly well done. It moved me with emotion and filled me with such pride. I am so honoured to be among those being celebrated here this evening.

- Dr. Jeannette Corbiere Lavell

MEMBER OF THE ORDER OF CANADA & Honourary Board Member, Ontario Native Women's Association

RESULTS

Brand awareness, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & FUND Development

There was a 70% spike in online donations, reaching $153K this fiscal year, to-date
Fundraising revenue grew from $52K in 2018 to $520K in 2021
Based on the development of “Atlohsa’s Story” and cases for support, the success rate on grant applications grew close to 100%
450 people attended in-person in 2019 and 700+ people attended the virtual gala AtlohsaPeaceAwards.com, in 2021, raising over $90,000, 100% increase YOY
Since working with Atlohsa, demand for interviews by the mainstream and Indigenous-led media outlets has resulted in Atlohsa representatives and senior staff appearing in over 40 online news articles, television appearances, dozens of radio interviews, panel discussions and guest speaking engagements.

ATLOHSA GIFTS

Since re-launching AtlohsaGifts.com in May, 2021, revenue boomed and continues to grow exponentially:

Sales ↑ by over 500% YOY (FY20-21 = $54K vs $328K in FY21-22

Online orders ↑ from 800 orders in FY20-21 to over 6,600 in FY21-22

Website traffic ↑ from 3,865 unique visits in FY20-21 to 61,421 in FY 21-22

SM followers ↑ by 66% YOY | Surpassed 10.5K for Atlohsa | 3K for Atlohsa Gifts

Orange Shirt Fundraising Campaign, Relighting the Fire of Hope, raised over $238K, a key milestone for reach, engagement and fundraising with sales going National across Turtle Island, into the USA.

Engaged over 100 volunteers to support the event, inventory and fulfilment. Connecting with community built relationships and new funding opportunities.
Gathering in downtown London July 1, 2021, over 10K community members (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) came out in support, wearing the Atlohsa Orange Shirts.

Prime Minister Trudeau met with members of BOOM InterTribal and Atlohsa’s Board of Directors to discuss a plan to ensure Urban Indigenous people had access to Indigenous-led services during their healing journey.

BOOM INTERTRIBAL

Confidential