celebrating 20 Years of Community Impact
Overview
FIERCE Advocates partnered with Mancala Collective to develop and execute a strategic communications campaign celebrating the organization's 20th anniversary. The campaign honored two decades of advocacy and organizing while positioning the organization for its next chapter of impact.
Services Provided
Strategic communications planning
Anniversary branding support
Media outreach and press coordination
Social media strategy
Website and landing page content
Event communications
Testimonial and narrative development
The Challenge
FIERCE Advocates' 20th anniversary was more than a milestone — it was a strategic opportunity. The organization needed to honor its legacy, elevate the stories of impacted communities, strengthen relationships with stakeholders, and publicly position its vision for the future.
FIERCE didn't have a full-time communications staffer. Program staff were responsible for promoting events and programs, which resulted in disjointed messaging and inconsistent branding across channels.
Mancala's Approach
We built a multi-channel anniversary campaign centered on storytelling and program visibility. Before executing the anniversary campaign, we worked with FIERCE on organizational communications planning and brand cohesion. We conducted a two-part training with staff to strengthen their communications capacity and create consistency across channels. The result was a clear and cohesive brand presence that provided the foundation for a successful anniversary campaign.
With that infrastructure in place, we created an anniversary identity that connected FIERCE Advocates' longstanding reputation to its current priorities. We designed a digital storytelling strategy featuring testimonials, organizational impact stories, and campaign visuals that could deploy across social media, web, and event platforms. We coordinated media outreach, developed press materials, and amplified campaign messaging through targeted digital communications and community engagement.
One of FIERCE Advocates' core challenges was navigating multiple program areas while maintaining narrative focus. To address this, we created a testimonial series that cut across programs, giving voice to the people closest to the work. We recorded and edited video testimonials and developed a distribution strategy across Instagram, LinkedIn, and other platforms — allowing the organization to honor program diversity without diluting the anniversary message.
For media outreach, we chose a specific program that provided a relatable and timely news hook and wrapped our pitching efforts around it. This strategic focus resulted in a segment on ABC Bay Area's local affiliate featuring FIERCE's executive director during the week of the anniversary celebration — securing high-visibility earned media at a critical moment.
Impact
The anniversary campaign elevated FIERCE Advocates' public visibility during a major organizational milestone and created a cohesive narrative connecting past victories to future vision.
Campaign Results (90-day period):
Digital Engagement
Newsletter sends increased 141% (18,240 total sends)
Newsletter open rate maintained at 42.3%
Website visits up 25% year-over-year (2.7K total)
Page views up 42% year-over-year (5.8K total)
The 20th anniversary landing page became the #2 most-viewed page on the site (774 views)
20th anniversary event page ranked in top 5 pages (347 views)
Social Media Growth
Instagram profile visits up 157% (663 total)
External link taps up 122% (40 total)
Net follower growth of 81 accounts
51,274 total Instagram views during campaign period
The work strengthened community engagement around the anniversary celebration, secured media coverage, and produced reusable communications assets that continue to support ongoing outreach and development efforts.
