City Year transforms the lives of two distinct sets of constituents — but it doesn’t stop there. Relying on powerful stories to engage them, it also transforms the lives of donors.

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

Adds Franklin: “We’re now seeing from a communications perspective that the benefits of standardization are enormous, and they have been required due to [City Year’s] significant growth.

“It’s interesting that with nearly 20 sites, there’s a far higher caliber of communication — our brand manual is more thorough, is more exact, and our templates are more explicit — than we had with seven sites,” she adds. “So as we’ve grown, it’s been necessary for us to be more clear and more centralized with some of these things. I think every site benefits from that … especially in regard to fundraising, but also in terms of logos and things like that. Now there’s a central source for all of our sites.”