“If you don’t find a way to speak directly to the Hispanic community you aim to serve, you’re missing out on about one-third of your total audience.”
To be ever more culturally relevant within the diverse communities we serve countywide, the Community Foundation Boulder County recently partnered with Hispanidad – a division of Heinrich Marketing, Inc. serving the Front Range and beyond – to strengthen our outreach to local Hispanic/Latino/Chicano community members, and to refine our BRAVO Fund communications.
“Each year, we contribute services to organizations that serve diverse communities, but that don’t necessarily have adequate marketing resources to effectively reach those communities,” says Managing Director Laura Sonderup of Hispanidad’s generously donated time and expertise. Indeed, since Laura was brought on board at Heinrich Marketing to start a multicultural division 18 years ago, giving back to our community has been “an important element of our business model,” she says.
“We offer one organization a year the ability to take on a large marketing project, handled by us pro bono. In turn, we have the opportunity to stay in touch with those organizations who are serving the clients we also serve. It’s a win for everyone.”
Additionally, Laura encourages Hispanidad staff to identify community-serving organizations that most resonate with them as individuals, and to take time off each month to volunteer with those organizations. “I offer no direction other than encouragement to make a volunteer commitment that speaks to you and your philanthropic soul,” she says. “The result of giving back on both organizational and personal levels is happier employees who do great work.”
“It’s exciting to work with local community members,” concurs Newton Moreira, Account Services Supervisor. “For the Community Foundation, the goal was to develop a theme that resonates with your Hispanic audience. We came up with a concept, and suggested tactics to be leverages throughout the calendar year.
“Working with the foundation was very easy, and ideas came up organically. We enjoyed collaborating and engaging with everyone involved in the discovery process, to really understand the key barriers to connecting to the work of the Community Foundation.
“We conducted research and landed in a really good spot where we were able to put together guidelines that foundation staff could run with.”
Adds Laura, “If you’re not clear on what your messages need to be, to reach all your audiences, you won’t resonate with them. Specifically, if you don’t find a way to speak directly to the Hispanic community you aim to serve, you’re missing out on about one-third of your total audience.
“It’s obviously important to the foundation to give more attention to this audience – that’s why they came to us. And that’s the expertise we bring to the table – not only making sure that marketing messages resonate, but also ensuring that communications to this growing audience are respectful, and culturally and linguistically nuanced.
“To do that, you need to really understand what motivates them, what’s important to them – and then put together a story that speaks to those particular aspects of your audience. Ultimately, we see ourselves as storytellers.”
