March-August
2016

• Prior to Ichor’s involvement, our client had successfully advanced its inclusive growth strategy in developing economies but lacked progress in North America – specifically the United States, a commercially and reputationally critical market.
• To strengthen the impact of their existing assets – data, technology, expertise, and philanthropic investments – the company needed to pivot their strategy in the U.S. to capture this additional market and do more to support the unbanked and underbanked population. 
• Ichor selected five critical cities based on several factors, including current and potential corporate footprint, the level of income inequality, and available nonprofits, academics, and community leaders already keyed into inclusive growth to accelerate our client’s strategy – Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Oakland, and Washington, DC. 
• We conducted stakeholder mapping in these target cities by identifying key civic leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, policymakers, residents, and subject matter experts who understood their communities’ pain points. 

September-
December
2016

• Ichor designed and managed a “listening tour” in the target cities engaging more than 100 local influencers through roundtable discussions and public panel events.  
• We transformed the client’s community engagement model, shifting away from traditionally outsourcing market research, fact finding, and stakeholder engagement, and instead meeting personally with entrepreneurs, leaders, and beneficiaries in their communities. 
• We drove awareness and participation through various thought leadership activities and content production, including blogs, editorials, social media posts, and ad-hoc communications support. 
• Ichor captured and synthesized insights to uncover recurring issues, emerging trends, and pain points at the community level (e.g., gig economy income predictability, lack of non-predatory credit facilities, etc.), identifying the need to connect underserved populations to networks and resources that lead to greater productivity.  
• We also supported the development of a final report, outlining key findings and next steps and leveraging learnings to help our client develop their U.S.-specific inclusive growth strategy. 

January 2017-
May 2018

• Ichor provided ongoing research, communications, and event management support to promote and advance the client’s inclusive growth strategy (internally and externally), engage influencers in the social impact space, and differentiate the client from its competitors.  
• We tailored the client’s new inclusive growth narrative to specific regions and stakeholders for maximum impact.  
• Ichor provided research on the client’s peers, as well as leading organizations in other sectors, to determine governance best practices and current trends. We developed a governance model – covering grant criteria, management structure, grant-making approval processes and reporting. 
• We provided recommendations on the client’s approach to annual pre-tax profits allocated for grants and initiatives to be most impactful and drive deeper adoption of its payments platform.  
• We built a dashboard that monitored metrics, including spending, impact, and progress against goals so our client could track progress over time.
• With deeper community partnerships and a more informed strategy in place, our client was able to sharpen its impact programs geared towards underserved and under-resourced populations in the United States and drive higher acceptance of its payment cards in key growth markets.