September-
December 2020

• The client had a strong history of charitable giving but wanted to gain additional perspective from existing and potential partners on ways to expand their community and consumer footprint to increase brand awareness and loyalty, as well as mitigate risk of anti-corporate sentiment.
• Using a combination of research and analytics, demographics, existing assets, and pain points, Ichor conducted a benchmark assessment to understand how the client’s engagement strategy met the needs and priorities of the communities they served and where they stood among their peers.
• Ichor designed community discussions in three of the client’s priority markets (Massachusetts, Texas, and North Carolina) that identified key strategic influencers and stakeholders that the client could successfully engage to better reach those communities and understand what would make for successful corporate partnership.
• Using the findings from our research and community discussions, Ichor composed programming recommendations that focused on strengthening the client’s internal operations and engagement strategy, including restructuring the team itself, identifying strategic hires to accelerate projects, and redefining roles to better address the communities’ input.

January-July 2021

• After restructuring and building on key takeaways from our 2020 engagement, Ichor focused on assessing the strength of the client’s partnerships and pivoting its engagement plan to better align with strategic growth and public relations goals. This was accomplished by facilitating strategy sessions to identify resources and opportunities beyond donations, short- and long-term goals for those opportunities, and relationships for the client to prioritize to meet those goals.

December 2021-April 2022

• After laying the above groundwork, Ichor focused the client on building sustainable, authentic community relationships by managing the buildout of several client workshops and trainings that prioritized collaborative partnerships, along with additional community discussions in the client’s strategic markets. 
• At the same time, Ichor created an internal engagement series with a “train-the-trainer” component, working with the client’s community engagement team to workshop tough questions, engage in challenging dialogue, and fine-tune talking points. The workshop prepared the client for community conversations that were vulnerable, productive, and allowed them to be an active and engaged participant. 
• As a result of our work, the client created goodwill in communities that are a critical pipeline for recruitment of both new employees and customers. Internally, the client built teams whose expertise aligned with the new strategy of the organization and the communities they served. 

• Research briefs and stakeholder guides identified barriers the community faced, with food insecurities, the housing crisis, and racial disparities being top-of-mind priorities.    
  
• In addition to everyday burdens, community partners were balancing non-profit responsibilities that were exacerbated because of the pandemic. Programmatic pressures, lack of funding, and sense that volunteerism was a “check the box” exercise created additional barriers and incited a lack of corporate trust.      
  
• Community discussions allowed the client to hear directly from local organizations and activists about a desire for more flexible funding opportunities, thoughtful engagement of volunteers into their organizations, and ways for the client to become a stronger corporate partner.      
  
• Ichor created engagement recommendations, outlining opportunities for the client to leverage their internal and external resources to support community partners beyond their traditional philanthropy and volunteerism framework. The client identified in-house subject matter experts and skills-based volunteers whom their partners could utilize in building their operational capacity, along with establishing regular touchpoints to deepen their community-centered relationships and organically building brand loyalty.