The Big Lift

The Big Lift is a bold social venture supported by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation that aims to transform early learning. It combines high-quality and connected learning experiences from preschool to third grade, with a focus on increasing reading proficiency, reducing chronic absence and summer learning loss, and engaging families to support learning in school and at home.

In 2015 Landscape began working with The Big Lift to help their team define a captivating and flexible brand narrative and graphic system to support the ongoing and highly variable efforts of their fundraising and marketing teams. The identity has proven to resonate equally with funders, parents, and very young students — fostering a community of evangelists and driving fundraising at scale.

The Big Lift identity conveys a progressive and deliberate non-profit in an effort to dissuade any doubt regarding the focused trajectory of the initiative. This was particularly critical to convey to a Silicon Valley business-centric audience — frequently approached by less structured non-profit efforts.

The digital presence features emotive photography and video, in addition to an unexpected palette and assertive typography to promote The Big Lift’s story. Bold, clear infographics support a validated effort. The approach is reductive of clutter, speaking to The Big Lift’s efficient and organized way of operating, necessary for taking on a challenge of this magnitude. Unexpected perspectives allude to a transformative way of looking at the issues, and an opportunity to be part of something big.

As part of our team’s ongoing partnership we produced a fundraising video to capture both the momentum and the impact of the program to date. The video engages its audience at an emotional level, conveying the challenges their students face daily, the joys of childhood, and the hope the program offers. To date, the video has helped raise over $1.5 million dollars for the program.