Legal Aid
Case Study
Free Community Legal Services
CHALLENGE
Raise awareness for the services Legal Aid of Broward County provided during the COVID-19 pandemic – a time when fundraising events were halted and every nonprofit worried about securing necessary funding for programs.
CORE STRATEGY POINTS
- Legal Aid helps people who can’t afford private legal services navigate the legal system and understand their rights
- With eviction moratoriums in place during the pandemic, Legal Aid attorneys had an opportunity to be subject matter experts
- Their small budget would stretch the farthest with earned media opportunities; large-scale media buys weren’t an option
THE SOLUTION
- After reviewing current media trends, we developed a story pipeline that focused on pitching their free service offerings
- We identified lead attorneys who could speak to media as subject matter experts, developed their talking points, and trained them
- Once interviews were secured, the attorneys were able to quickly provide advice and instructions on how those who were suffering the consequences of unemployment and facing eviction could receive free legal services from Legal Aid
The Results
77 earned media placements totaling $110,000 were secured in CNN, The New York Times, Politico, Washington Post, NBC, WPLG, CBS, El Sentinel, and the Sun Sentinel.
That brand awareness led to increased calls for civil legal services and helped secure $800,000 in grant funding to provide free legal services to those who were unemployed, facing evictions, or veterans.