In part 1 of this article I wrote about the difference between community and belonging when it comes to your brand and the importance of knowing the difference when it comes to building a brand. TLDR: Community is a strategy. Inclusion is a strategy. Belonging is an outcome, it’s elusive, hard won and powerful.
The three pillars I think are crucial for cultivating belonging are 1) building it from the inside out, 2) understand the emotion behind your audience’s needs and 3) invite your audience into the process. Go back and read the article – don’t worry it’s not that long. 🙂
To follow up I wanted to talk about an organisation we’ve been working with that have embedded these three principles into their operations, and seeing how belonging is such an embedded part of their outcomes. They turn up for their community, and their community turns up for them.
Meet Fair Foundations
They are the leading community services organisation in Fairfield and South West Sydney, and are dedicated to providing community, children, and disability services to the most disadvantaged area in NSW. We worked with them last year on developing their brand strategy, identity, and rollout and at every step I was inspired by what they are building.
Belonging starts from the inside out.
Brand strategy is about revealing and defining the brand DNA that already exists at an organisation, as opposed to strategists coming in and creating it or making it up.
When Fair Foundations came to us they had already done some work on their business plan and had defined their values, one of which was Love. And I’ll be honest I kind of didn’t, well, love it, at first. I queried it… can we change it to “love of humanity?” Hard no. The CEO, Pandora Patterson really stood up for love, and explained that the broadness of the word love, the boldness and simplicity of it, was the reason they chose it. And there was something about her standing her ground, that made me see the heart behind the organisation. They don’t need to qualify love. It’s love. Plain and simple. The team believe in the mission, they live it. It’s not something that’s stuck in a PDF. It lives in them. It’s deliberate and expressed through their actions, through their willingness and commitment.
Know (and love on) your audience.
One of the things that came out of the brand strategy workshop that really stayed with me was that a lot of the community members that Fair Foundations serve come from countries where authority figures can be corrupt or a source of tension. Not just police. Anyone from train conductors to government workers.
Simple things like buying a train ticket, or applying for an NDIS service can trigger true fight-or-flight fear.
That was just one story. But they are an organisation who is truly tapped into their community’s needs, fears and desires. They understand not only the problem, but the emotion behind the problem.
It was this type of embedded understanding and empathetic service delivery that inspired the brand strategy, the purpose and the narrative we co-wrote with them.
The people Fair Foundations serve need a soft landing and a safe place. The purpose statement “We help people find their place and forge a fair future” speaks to strong roots, a sense of belonging, and looking ahead.
In the visual identity we wanted to make sure the audience saw glimmers of recognition and familiarity, and so we included what we called a language line. It’s a handwritten line that has the word ‘hello’ translated in the top eight languages spoken in Fairfield. The idea is as the brand evolves, more language lines can be added, different languages and messages, ensuring the audience continue to see themselves in the brand expression.
Belonging is active, relational and participatory.
Fair Foundations could very easily have opted for curating an image library of stock photography. It’s a practical and valid way to go. But inclusion and belonging is at the heart of what they do, and being a place-based organisation they wanted to centre the people and places the organisation serves.
So instead, they invited their community to build their image library with them. They made the very deliberate choice to invest into two days of photography across seven of their services, a big investment of time, energy and resources.
But the pay off? They invited their community inside, to build the brand with them and the community showed up.
It was quite moving looking in the foyer and the 40 or so people who turned up, many (though not all ha) feeling shy, unsure and awkward but putting that aside to participate and contribute meaningfully.
An opportunity to co-create gives an audience agency and confidence – their opinion and contribution matters – it matters if they are there. The image library is now a huge asset, a gallery of place-based photos that genuinely captures their own people, streets and centres to instil trust and familiarity, the anchors for love and belonging.
I hope this example has given you some ideas about how to build belonging in your own business or organisation. Fair Foundations have prioritised belonging in their community for over 50 years but don’t worry! I promise it won’t take 50 years – but it does take time, care and commitment. So start today. Would love to know what this has made you think about in terms of your own community and belonging.
You can see more of the Fair Foundations case study right here.
