Shuvu
Case Study
A powerful mission is always relatable: Re-connecting Shuvu to a new audience
the challenge
The idea for Shuvu began from the podium at the Agudah Convention in 1989, when R’ Avrohom Pam, the revered Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Vodaath, charged American Jewry with the directive to provide much-needed Jewish education to the hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrant children from the Former Soviet Union.
Now the largest educational network in Israel, the original mission of Shuvu has remained the same. By offering a Torah education which emphasizes Jewish heritage and values, combined with a superior secular education, Shuvu continues to inspire those otherwise unexposed to the splendor of Yiddishkeit, changing the spiritual landscape of Israel, one school and one child at a time.
what was their next?
The immediate next for Shuvu was an (at-the-time) massive $1.5 million fundraising campaign.
More broadly speaking, the primary challenge facing Shuvu was the need to connect their cause with a new demographic. As the generation most closely associated with Rav Pam zt”l and his cause continued to age, it was critical for Shuvu to make inroads with a younger group of philanthropists to sustain its expanding network. Today’s generation requires an added level of emotional outreach, the result of living in a world operating at hyper-speed, along with an inundation of fundraising requests from the many organizations and schools within our community.
It’s no secret that emotions play a critical role in successful marketing campaigns. Our objective was to enable people to develop a deep, memorable, and emotional connection with the mission and work of Shuvu. To capture the emotion that the mere mention of “Shuvu” used to generate; to have people read a Shuvu story, see a Shuvu marketing piece, and say to themselves “they’re changing lives! I want to be part of this!”
Although the mission of Shuvu has never changed, we realized the destination had gotten somewhat confused with the vehicle, and that’s what contributed to the disconnect between today’s generation. While R’ Pam zt”l founded Shuvu to educate and inspire Soviet Jewry, that cause-demo relationship held no meaning to a new generation of people, some of whom weren’t even born when the organization was founded.
The real mission was, to use his words:
“Chinuch Kodesh. L’zera Kodesh. B’Eretz Kodesh”.
Put a different way: “Changing the spiritual landscape of Israel.”
the process
By bringing the core mission to the forefront, Shuvu would be able to provide a central, consistent, and most of all relevant message to today’s society.
The campaign we created, was #ChangeTheNumbers, exhorting Klal Yisroel to help Shuvu on its mission to bring quality Jewish education to those living in Israel.
The marketing supporting the campaign featured incredibly powerful, moving messaging.
Visually, we gave Shuvu’s look and feel a complete overhaul, bringing it more up-to-date but with a distinctly warm, positive, and vibrant appeal, designed to translate across different settings, mediums, age groups, and demographics.
the results
It’s hard to understate the results.
Shuvu has since gone on to run multiple successful fundraising campaigns, mission trips, and expand its critical services across Israel.
