With the expertise of Taproot’s advisors, FrontLine Service intends to develop a focused, effective, and ready-to-implement communications strategy designed to engage and foster increased community support.

Though the agency has grown from small beginnings to serving over 25,000 individuals annually and an annual budget of over $28 million, and continues to grow, it has never had a formal communications plan. Because of the vulnerability of the populations FrontLine serves, protecting the clients’ privacy, agency, and dignity is paramount to the agency’s mission. FrontLine has an official agency stance preventing the sharing of clients’ names, images, or stories containing identifying information, even in service of promoting the agency. This makes promoting services, programs, and events a significant obstacle and a complicated issue to resolve.

In addition, 89% of the agency’s operating budget is derived from grants and government contracts and restricted to specific programs, not allowing for sufficient administrative resources. The agency has never had sufficient administrative overhead to devote to a marketing budget, and has only hired its first communications position in 2020, making it easy to see how the insights and expertise of an external consultant are imperative. The need for increased visibility and community awareness of FrontLine to drive more philanthropic relationships is obvious. The agency proposes that one of its largest annual events, Twinkle Shop being held on December 6th, presents the strongest opportunity to gather high-yielding data around how the agency promotes itself and to create a robust communications strategy with the resulting analysis.

The need for a well-structured communications strategy has been on the organization’s agenda for quite some time. However, the mission of the agency and the service of its clientele has always taken precedence. With the agency’s services being more necessary than ever, in addition to local, state, and federal funding being threatened and increasingly competed for, it has never been more apparent that FrontLine Service must develop a fine-tuned and vigorous communications strategy to spread the message of its mission.

The agency believes Twinkle Shop will provide an ideal opportunity for analyzing the current communications strategy and building a stronger one. Begun in 2013, Twinkle Shop serves families and children who have experienced homelessness, traumatic loss, abuse, and other types of trauma. FrontLine created Twinkle Shop to invite families with little to no income to a celebration that is trauma-informed and designed to allow family members to participate in the gift giving, empowering them to choose the gifts that would be best for their loved ones.

Funding events like this becomes increasingly complex given the structure of the agency’s budget along with the extreme vulnerability of its clientele. Nearly 90% of the agency’s robust operating budget comes from grants and government contracts, and only 1% of its funding comes from private philanthropy, significantly restricting usage. Additionally, the personal agency, protection, and confidentiality of the client-base is paramount to the work FrontLine does. Therefore, the agency’s self-promotion is a complex problem to solve.

FrontLine Service's Development Team is a small but dedicated team of 4 highly qualified individuals - a Director, Associate Director, a Grant Writer, and a Communications Specialist. The agency has been in operation for 35 years and has been running this particular event for over a decade. FrontLine's overall communications strategy will benefit from the input of an outside observer who is an expert in messaging.