Melinda Greenberg

By Marjorie Valin, AMA Membership VP

If you live in or around Baltimore, you can’t help but see the large signs in front of dozens of organizations announcing, “(They are) Associated. Are You?”

The signs are part of a multi-channel brand strategy and outreach campaign led by Marketing Director Melinda Greenberg and her 10-person team at The Associated: the Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. The Associated is the central fundraising and planning organization for the Jewish community. It supports a system of local agencies — each with its own mission, needs and constituencies. THE ASSOCIATED’s marketing department provides an account executive for each internal department and agency in the system.

The combined impact of an economic freefall and a new marketing landscape left Melinda with the same challenges facing most of us: how to do more with less and still meet marketing goals. For The Associated, they are to increase donors and volunteers.

When the organization’s E-Communications Director left to take a job with another nonprofit, Melinda and her team added his responsibilities to their already full portfolios. To reach young adults, they integrated a variety of approaches to their marketing practices and the efforts appear to be paying off. Since adding a presence on Twitter and Facebook, Melinda says, THE ASSOCIATED has seen more young adults at their events.

To reach and engage the broader Jewish community, however, Melinda relies on a 360 degree marketing mix, including print, direct mail, email, and those ubiquitous signs with “The Associated” Brand.

For Melinda, “branding is the reason I joined the AMA — to learn new and better ways to brand.  For The Associated, that’s fundamental to our success.”

Connect with Melinda at mgreenberg@associated.org.

You can follow The Associated at:

www.associated.org

www.twitter.com/theassociated

www.facebook.com/theassociated