chapter handbook - freedoms foundation...ing styles. it can even be represented aurally through...

SEPTEMBER 2016

EDUCATE HONOR

CHALLENGE

CHAPTER HANDBOOK

BRANDING AND

COMMUNICATIONS

GUIDE

A guide to understanding the key

elements of Freedoms Foundation

brand identity.

2

PART I: FREEDOMS FOUNDATION BRAND

INTRODUCTION

MISSION STATEMENT

LOGO

PART II: BUILDING A BRAND IDENTITY

INTRODUCTION

TAGLINE

CORPORATE COLORS

FONT

PART III: COMMUNICATIONS

PUBLIC RELATIONS

Boiler Plate

Media Alert

Press Release

Public Service Announcement

Press Kit

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 FREEDOMS FOUNDATION

PART IV: CHAPTER RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER RESOURCES PAGE

MAINTAINING CURRENT INVENTORIES

APPENDICES

A: Boilerplate

B: Press Release

C: Media Alert

4

INTRODUCTION

Branding is an identity system that exempli-

fies the ideals of an organization or product.

Consistent use of this identity system builds

strength in the public’s perception of the

organization or product. A company’s

brand can be represented in many different

ways. It can be represented visually through

elements such as colors, logos, images,

fonts, and page layouts. It can be represent-

ed through descriptions such as mission

statements, taglines, key messages and writ-

ing styles. It can even be represented aurally

through signature sounds, jingles, and voic-

es.

By following our branding guidelines, Free-

doms Foundation staff, Chapters and part-

ners can play an important role in helping

build the credibility, awareness, and reach

of our organization in our membership com-

munity as well as the community-at-large.



MISSION STATEMENT

The mission statement is one of the most im-

portant pieces of Freedoms Foundation

brand. This brief description embodies the

purpose and ideals of our organization.

While Freedoms Foundation’s mission state-

ment is a mere 21 words, this short state-

ment embodies a far reaching influence in

the lives, communities and American socie-

ties of the many teachers and students it

has served through its programs. This state-

ment is meant to provide others with a quick

understanding of what Freedoms Founda-

tion is all about and why they should care

about supporting its work and programs.

Therefore, it is critically important that the

correct statement be used. If the mission

statement you are using does not match

the current version in the upper right, please

update your materials to reflect this version.

Freedoms Foundation is happy to provide

you with any of our new materials should

you need them.

MISSION STATEMENT

CURRENT MISSION

We educate about

American rights

and responsibilities,

honor acts of civic

virtue, and chal-

lenge all to reject

apathy and

get involved.

6

LOGO

Currently, there is only one logo that is

considered the official brand of the

Freedoms Foundation. Over the years,

our logo has evolved and changed.

The latest version was updated August

25, 2016 when our corporate colors

were redefined so that our logo could

be created using only two colors. Prior

to that, it used a four color process that

increased the expense of printing. De-

tails on color are covered in Part II. If

any of the logos in your inventory were

received prior to that date, please use

the new logo when you replenish your

materials. The current Freedoms Foun-

dation logo is available in electronic files

that can be provided to you on the

Chapter Resources page. The Freedoms

Foundation logo should not be

stretched or distorted as shown in the

examples below. To prevent this always

use the round corner handles of an im-

age to change its size.

Current Logo

Examples of obsolete

logos:



Design:

The current design of the logo was se-

lected for its uniqueness and contem-

porary look and feel. The design in-

cludes rough edges on the star that

should not be smoothed out or revised

in any way. A close look at this feature is

shown in the cutaway of the logo to the

right. Freedoms Foundation maintains

the correct version and should always

be the source of logo acquisition.

Correct logo style

LOGO

8

INTRODUCTION

This section will outline the elements of

the Freedoms Foundation brand identi-

ty and provide guidance and specifi-

cations (where applicable) in order to

allow you to reproduce and use these

elements accurately and consistently.

TAGLINE

The tagline embodies the values of the

mission statement and enables all who

see it to quickly understand what the

Freedoms Foundation represents.

When creating the tagline as an im-

age, it should be created with Century

Gothic font and stacked, without addi-

tional line spaces in between the

words. From the corporate color pallet,

Educate and Challenge should be

blue and Honor should be red. In our

materials, you will see it at the top, flush

right of the document, which is the

standard treatment. The exception to

this treatment is on our website where it

is horizontal and separated by periods:


EDUCATE. HONOR. CHALLENGE

EDUCATE HONOR

CHALLENGE


COLOR PMS NUMBER RGB VALUES

CATEGORY C U R G B

Corporate Blue 282 2748 0 33 71

Teacher Gold 143 7549 252 169 0

Student Red 484 7627 184 0 0

Chapter Silver 7543 Cool Grey 5 97 117 106

CORPORATE COLORS

The Freedoms Foundation brand identity

system uses a color palette of blue,

gold, red, and silver to help distinguish

between main categories of content.

The primary use is to distinguish four

main areas: 1) Corporate, 2) Teacher

Programs, 3) Student Programs, and 4)

Chapter

Each one of these has a designated

number in the Pantone (PMS) color sys-

tem which enables them to be repro-

duced consistently each time they are

used. These colors can also be repre-

sented using RGB (red, green, blue).

RGB values can be used to replicate

the color electronically for use, for ex-

ample, in shapes in electronic docu-

ments or online.

Color specifications

CORPORATE COLORS

FIGURE X: EXAMPLE OF COR-

PORATE BLUE IN MS PUBLISH-

ER’S RGB COLORS

FIGURE X: EXAMPLE OF COR-

PORATE BLUE IN MS PUBLISH-

ER’S PMS COLORS

10

FONT

The font used in the Freedoms Founda-

tion corporate identity system is Centu-

ry Gothic. If you are using the tem-

plates in this style guide to develop

your own materials, and do not have

Century Gothic on your computer, you

can download it for free from a num-

ber of websites. Chapters may use

Verdana, as an alternate font, which is

a standard font across both pc and

Mac computers.

Font Specifications

Media Top Line (i.e. headline, busi-ness card name)

Content

*Print Century Gothic Century Gothic

*Email Century Gothic Century Gothic

*Website Century Gothic Century Gothic

Soc. Media Default Default

Letters Georgia Georgia

*Bus. Cards Georgia Century Gothic


OUTLOOK FONT DEFAULT

TIP:

To change the default in

your Outlook emails,

while in Outlook:

1. Select FILE from the

top ribbon.

2. Select OPTIONS

3. Select MAIL

4. Select STATIONARY

AND FONTS from the

COMPOSE MESSAGES

SECTION

5. On the SIGNATURE

AND STATIONARY

screen select each

font option to CENTU-

RY GOTHIC. (Make

sure a theme has not

been selected).

* Verdana is an alternate font that can be

used when Century Gothic is unavailable.

11 Century Gothic


MASTHEAD

MASTHEAD

The masthead is used to provide a

standard look for documents and web-

site. The Freedoms Foundation mast-

head includes the use of our logo flush

left at the top and our tagline flush left

at the top right. The bottom of the

“Challenge” in the tagline should be

even with the bottom of “At Valley

Forge” of the logo.

FOOTER

The footer used in Freedoms Founda-

tion brand identity systems provides a

means to continue carrying the look

from the cover through the content

pages.

Cover Footer

The cover footer is used as a “key mes-

sage” feature that can either include a

FOOTER

COLOR CATEGORY

Corporate Blue

Teacher Gold

Student Red

Chapter Silver

EDUCATE HONOR

CHALLENGE

12


small phrase or a date. It uses a col-

ored bar that corresponds with the

content category in the corporate col-

or pallet. So for example, a footer on

a brochure for the Spirit of America

Youth Leadership Program would look

like this, using the red color for student

programs and the date of the pro-

gram being promoted in the brochure.

On the content pages, the identity el-

ements are realized through the look

of a two-page spread. On the left

page, flush left in the bottom left cor-

ner, is Freedoms Foundation star (same

as in the logo). On the right page, in

flush right in the right, bottom corner, is

“FREEDOMS FOUNDATION”. It looks like

this:

EXAMPLE OF HISTORY ENCOUNTERS FOOTER


PROGRAM TITLES

The correct use of the names of our

programs is especially important. These

programs are what differentiate us from

other organizations.

Please use the names for our programs

or their acceptable abbreviations

shown to the right. Unacceptable ver-

sions are also shown in red and are

struck through.

Spirit of America Youth Leadership Pro-

gram

History Encounters

Service Learning in Public Policy

Graduate and Professional Develop-

ment Programs

Spirit of America

SOA

Freedom and Leader-

ship Youth Conference

American Leaders

Youth Summit

Spirit of America Youth

Elementary program

SLIPP

Graduate Workshops –

Traveling teacher pro-

grams

Graduate Seminars – On

campus teacher pro-

grams

PROGRAM TITLES

14


PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations is often an effective and

inexpensive way to create awareness of

your organization, its events and activi-

ties. Often the rewards of public rela-

tions are reaped over time as it is some-

times a slow build to gain traction in

public perception. However, this is not

a reason to resist employing this valua-

ble tool in your marketing “tool kit”.

There are five tools you can use to sup-

port your public relations efforts: 1) boil-

erplate, 2) media alerts, 3) press releas-

es, 4) public service announcements,

and 5) press kits.

Boilerplate

An organization’s boilerplate is a brief

paragraph that concisely describes the

organization distributing it. It can be

used for to meet a variety of require-

ments, such as an event guide where

you might be exhibiting or a directory

you may be listed in. It is also used at

the end of a press release to provide

editors with a brief characterization of

your company in case they are not

See Appendix A for full

size example and for-

EXAMPLE: BOILER

PLATE


PUBLIC RELATIONS

familiar with it. Often times, a boilerplate

may be written in various lengths so that

you have options to meet a number of

different publishing requirements.

Media Alerts

A media alert is a simple but effective

way to bring attention to an upcoming

event. It briefly provides the typical

Who, What, Where, When and Why of

journalistic writing and then provides

contact information should a media out-

let desire more information. The Media

Alert (also known as Media Advisory) is

written on your organization’s letterhead

and has 5 main elements:

1.Title: Media Alert

2.Headline

3.Body (the 5 W’s)

4.Spokesperson contact

5.Three hashtags to indicate the end of

the Alert.

This document should be sent to perti-

nent media 3 – 5 days in advance of an

event and can be effective in creating

awareness of educational and fund rais-

ing efforts.

See Appendix B for full


EXAMPLE: MEDIA

ALERT

16

Press Releases

A press release is used to provide cover-

age of an event either after it has oc-

curred or while it is still happening. It

provides the same details of the Media

Alert but is written in the style of an arti-

cle and will also typically include

quotes, perspective, and context of the

event. There are 7 elements that you

should include in a press release:

1.Headline (and subhead if necessary)

2.Date Line

3.Location

4.Summary

5.Body

6.Boilerplate

7.Three hashtags to indicate the end of

the Press Release.

Press releases are typically given to any

press that might be at an event, sent to

local press if just of local interest, or dis-

tributed to a news wire. See Appendix

X for full size press release example and

format.


See Appendix C for full


EXAMPLE: PRESS RE-

LEASE


PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public Service Announcements

Public Service Announcements can be

an inexpensive way to get your event

promoted on the radio. TV will be more

of an expense because of the need to

produce the PSA. Depending on what

market your chapter is in will impact how

easy it is to get a station to play your

PSA. Most stations prefer a thirty second

spot. If you are unfamiliar with writing

PSA’s contact your local station and get

their specifications.

Press Kit

If your chapter is going to be participat-

ing in an event where press will be in at-

tendance, providing a press kit can in-

crease the chances of getting cover-

age. You should contact event organiz-

ers ahead of time and find out if there

will be a press room where press kits can

be dropped. A press kit can be provided

in a folder or electronically and include:

1.Press release(s)

2.Photos

3.Quote sheet

4.Contact information of press contact

18

CHAPTER RESOURCES PAGE

The Freedoms Foundation provides re-

sources to chapters in both print and

electronic formats. The electronic ver-

sions are available on the Chapter Re-

sources page and can be printed on-

demand from personal printers or pro-

vided to a printer for professional print-

ing. Also, located on this page are a

wealth of resources designed to help

make the Chapters successful. There

are both print materials that can be or-

dered for free and electronic materials

that Chapters can print.

Chapter Resources Page:

Resources that are available to support

the Chapters can be found in this area

and include items such as down-

loadable materials, helpful links, fund-

raising guidance, and contacts.

PART IV: CHAPTER RESOURCES

www.freedomsfoundation.org

/chapterresources


Maintaining Current Inventories

The current versions of Freedoms Foun-

dation materials will be indicated on

the Chapter pages in the Available Ma-

terials area. When a new version of a

document is created, the Chapters will

be sent a communication that advises

of the updates, what the current version

is of the updated material, and how to

get the current version.

CHAPTER RESOURCES

HISTORYEN-2017-01


APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: BOILERPLATE

APPENDIX B: MEDIA ALERT

APPENDIX C: PRESS RELEASE

Note: The Appendices in the following pages are repre-

sentative of actual document size, but are a reduced ver-

sion in order to fit within the size limitations of this handbook.

22

Boiler Plate

APPENDIX A

APPENDICES


Media Alert

APPENDIX B

24

APPENDICES APPENDICES

Press Release

Page 1

APPENDIX C


APPENDIX C

Press Release

Page 2

26

NOTES

CHPTR10-2016-01

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