Advancing Mission Through Connection

Elevating Children’s Home of York’s Visibility, Voice and Value

Children’s Home of York | results first

2,050%

increase

in media reach from 26.5M to 570M YOY

376%

increase

in positive brand sentiment through storytelling-driven community engagement

Six family features on foster/adoptive parents reached 434M+ generating a 7.7% increase in link clicks to CHOY’s website

Website redesign reinforces mission and brand alignment to strengthen recruitment

The Challenge

Children’s Home of York (CHOY), a nonprofit with a 160-year legacy of supporting children and families through trauma-informed care, faced workforce shortages, foster family recruitment challenges, limited public understanding of its impact, and a need to deepen donor engagement to sustain its mission. CHOY turned to GAVIN to strengthen its visibility, elevate credibility, and unify its mission messaging across audiences through an integrated communications strategy that positioned the organization for growth.

the solution

GAVIN positioned CHOY as a statewide thought leader and trusted voice in child welfare—aligning advocacy and storytelling to connect mission to measurable community outcomes. Through coordinated media relations, digital advertising, social campaigns, website development, and community engagement, the strategy amplified CHOY’s visibility, drove meaningful stakeholder engagement, and reinforced its role as a trusted partner for children, families, and state leaders. As part of this work, GAVIN's workforce recruitment campaign delivered exceptional performance, with search ads reaching a 7.69% CTR—74.37% above the 4.41% industry standard.

our approach included

  • A brandstorming session that:
    • Explored creative insights.
    • Examined current messaging and audiences.
    • Identified market challenges.
  • GAVIN then:
    • Defined audience personas in relation to CHOY's organizational goals, a strategy shown to produce 30% higher engagement with target audiences.
    • Determined audience journeys and factors impacting their decision to engage with CHOY.
    • Explored the brand emotive relationship with audiences and how to engage through value alignment.

the execution

  • Combined public relations and marketing strategies to increase awareness of CHOY’s mission, boost workforce recruitment, and enhance visibility among foster and adoptive parents and the broader community.
  • Established a unified message to ensure all communications channels reflected a consistent tone and strategic direction.
  • Developed integrated creative assets, including billboards and OTT video ads reaching audiences at strategically timed intervals to reinforce earned media coverage generated by the PR team, creating a cohesive awareness campaign.
  • Prepared CHOY leadership to maintain message control and reinforce mission-aligned messaging during high-impact media interactions.
  • Integrated earned, owned and paid media efforts to strengthen CHOY’s brand awareness, drive engagement, and reinforce the organization’s leadership in child welfare.