Client: Livability Initiative

Branding, Content Strategy, UX Writing, Copywriting

Overview

Livability Initiative is a new non-profit, committed to improving accessibility for people with disabilities and aging adults. Their goal: to make Richmond, VA the most livable city on the map, while also dreaming up ways to expand their reach. 

One of their first orders of business was to establish a digital presence with the launch of their website. Mutti was hired to provide copy for the site in just one week’s time. To accommodate this ambitious timeline, we conducted our first-ever writing sprint. 

Goals

As a new non-profit, it was important to establish a compelling digital presence for the Livability Initiative brand while also communicating its mission and program details. There was a definite sense of urgency around launching the site quickly in order to build awareness and raise funds, hence the compressed timeline.

Content goals included the following:

  1. Bring the Livability Initiative’s unique brand voice to life

  2. Communicate their mission, vision, and key program information

  3. Facilitate and drive donations

Discovery

Discovery consisted of a review of existing materials, a quick audit of top regional and national non-profit websites, and stakeholder interviews with the founder, Bill Sweeney, and other key members of the team. It quickly became apparent that Bill’s vision and drive set the tone, but that the whole team was invigorated and unified by the desire to make the world a more universally livable and welcoming place.

Approach

With the Livability Initiative’s blessing, we decided to try a totally new mode of content development – the writing sprint. Used often in software design and development, a sprint is a brief, focused period of time in which a task is completed and prepared for review. Here is what a writing sprint looked like for this project:

  • One working day was blocked for heads-down time on the Livability Initiative website

  • Two writers were assigned

  • In advance of the sprint, we mapped out the site, created a mini style guide for voice and tone, and created copy doc templates

  • During the sprint, two writers wrote for approximately 8 hours generating copy for 6 web pages

  • The client sent feedback within 24 hours

  • Final edits were made and the website content was delivered on schedule

Results

The entire project, from discovery to content delivery, took just one business week while still producing top-quality copy. Of course, other factors contributed to the quick turn-around time: the website was relatively modest in size and client and agency schedules aligned in a way that allowed us to prioritize this project. Still, we were incredibly pleased with the results and so grateful for the opportunity to experiment with a new development mode while supporting a very worthwhile cause.