SERVICESYates Creative works to remind Black folks and communities of color of the inherent power in our own stories.
You’re a small business owner or nonprofit leader who understands the power of storytelling and you:
• Are eager to genuinely connect with Black audiences and need help articulating your story.
• Desire tools and strategies to grow as a communicator.
• Are eager to share opportunities for Black communities and need help reaching them.
• Want to showcase your uniqueness and enhance your own voice.
We see you, we hear you, we are you.
We work to remind Black, Indigenous, Queer and Trans, People of Color of the inherent power in our own stories. We utilize storytelling as a practice for healing from trauma, holding white supremacy accountable, and dreaming the futures we long to see.
OUR SERVICESWe help our clients reflect on what makes them unique, craft narratives that center their why and values, and implement useful strategies that help them regularly engage with their audience.
Branding + Messaging
We craft intentional messages that speak to the essence of your work.
It's imperative that you understand your brand and audience, and craft language that inspires them to act. Together, we'll flesh out the values that drive you, create messages in line with your beliefs and goals, and help you seamlessly articulate what you do, as well as why you do it.
Creative Campaigns + Projects
We lead the development and implementation of creative campaigns showcasing your organization’s efforts.
Whether to create a fundraising appeal, develop annual reports, or launch new programmatic offerings, we’ve got you covered.
Digital Strategy + Support
We help you to ramp up your digital presence.
We offer short and long-term support to help you to strengthen your overall digital presence and increase audience engagement. This work includes strategy development, social media and email campaigns and toolkits, and social media management.
Comms Guidance + Capacity
We provide ongoing strategic support to help you navigate rising communications challenges and opportunities.
We help organizations move through team transitions, assess and audit their communications roadmap, and share high-level leadership guidance so you can respond to overall communications needs.
Our workUnder the Sunlight
Under the Sunlight is a Black-woman owned, mindful stationery brand that creates beautifully crafted products that serve as a blueprint for living a purposeful life. In 2018, we guided Under the Sunlight through a two-month brand and message development process which produced a cohesive narrative articulating how and why they show up in the world, the values that guide their work, and new language that they applied to their website.
Bay Area Plan
Bay Area PLAN is a social justice organization that develops the leadership and builds the power of parents to transform schools so that all children achieve student success. Our long-standing relationship with PLAN has included the development of new messaging which was also applied to their redesigned website. We developed and implemented yearlong organizational communication and digital strategy, and managed their email and social media presences. We also helped PLAN launch the Keep Our Kids Safe campaign, aimed at ensuring that Bay Area schools remain closed for in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect the safety of Black and Brown parents and students.
Leadership Learning Community
Leadership Learning Community (LLC) is a national nonprofit organization transforming the way leadership development work is understood, practiced and promoted. Throughout our collaboration with LLC we developed and implemented marketing strategies to promote Creating Space, their annual convening, which also highlighted powerful narratives from LLC supporters. We managed their email and social media presences and helped establish consistent and engaging communications with their audience. We crafted full values-based messaging and applied the new language to their website and managed its development.
Bay Rising
Bay Rising builds the power of communities of color to create a just world for everyone through civic engagement and community organizing. In 2020, we offered digital strategy and implementation support for the Measure C campaign, which provides quality child care to all Alameda County families, which passed the election. We also worked with Bay Rising to strengthen their social media presence in the fall of 2020.
Hasta Muerte Café
Hasta Muerte Café is a worker cooperative coffee shop and community space serving the Fruitvale district in Oakland, California. For Hasta Muerte, we engaged in a three-month message development process that resulted in a full new messaging and website language for the organization. This process included stakeholder meetings with their team, gathering feedback from community members, and several working meetings which helped to produce a cohesive narrative for the organization. We also shifted this new language to their website.
Borealis Philanthropy
Borealis Philanthropy is a philanthropic intermediary building bridges between funders and organizers by creating opportunities for impact-driven investment in social justice movements. In 2020, we began working with Borealis by providing ongoing strategic communications support and managing comms for six of the ten funds a part of the organization. Throughout this collaboration, our work has included the development of new messaging for their website, the management of a year-end report, social media strategy and implementation, and high-level strategic guidance.
What our clients are saying:
“Yates Creative is not just another communications agency. Composed of brilliant writers and strategists with a deep understanding of today's most poignant movements, Yates delivers emotionally intelligent, relevant content again and again. Borealis Philanthropy has entrusted Yates with everything from serving as lead strategists and content creators before we had a developed comms team, to leading on almost all of our special projects, helping us to create more and better storytelling about the impact of our funds and grantee partners, as well as our impact within the larger movement ecosystem.”
Dr. Kholi Murchison, Director of Communications, Borealis Philanthropy
Ready to work together? Contact us.