EPRA NY
Reframing Recovery Through Employment
Industry: Non Profit
Brand Strategy · Creative Direction · Campaign Development · Fundraising · Digital · Social · Environmental Marketing
The Challenge
For more than four decades, the Employment Program for Recovered Alcoholics (EPRA) had provided vocational rehabilitation and employment services to New Yorkers in recovery. Founded in 1977, EPRA developed a distinctive “vocational recovery” model connecting recovery with the confidence, skills, and stability that come from meaningful employment.
But the organization faced a critical challenge: EPRA’s impact was not being communicated with the same strength as the program itself.
Changing funding conditions and the disruption caused by the pandemic created significant financial pressure, while an outdated visual identity and fragmented communications made it difficult to clearly communicate EPRA’s relevance to prospective participants, donors, corporate partners, and government stakeholders.
The opportunity was bigger than a visual refresh.
EPRA needed to reposition itself for its next chapter.
The Strategic Opportunity
I approached EPRA as both a brand transformation and business-development challenge.
The objective was to shift the conversation from an organization associated primarily with addiction recovery to a forward-looking organization centered on employment, independence, opportunity, and vocational recovery.
The creative strategy focused on three priorities:
1. Reframe the story.
Move the brand conversation from what people were recovering from to what they were moving toward.
2. Make the impact tangible.
Translate EPRA's programs into clear, accessible stories that demonstrated how vocational support can create a pathway toward employment and long-term stability.
3. Build a platform for growth.
Create a flexible brand and communications system that could support fundraising, corporate partnerships, digital campaigns, outreach, and future revenue opportunities.
The resulting creative system introduced a more optimistic, contemporary, and human-centered expression of EPRA.
Rather than relying on traditional nonprofit visual language, the creative direction emphasized possibility, momentum, dignity, and opening doors.
Brand & Messaging
I helped reposition EPRA's communications around a clearer value proposition:
Recovery is not simply about staying sober. It can also mean rebuilding a career, restoring independence, and creating a sustainable future.
That strategic shift allowed the brand to communicate EPRA's services in a more compelling way while respecting the seriousness of the population it serves.
The Open New Doors Campaign became a central creative platform for expanding awareness and fundraising.
Campaign assets and concepts were developed across:
Digital advertising
Social media
Email marketing
Print communications
Fundraising materials
Video
Environmental/outdoor applications
Corporate and community outreach
The concept evolved into a broader communications platform around “Open New Doors”—a message that could speak simultaneously to individuals seeking employment, employers looking for talent, and supporters investing in opportunity.
The visual language was designed to feel energetic and forward-moving while maintaining the credibility required for a nonprofit serving individuals in recovery.
The creative system was intentionally designed to scale—allowing a relatively small nonprofit to communicate consistently across multiple channels without requiring a completely new visual solution for every campaign.
Fundraising & Growth
The creative work was developed with a direct understanding that brand equity has to support organizational sustainability.
The campaign and communications strategy helped create opportunities for EPRA to tell a stronger funding story and pursue new sources of support.
The work contributed to:
35% increase in donations
$150K NYC funding opportunity
$1.5M NYS grant opportunity
Rather than treating fundraising as a separate communications function, the strategy connected brand, storytelling, audience engagement, and organizational development.
EPRA demonstrates how creative leadership can operate beyond the traditional boundaries of branding.
The assignment began as a communications challenge, but became an exercise in organizational positioning, fundraising strategy, audience development, digital transformation, and business sustainability.
My role was to connect those disciplines into one cohesive creative strategy.
The goal wasn't simply to make EPRA look different. It was to help people see EPRA differently—and create a brand platform capable of supporting where the organization needed to go next.
KEY INSIGHTS
Rebuilt an underfunded nonprofit brand from the ground up, defining its visual identity, market positioning, and integrated creative strategy across advertising, outdoor, social, email, events, and fundraising.
Established differentiated visual language evolving into master brand, elevating sophistication and consistency, resulting in 95% improvement in brand consistency scores.
Translated organizational strategy and complex data into executive-ready annual reports, business plans, fundraising materials, and data visualizations that strengthened stakeholder communications.
Drove 20%+ growth in fundraising performance and secured an additional $150K in New York City grant funding, strengthening the organization’s financial sustainability and capacity to advance its mission.
