Level Up PA
Pennsylvania education advocates called on Parker Philips in 2021 to launch a campaign to persuade lawmakers to invest $100 million in Pennsylvania’s 100 poorest school districts. Within weeks, we had a web and social presence that moved minds.
Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania
AICUP Pennsylvania has an exceptional asset—its 90+ AICUP schools — which together give the Commonwealth a significant competitive advantage over other states. In 2019, the independent, nonprofit colleges and universities in Pennsylvania (AICUP schools) called on Parker Philips to analyze the economic impact of these institutions across the Commonwealth of PA. Our work showed that these schools generate $24 billion in total impact on the state’s economy, and the economic activity generated across the campuses support or sustain nearly 200,000 (195,525) jobs throughout the Commonwealth.
Diverse Erie
In less than a year, Parker Philips helped to conceptualize and bring to life Diverse Erie — the Erie County Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission — which was unanimously created in September 2021 by Erie County Council. From creating the name, brand, mission statement, and web design to media relations and social media, Parker Philips works to meet the moment by moving the conversation and engaging key leaders to advance equity and invest in much-needed DEI initiatives.
University of Washington
Parker Philips conducted an economic impact study for The University of Washington (UW). With more than 59,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, the UW is one of the largest employers in the state. The UW selected Parker Philips to update its economic impact report from 2014 utilizing industry standard methodology and models to provide estimates of the impact of the university on economic activity in the region and beyond. The UW economic impact included the UW with individual breakout reports for UW Seattle, UW Tacoma, and UW Bothell campuses, UW Research, and UW Medicine as well as alumni and UW Athletics. Parker Philips did an analysis of start – up companies resulting from research commercialization activity at UW’s $1.8 billion research enterprise. UW leadership called on Parker Philips to craft a study to further position UW’s economic and societal contributions and call out the UW as a “flagship brand” in Washington State alongside Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks, and Amazon. The magnitude of UW’s contributions is being qualified and quantified to tell a broader story.
PA Schools Work
PA Schools Work is a non-partisan advocacy campaign, led by a coalition of partner organizations, working to increase public education funding for K-12 school districts across Pennsylvania. Parker Philips was asked to join the PA Schools Work communications team overseeing branding, message development, and social media work, and we’ve moved the needle.
Minnesota State – 37 Colleges and Universities
In 2023, Parker Philips was charged with completing an economic impact study for the colleges and universities that make up Minnesota State. Our team analyzed, assessed, and asserted the economic contribution of Minnesota State’s 33 colleges and universities and created 31 individual reports for its colleges and universities, leveraging the Minnesota State brand to help extend their already compelling narrative. While we were not surprised to find that Minnesota State contributed more than $8.0 billion to the state’s economy, we were touched, inspired, and genuinely moved to discover story after story of lives changed and extraordinary successes tucked away as we got to know each college and university on 54 campuses.
PA AFL-CIO
In anticipation of a new Pennsylvania AFL-CIO president, the organization knew they needed a strong PR team behind them to ensure the launch and subsequent policy priorities of a new leadership team were achieved. In the past year, Parker Philips has not only successfully helped tell their story, but also deliver it in the right way to garner the attention of elected officials, community leaders, media, and general public.
Children First Action Fund
Parker Philips has provided Public Citizens for Children and Youth (now ChildrenFirst) marketing and communications services for the past seven years. Developing and maintaining a strong working relationship, when Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) was coming up on their 40th anniversary, they called on Parker Philips to help them celebrate with a year-long retrospective.
Lead-Free Promise Project
Every year, the promise of thousands of young children in Pennsylvania is diminished due to lead paint poisoning. PA children are poisoned at a rate 2.3 times higher than children poisoned in Flint, Michigan, at the peak of the city’s crisis. Approximately 8,000 PA children are poisoned every year, yet these are only the children we know about, as only 20% of children are tested.
Infinite Erie
Parker Philips was tapped by Erie County key players, business owners, and leaders to create a brand that would better capture the attention of Erie’s Inclusive Growth: A Playbook for Action. In one branding session, Parker Philips led the charge to create the name, brand, mission statement, vision, and goals to position Erie County to attract and secure more funding.
Early Learning PA
The ubiquitous Pre-K for PA campaign is considered one of the most widely recognized advocacy campaigns among lawmakers and executive staff in the PA Capitol. Over the past seven years, Parker Philips has built a statewide following through creative marketing, prolific social media planning and implementation, and earned media supported by innovative research and partnerships.
Education Voters
After working together for several years on advocacy coalitions, Ed Voters of Pennsylvania reached out to Parker Philips to refresh their brand, redesign their website, and manage their design needs. Since the redesign, Ed Voters has increased their visibility and reach throughout the commonwealth.
Dakota Dreams
Parker Philips knows that a college degree can help make dreams become reality — but taking that first step can feel difficult, which is why we were excited to develop the Our Dakota Dreams brand. Working closely with coalition members that included representatives from the South Dakota Board of Regents, South Dakota Department of Education, as well as numerous universities and educational organizations, Parker Philips helped to create this statewide resourceful hub to support and encourage all South Dakotans to pursue post-secondary education.
South Dakota Board of Regents
Parker Philips calculated the impact of South Dakota’s public higher education institutions, finding that they generated a total impact on the state’s economy of more than $2.1 billion in FY 2019 and supported or sustained 12,354 jobs throughout the state. Stories of alumni staying in the state and returning to grow the workforce and economy were inspirational. The study calculated the impact of operations, student spending, and visitor spending across six universities.
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