The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

Work done for Buck Consultants

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Board of Pensions always seeks ways to improve the level of retirement benefits they offer. Recent changes to the retirement plan were intended to do just that by providing ELCA’s 38,000 members with new options and more flexibility in managing their retirement accounts.

But, if the members don’t understand their plan then all the best incentives will be for nothing. ELCA needed to communicate the enhanced plan changes to their members and the messages needed to be coherent and engaging.

The best way to reach* and teach all of ELCA's members on the plethora of plan changes was through a 12-month communication campaign. ELCA needed to announce plan changes, educate members, and transition all members from previous plans to newly acquired plans.

A team consisting of Scott and the HR consultant reviewed the plan and plan changes, separated them into individual components, and differentiated them visually. This helped shorten the information into digestible sections, thereby helping the reader make better decisions about their future.

Scott's design approach supplemented the corporate identity—allowing members to recognize the ELCA brand—but differentiated the look so that the materials signaled a different, member-facing effort.

The client was happy with the findings that suggested 90 percent of members were made aware of plan changes.

*Often, the one who makes the financial or benefit decisions is the employee's significant other. Because of this, we tend to drive the communication campaign toward all potential decision makers.

The Skills

• Employer Branding
• Graphic Design and Production
• Packaging Design
• Template Design

The Goods

• Identity System
• Logo
• Newsletter Templates
• Newsletter
• Meeting Guides
• Postcards
• Plan Education Kits
• Fund Option Kits
• Brochures