Background:

Women are dramatically underrepresented in political leadership, holding just 22% of elective offices, though comprising over half of the population. IGNITE solves this problem by building a movement of young women who are ready to own their fair share of political power.

As an NGO, IGNITE relies on donations to exist, but with so many causes worthy of donations, we needed to do something more than a traditional advertising campaign. Rather than spending money on a broadcast spot or out-of-home piece, we created an actual product that simultaneously raised money and helped the organization’s cause: the Writing Our Rights workbook.

The Empowerment Workbook:

Writing Our Rights: a workbook that aims to develop more than just handwriting.Rather than featuring the generic sentences typical of workbooks, each exercise is composed of powerful quotes from 10 iconic female leaders. Each page is designed to make both the women and their words familiar and relatable to young girls. Though they come from different time periods and reference different views, these words all teach girls the same lesson: They are powerful. The more young girls learn and write their rights, the more likely they will grow up inspired to change the status quo.

The workbook’s design was influenced by the little girls who will use it. Different types of design were chosen to speak to children of various backgrounds and ensure that the book felt inclusive to them. Each politician was depicted with playful and colorful illustrations to make her approachable, while making the workbook feel more like play and less like a lesson.

Two exercises were featured in each section: cursive and capitalization. The cursive focused on complex ideas, whereas the capitalization involved simple, powerful quotes that could be torn out and used as posters. There's a great design system in which the colors have a continuous flow and one section moves smoothly to the next.

Results:

During the 2016/2017 fiscal year, IGNITE experienced a 200% increase in the number of individual donors who support its efforts, allowing it to double the number of young women it serves and training 5,000+ women in 35 cities across the country.

A record number of women are running for office in this election. So far, at least 575 women have declared their intention to run for the House, Senate, or governor. There has been a surge of potential female candidates this election cycle, with nearly 60% more women declaring plans to run for the House and Senate this year, compared to the 2016 election.