How a rebrand and new infrastructure turned a 15-year-old nonprofit’s outdated identity into measurable, lasting engagement.
The Setup
Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival had spent 15 years and hosted more than 500 math festivals, but its brand hadn’t kept pace with its mission. The original logo featured a parabola — a math concept most kids don’t encounter until high school — which intimidated the very audience JRMF was trying to reach: elementary and middle schoolers who didn’t yet think they liked math. Beyond the logo, there was no defined brand identity, marketing materials were inconsistent, and despite the organization’s long history, brand awareness remained limited both locally and nationally.
The Twist
The core problem wasn’t visibility — it was misalignment. JRMF’s entire mission was making math feel approachable and fun, but its brand did the opposite: too sophisticated in its symbolism, yet oddly juvenile in its execution, with bold primary colors that felt homemade rather than intentional. A logo refresh alone wouldn’t fix this. The organization needed a full brand architecture rebuild — positioning, tone, visual identity, and infrastructure — built around who they actually served.
“A great rebrand isn’t just a new look — it’s alignment. When your brand finally matches your mission, the engagement numbers follow.”
The Pivot
I led a full rebrand in partnership with branding agency Stay Gold, executed through a structured four-sprint framework spanning brand heuristics and audience psychographics, brand values and positioning, visual identity and messaging, and finally rollout assets like social templates and brand collateral. This wasn’t just a design refresh — it included building customer journeys for nearly a dozen distinct audiences (K-12 students, parents, teachers), and simultaneously stood up the organization’s first CRM and marketing automation infrastructure so the new brand could actually be tracked and measured going forward.
The Result
The rebrand drove a 600% increase in website engagement and a 450% increase in social media engagement compared to the prior year. Digital impressions reached over 162,000 in a single quarter, and math festivals grew 35% year-over-year. The work earned an AMA Best Brand Launch award and gave the organization lasting infrastructure — donor and engagement tracking capabilities it had never had before.
Key Takeaway
A great rebrand isn’t just a new look — it’s alignment. When your brand finally matches your mission, the engagement numbers follow.