While consulting key influencers, such as employees and volunteers, we discovered that every YMCA was committed to strengthening the foundations of community through three key principles—youth development, healthy living and social responsibility. Armed with this key insight, we began a major brand revitalization. Our first step was officially adopting the organization’s famous nickname: the Y. This friendly, modern sensibility lent itself to an engaging new visual system, including an evolved logo, which we designed using a range of bright color combinations that mirrored the Y’s diversity of programs and audiences. Finally, we set the stage for the brand rollout by giving individual Ys the tools they needed to launch the new brand in their own communities.

It didn’t take long for the Y to see a significant return on its investment in the new brand, which received a prestigious 2011 REBRAND 100® Merit award. Just one month after launch, press coverage of the Y’s rebrand had reached an estimated 1 billion people, and web traffic was 25% higher than it had been at the same time during the previous year. With an enthusiastic reception from patrons and employees alike, the Y is poised to continue its service to the community for the next 170 years, and beyond.