Communications Director •YMCA of Greater Richmond
July 2010 – November 2011 (1 year 5 months) Richmond, VA
The YMCA of Greater Richmond is a top 25 YMCA association in America comprised of 17 branch locations and 162,000 members.
My primary responsibility as communications director was to develop messages that would sell memberships (online or in-house), enhance member experience and increase community support.
One of my favorite projects was editor and art director for our quarterly member magazine, YMCA Connect (circulation 50,000). I worked with top talent and I even recruited Style Weekly’s photographer and editors to contribute their talents.
I leveraged my publishing industry experience and further developed my media relations skills at the Y. I benefited immensely from our public relations consultant, Dena Reynolds, who recently earned the Teacher of the Year title with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Nonprofit Learning Point certificate program. Together we took the Y’s positive perception and brand recognition to a new level.
I also continued many of the social and digital media projects I began in my previous role. I trained branch leaders on best practices of social media and empowered them to engage directly with their members. I also helped branch leaders develop and sustain content marketing teams that generated articles for the monthly member email newsletters.
I am thankful to have worked for an organization so pure in mission, and wholly interested making a positive impact in their community.
Shelby Little's Portfolio 