Messaging

What follows are seven unique JA audiences, starting with youth (on this page) and ending with board members. For each audience, you’re given general group characteristics to keep in mind as you create messaging. You’ll also see what they care about, what turns them off, and what JA messaging you can use. In addition, for each group, you can download additional collateral to use, edit, translate, etc.

Young People

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Digital native; may feel anxious without mobile device

  • May also feel isolated by technology

  • Excited to try new platforms and new technology

  • Comfortable with diversity

  • Entrepreneurial and competitive

  • Driven by financial goals but seeking meaning in career and life

  • Politically engaged on certain issues

  • Busy with schoolwork, after-school activities, work, friends, and family

CARES ABOUT

  • Connection and friendship

  • Sustainability, especially the effects of climate change

  • The economic realities they may face as adults

  • Mental health

DISLIKES

  • Boredom

  • Busywork

  • Disconnect between coursework and life/work

  • Mistreatment of friends or classmates

  • Being talked down to or disrespected

  • Adults who assume students can’t make real contributions

JA MESSAGING

  • JA is training for real life that fits your life right now.

  • Start here. JA will take you wherever you want to go.

  • We connect students to mentors.

  • Ready to change the world? JA helps you solve the biggest challenges in your community . . . and in the world.

  • You don’t have to wait to start a business. JA gives you startup tools you can use today.

  • JA trains a new young entrepreneur every hour of every day, year in and year out.

JA THEMES/TAGLINES

  • Start here!

  • A world of possibilities.

  • Boundless potential.

Alumni

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Smart, career-driven, and entrepreneurial

  • Eager to expand friendships, contacts, and mentors

  • Feels deep connection to other alumni because of similar youth experiences

  • Looking for long-term and short-term mentors

  • Interested in new, emerging career paths

  • Expects to have a high number of jobs and careers

  • Confident that abilities and experiences will lead to meaningful career path

  • Busy with work, volunteering, side hustle, networking, relationships

  • Considering grad school, but also sees value in boot camps and mini-courses that can lead to accreditation

CARES ABOUT

  • Developing and updating skills

  • Making global connections 

  • Building personal brand

  • Showcasing ideas and skills 

DISLIKES

  • Volunteering that turns into free labor

  • Being disrespected or not taken seriously

  • Meaningless engagements (conferences or coffee talks that aren’t well planned, for example)

  • Conferences, courses, or opportunities that are too expensive

  • Corporate-speak from JA

  • Any platform that isn’t mobile-friendly

JA MESSAGING

  • Coffee talks and conferences not only build skills but also build networks.

  • JA makes introductions; you take it from there.

  • Your ideas really can change the world. You are JA’s global force for good.

  • Challenges and competitions test your skills and help you build your CV.

  • JA changed your life. Now you can help the next generation build thriving communities all over the world.

  • Volunteering with JA helps build your personal brand.

JA THEMES/TAGLINES

  • Be a game changer.

  • People, ideas, opportunities.

Educators

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Respects and understands youth

  • Aims to be a memorable, impactful educator

  • Sets high expectations for classrooms and schools

  • Seeking ways to improve teaching and make it relevant

  • Looking for ways to add sustainability, STEM, entrepreneurship, financial health, and work-readiness to current curriculum

  • Values diversity

  • Busy, possibly to the point of exhaustion

CARES ABOUT

  • Creating a warm, welcoming, innovative learning environment

  • Keeping students interested and engaged 

  • Teaching multiple real-world skills (for example, teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving) through single lessons

  • Helping students find their place in the world

  • Reaching isolated, disconnected, or underserved students

DISLIKES

  • Corporations trying to market to students through the classroom

  • Cookie-cutter curricula that bypasses educator expertise

  • Curricula requirements that don’t have demonstrated impact on students

JA MESSAGING

  • JA learning experiences bring real-world learning into the classroom, connecting students to mentors.

  • JA is where business and education meet.

  • We mix technology with hands-on, immersive learning that has a human element.

  • Our learning experiences can be fully customized by educators to make the most impact on students.

  • JA seamlessly blends entrepreneurship, sustainability, STEM, and work-readiness.

  • JA’s programs animate even students who may be disconnected from other school subjects.

JA THEMES/TAGLINES

  • Transforming lives.

  • Boundless potential.

Volunteers

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Focused on building a career that is engaging, rewarding, and meaningful

  • Looking for opportunities for professional growth and development

  • Eager to get to meet new colleagues within the organization and work cross-departmentally

  • Sees volunteering as a way to make a difference while also learning new skills and making new connections

  • Happy to discuss work and career path with younger generations to help them on their way

  • Often report that time spent with JA students was the most meaningful volunteering experience of their lives

CARES ABOUT

  • Purpose; working for more than a paycheck

  • Making connections within and outside of the organization

  • Giving back to their communities

  • Making connections with young people, especially about their career paths

DISLIKES

  • Wasting their time or experiencing frustration; volunteering should be frictionless

  • Students who aren’t serious about learning or come unprepared

  • Being taken for granted or unappreciated

  • Spending too much of their own resources to volunteer

JA MESSAGING

  • You can make a difference in young people’s lives by sharing your expertise and experience.

  • JA makes it easy to volunteer and mentor, with simple, step-by-step volunteer guides.

  • As a mentor to emerging business leaders, you’re preparing the next generation for employment and entrepreneurship.

  • You can help the next generation build thriving communities all over the world.

  • Not only will you inspire youth, you'll also add new skillsets to your résumé. JA helps move your career forward.

JA THEMES/TAGLINES

  • Be a game changer.

  • Transform lives.

  • Inspire youth.

Government Agencies

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Eager to solve large-scale problems and looking to NGOs for solutions

  • Wants to integrate agency priorities with JA ideas, either through existing JA programs or through co-creation

  • May also need “last-mile” assistance with non-JA programs

  • Looks to NGOs that have both experience and demonstrated impact

  • May need quick fixes of a year or less, or may seek longer investments of many years or even decades

  • Usually grateful for good PR but may have stringent guidelines

  • Generally apolitical

CARES ABOUT

  • Direct solutions to identified problems 

  • The biggest impact for the smallest investment

  • On-time, well-formatted communication and reports

  • Internal consensus and approvals, which may mean quick and extensive editing of applications, reports, learning content, project plans, or marketing/PR content

DISLIKES

  • Partisan or political actors

  • Unscrupulous or suspicious accounting

  • Lack of interest in impact measurement

  • Lack of flexibility

  • Pushing back too hard on requested changes

JA MESSAGING

  • Problem X requires both scale and experience. We have both.

  • JA prepares youth for life, for meaningful work, and for an opportunity to do good in the world. 

  • Global peace and prosperity are possible only when youth in all countries are economically empowered to succeed.

  • Our work enables young people to develop the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities.

  • JA provides “last-mile” implementation of programs and projects.

  • We’re here for the long haul, bringing both experience and demonstrated impact.

  • JA is the conduit between education, government agencies, and the business world.

Corporations and Foundations

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Eager to show impact around well defined priorities

  • Unlikely to invest in an organization that doesn’t match those priorities

  • May want to work with existing JA programs, co-create new programs, or collaboration with several NGOs on joint programs

  • May need “last-mile” assistance with non-JA programs

  • Looks to NGOs with a scope and reach that matches their desired geographies 

  • Usually looking for specific PR and social-media metrics and may provide budget or corporate assistance in meeting those targets

CARES ABOUT

  • The Global Goals, DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), and ESG (environment, social, governance)

  • Balancing per-student cost with impact

  • Co-marketing and PR 

  • On-time, well-formatted communication and reports

  • Opportunities for corporate volunteering

DISLIKES

  • Slow responses or incomplete information

  • Mistakes in public communication (misspelling of CEO’s name, etc.)

  • Lack of flexibility and innovation

  • Unscrupulous or suspicious accounting

JA MESSAGING

  • Priority X is why JA exists. Here’s more about our Priority X expertise.

  • We’re one of the few nonprofits with the scale and experience to work on Priority X.

  • Here’s how we worked with [another corporation or foundation] on Priority X.

  • JA provides “last-mile” implementation of programs and projects.

  • We’re here for the long haul, bringing both experience and demonstrated impact.

  • Our work enables young people to develop the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities.

  • JA is the conduit between education and business.

  • JA is where business and education meet.

Board Members

CHARACTERISTICS

  • Often mid-career or late-career C-suite executive or entrepreneur

  • Confident that skills, knowledge, and experience can make a real difference

  • Busy; often values time over money

  • May be too busy to attend meetings, but this likely has little to do with interest or commitment

  • Enjoys in-person camaraderie and networking

  • May have interest in mentoring JA staff

  • Usually very interested in modernization and technology

  • Is passionate about JA

CARES ABOUT

  • Being informed on progress, issues

  • Using connections and introductions to help the organization

  • Making a difference through the organization

  • The impact of time or funds given

  • Being recognized

  • Hearing directly from students

DISLIKES

  • Wasting time

  • Glossing over our challenges

  • Not being asked (for help in their field of expertise, for financial assistance, etc.). 

  • Finding out about an issue after it’s too late to help

JA MESSAGING

  • JA prepares youth for life, for meaningful work, and for an opportunity to do good in the world. 

  • Global peace and prosperity are possible only when youth in all countries are economically empowered to succeed.

  • Our work enables young people to develop the skillset and mindset to build thriving communities.

  • JA learning experiences bring real-world learning into the classroom, connecting students to mentors.

  • We mix technology with hands-on, immersive learning that has a human element.

  • We need your experience to guide and mentor our organization.

  • Too busy to attend meetings? Here’s another way to stay involved.