The Human Services Council of New York needed a campaign that could make nonprofit wage inequity impossible to ignore. Key Ideas helped launch JUST PAY through movement strategy, brand development, a Broadway-style musical film, documentary storytelling, and content designed for coalition-wide advocacy.
Service
Nonprofit campaign strategy
Format
Musical launch film and documentary series
Focus
Workforce advocacy and movement building
The Challenge
Nonprofit human services workers were doing essential work across New York while often earning far less than government employees in comparable roles. HSC needed a message the public and policymakers could understand quickly, a shared identity a large coalition could rally around, and stories that showed what wage inequity meant for workers, families, staff retention, and community services.
Our Approach
Key Ideas developed the JUST PAY identity around a direct idea: people doing essential human services work deserve fair and timely compensation. To launch the movement in a distinctly New York way, we wrote and produced State of the Sector, The Musical, using music, humor, and performance to invite audiences into a serious policy conversation as Broadway reopened after the pandemic.
The musical created attention; 12 documentary-style worker stories gave the campaign its heart. The content was designed for presentations, advocacy events, rallies, social media, and direct outreach so coalition partners could carry one recognizable story into many settings.
What We Delivered
- Campaign identity and movement positioning
- Messaging framework and creative strategy
- Broadway-style campaign launch film
- Scriptwriting, lyrics, production, and post-production
- Twelve documentary-style workforce stories
- Social, event, and advocacy-ready video content
Creative storytelling gave a complex wage-equity fight a clear, memorable public voice.
The Outcome
JUST PAY’s policy victories belong to the workers, organizations, campaign leaders, and public partners who sustained the movement. Since launch, the campaign reports more than $1.4 billion in New York City wage investments, more than $900 million in New York State cost-of-living investments, 12,000 workers at in-person advocacy events, 2,100 movement signers, 15,000 emails to elected leaders, and 270 meetings with state legislators.
Key Ideas helped create the early brand and storytelling platform that gave that work a consistent public voice.
