Nexus Family Healing, a 45-year old national nonprofit providing mental health services to youth and families, was on a mission to continue its growth and strengthen its market position under new leadership. However, they faced several challenges. Organizational changes brought about the need for a name change. Acquisitions and mergers resulted in most of its brand awareness tied to each particular facility — not the parent brand. There were also messaging inconsistencies across all locations, and a visual identity and brand voice that blended into a sea of look-alike and sound-alike competitors.

Faced with multiple challenges, they selected DRIVE to help them build a stronger, scalable brand.

• Define the brand architecture and rename the organization to more clearly reflect their commitment to long-term family stability
• Devise a location naming structure that brings Nexus to forefront.
• Create a visual identity and voice that clearly separates and elevates Nexus from competitors.
• Strengthen and unify the brand expression across all locations

To more clearly reflect their commitment to long-term family stability, we renamed Nexus Family Healing (formerly Nexus Youth & Family Solutions). Their new tagline, “Restoring hope. Reshaping futures.” underscored the outcome of their work. Facility names also changed to better integrate and unify the brand while leveraging their brand equity within their respective communities.

Driven by Nexus’ brand purpose, values and points of difference, we crafted a key messaging framework to guide all internal and external communications. We developed a new visual identity as fresh and progressive as Nexus itself, communicating their expertise at every turn with optimism, compassion and heart. Nexus brand illustrations played an integral role, conveying the emotions of Nexus youth and families in a very universal way. These illustrations speak to the shared human experience, while contributing to the brand’s distinct look and feel.

In addition to rolling out all new stationery systems, marketing and signage, we completely rebuilt the web site. Years of content additions across the organization bloated the site to 500+ pages with confusing navigation and lengthy dropdown menus. We completely rebuilt and redesigned the site for better usability, visual impact and storytelling—all powered by a new robust content management system.

• This rebrand played a crucial role in the strategic evolution of Nexus Family Healing. It reflected an organizational shift to more integrated locations and services, and successfully positioned it for future growth.
• The rebrand’s purpose-driven approach helped unify employees and enabled Nexus to communicate more clearly and effectively to families, partners and donors alike.
• The new facility naming structure not only elevated the Nexus parent brand, but was a roadmap for any future acquisitions.
• The new identity clearly differentiated them from all their competitors. Its consistent use across all print and digital communications—from billboards to social posts—has successfully boosted their brand recognition.
• The web site’s new CMS enabled Nexus to make content updates much more quickly and easily—dramatically increasing staff efficiencies.
• Their new brand asset library and guidelines help ensure they maintain a consistent brand expression—both at corporate and facility levels—over the long term, resulting in a stronger, unified brand.