CONTEXT
4-week client engagement · Parsons School of Design · Speculative strategy, prototyped
YEAR
2026
INDUSTRY
Nonprofit
TECH STACK
Canva
Miro
MY ROLE
BRAND STRATEGY
GROWTH STRATEGY
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
CLIENT COMMUNICATION
DECK DESIGN & PRESENTATION
The Challenge
3G Mentoring delivers a meaningful experience, but its growth is constrained by its reliance on central coordination and fundraising, its limited digital infrastructure, and its lack of a clear brand identity independent of Sesame Street. It lacks a long-term system — content, partnerships, training frameworks — to scale the program.
Project Brief: How might we reach more people, unify the experience, and structure the 3G ecosystem?
The Strategy
Our strategic discovery helped us identify areas where 3G can grow — 3G's strength is the experience, but that value stays inside individual sessions. Our strategy was to turn 3G from a program people attend into a brand and ecosystem people can join and carry forward. That meant building an identity of its own, a reusable system of content, training and partnerships, and sustainable revenue streams.
The Solution
We proposed a three-step framework for sustainable expansion:
Define 3G's brand identity independent of Sesame Street, with its own positioning, messaging, tone and visual direction.
Expand the ecosystem through value-aligned partnerships, original IP (characters, a story world, a visual language), and a digital platform that houses training resources, connects groups across locations, and links participants before and after sessions.
Create mission-aligned revenue by turning 3G's proven methods into products like conversation cards, books and educational games, which earn funds while spreading the experience further.
RESEARCH METHODS
Exploration
Client discovery, journey mapping, assumption mapping, brand research, review of program materials, market research
Validation & Iteration
Presented insights and concepts to client and iterated based on feedback
6+
hours spent meeting with clients at 3G Mentoring
INSIGHTS
The experience works, but the value doesn't carry beyond sessions. Journey mapping showed that connection between seniors, students and preschoolers is strong inside each session, but before and after, there's little to support it: no community, no resources, no link between groups.
3G's identity is borrowed, which limits who it can reach. Brand analysis showed that 3G is understood mainly through Sesame Street, which gives it trust and recognition but leaves it with no positioning of its own for partners, funders and new communities.
Programs that scale build systems, not just more sessions. Research on nonprofit expansion models showed that growth comes from reusable content, training, partnerships, and diversified revenue. 3G relies on central coordination and fundraising, meaning each new cohort takes manual effort.
We researched and developed recommendations for an emerging program structure with limited precedents, providing a tangible strategy to strengthen 3G's brand and expand its program. With a very small team and limited funds, the strategy has not been implemented in full. It still offers a clear roadmap, so the team can start with the lowest-cost, highest-impact steps, such as defining its brand identity, and build toward further stages as capacity grows.