Core Values and Pillars your staff will rally around

about our work with the ulman cancer fund for young adults

The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults is a progressive company when it comes to employee engagement and an emphasis on company culture. While an employee of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, Michelle had the opportunity to rewrite the company’s core values in a way that was both palatable and inspiring for all employees. Similar to other organizations you see,  the previous core values were long sentences of a belief with 5-7 bullet points supporting each sentence. Knowing that recall is important to be both an evangelist for your organization and a member who is invested in it, Michelle knew that these long sentences just wouldn’t work. Through review of existing strategic documents and one week of time spent with staff members, Michelle was able to distill new meaningful and memorable values. The output of brand values for the Ulman Cancer Fund is four core values that endearingly became known as the “Be Values”. Be Human, Be Better, Be Committed, Be Courageous. Not only were these easy to recall, they were fun and motivating to say and employees and outside stakeholders alike quickly took to them.

The work

New Values: 

Be Human
Be Better
Be Courageous
Be Committed

In addition to values, Michelle developed the organization’s core pillars. Pillars provide support for an organization’s vision or mission. They are helpful at an organization like the Ulman Cancer Fund for serving as an evaluation tool for existing and future programmatic planning. Again, knowing that recall is important for use, Michelle created “The GRID”, an acronym formed by the four pillars, which are actions the organization must take to create the change it seeks.

The sign of truly impactful strategic brand work is knowing that it can have lasting impact and be a strong foundation from which your brand will grow. In the years since these values and pillars were developed, employees at the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults have utilized these assets to continue to build programming and share their message. The two images above show the organization bringing even more stakeholders into the fold through a speaker series in Baltimore called “B’more on the Grid”, with events focused on each pillar and also an anniversary celebration of the organization’s “Be Day”, an entire day in 2017 spent honoring and communicating the brand’s values.

The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults - Pillars of Action

We are Giving/Getting Support
We are Raising Awareness
We are Inspiring Movement
We are Driving Change

Learn more about the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults