ACLU Case Study: Empowering Influencer Advocacy for the Know Your Rights Campaign
The Challenge: Scaling Influencer Impact During a Critical Moment for Civil Liberties
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has long been at the forefront of defending constitutional rights through its landmark Know Your Rights (KYR) campaign—a cornerstone initiative that educates and empowers individuals to understand and assert their civil liberties. As the political landscape of 2025 brought heightened urgency around immigration enforcement, LGBTQ+ protections, and free speech rights, the ACLU needed to rapidly expand the reach of its KYR messaging through influencer partnerships.
The challenge was multifaceted: the ACLU’s influencer program lacked a centralized content hub to equip creators with timely, on-brand assets for both evergreen education and rapid response moments. The organization needed a strategic partner who could build the infrastructure for a scalable influencer content hub—and ensure that the resulting strategy and tools would be durable enough for any team member to pick up and execute, regardless of evolving internal priorities or team structures.
Our Solution: Strategic Infrastructure & Content Hub Development for Influencer Activation
18 Coffees partnered with the ACLU to design, develop, and deliver a comprehensive influencer content hub strategy for the Know Your Rights campaign. Our engagement spanned discovery, strategy, implementation planning, and content creation—building the foundation for the ACLU to activate influencers at scale during one of the most consequential periods for civil rights advocacy.
We began with a deep discovery phase, conducting interviews with key internal stakeholders across the ACLU’s influencer, design, and content teams to assess existing workflows, identify opportunity areas, and develop a strategic hypothesis for the content hub. As the engagement progressed, we ensured that every deliverable was designed to stand on its own—serving as a self-contained strategic blueprint that would empower any current or future team member to execute the influencer strategy without a learning curve.
Our Community Partners delivered a suite of strategic assets designed for immediate use and long-term scalability.
Key Services Delivered:
Discovery & Program Assessment
Content Hub Strategy & Design
Implementation Planning with Milestones & RACI Framework
Influencer Identification & Vetting Framework
Sample Content Creation for Priority KYR Issues
Strategic Communications & Messaging Guidance
Knowledge Transfer & Institutional Capacity Building
What We Delivered: A Turnkey Blueprint for Influencer-Powered Advocacy
18 Coffees delivered a comprehensive suite of strategic documents and tools that empowered the ACLU to operationalize their influencer content hub for the Know Your Rights campaign:
Discovery Assessment Deck: A detailed evaluation of the ACLU’s influencer programs, internal workflows, and KYR campaign infrastructure, with strategic opportunity areas and recommendations for optimization.
Content Hub Strategy & Design: A structured framework outlining the hub’s objectives, content architecture, and roadmap—including a phased timeline aligned with key moments such as Supreme Court decisions.
Implementation Plan: A comprehensive action plan detailing milestones, responsibilities, and workflows for building and launching the hub, from technical setup through full influencer rollout.
Influencer Identification & Vetting Checklist: A systematic framework for identifying, segmenting, and evaluating potential influencer partners across reach tiers, platforms, KYR topic verticals, and alignment with ACLU values.
Recommended Influencer Database: A curated list of recommended influencer partners across priority issue areas including immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, voting, disability rights, and civic engagement.
Sample Content for Priority Issues: Ready-to-use messaging, talking points, and calls to action for the influencer hub’s initial content, designed to be deployed by creators across social platforms.
Tangible Impact: Equipping a Civil Liberties Leader for Scalable Influencer Advocacy
Our strategic deliverables provided the organization with a complete, implementation-ready blueprint—built for durability, so the ACLU’s team could move forward with confidence at any point.
The influencer content hub framework gave the ACLU a centralized system for equipping creators with timely, accurate, and on-brand Know Your Rights content—spanning evergreen educational materials and rapid response guidance for moments like Supreme Court decisions and executive actions on immigration. The influencer vetting framework and curated database provided the team with a scalable pipeline of mission-aligned creators across platforms, issue areas, and audience demographics.
By designing every deliverable to be self-sustaining and transferable, 18 Coffees built institutional capacity that extends well beyond the engagement itself. The ACLU now has the strategic infrastructure to onboard new team members, scale influencer activations, and respond to emerging civil liberties moments—ensuring that the Know Your Rights campaign continues to educate and empower millions of Americans when it matters most.
Project Details:
Project Length: 4 Months
Client Location: United States (virtual)
Industry: Nonprofit / Social Impact
Client Type: Large Nonprofit
Looking for a strategic partner to amplify your organization’s social impact through influencer engagement and digital advocacy? Contact us to explore how our Strategic Communications & Marketing expertise can help your mission reach new audiences.
AT A GLANCE
Project Length: 4 Months
Client Location: United States (virtual)
Industry: Nonprofit / Social Impact
Client Type: Large Nonprofit
Services Delivered: Strategic Communications & Marketing, Content Strategy, Influencer Strategy, Implementation Planning, Institutional Capacity Building
