In a city of millions, community can still be hard to find. For nearly 175 years, the YMCA of Greater New York has provided it. Across 24 branches and dozens of offsite locations in all five boroughs, the Y brings New Yorkers together across backgrounds, neighborhoods and generations. But while many knew the Y for pools, gyms and summer camps, fewer understood the breadth of its community impact as a nonprofit -- from youth mentorship and college pathways to childcare, food assistance, job training, support for New Americans and places for older adults to connect.
At a moment of renewed conversation around the importance of "third spaces" and community infrastructure, the Y needed New Yorkers to see an iconic institution differently, not simply as somewhere to work out, but as somewhere to belong.
Our idea was It Starts Inside. "Inside" captured both the confidence, connection and purpose people discover within themselves, as well as the physical Y locations where those transformations begin.
Our goal was to create the YMCA of Greater New York's first fully integrated brand platform, one capable of building a stronger understanding of the Y's role in New York while inspiring people to participate in the community around it, and in turn, donate and help drive fundraising efforts to help the Y continue to create community for New Yorkers, while also giving them the space, support and opportunity to create that community together.
If you've made the decision to live in New York, you already have what it takes to make it. Sometimes you just need somewhere to find it. That insight became the creative foundation of It Starts Inside.
Rather than explain the Y through a list of services, we wanted to show what its community makes possible. The Y would never be the hero of someone's story, it would be the place where New Yorkers find the confidence, connections, opportunities and people that help them become the hero of their own.
The creative drew from real stories across the YMCA of Greater New York community, friendships formed, confidence found and futures changed. One film was inspired by a Bronx teenager who initially came to the Y to play basketball with friends, found mentorship through its Rowe Scholars program and ultimately earned a college scholarship.
Accompany Creative translated these stories into a creative world that felt unmistakably New York. A 60-second hero film weaved together interconnected lives across the city, while three character-led 30-second films explored confidence, connection and purpose across generations. Local actors appeared alongside community members and Y staff, many with personal connections to the organization. Filming moved beyond Y facilities into New York's beaches, parks, sidewalks and neighborhood streets, making the city and its people central characters in the work.
It Starts Inside became the YMCA of Greater New York's first fully integrated brand campaign, uniting storytelling, marketing, community engagement and fundraising through one idea. The platform extended across high-impact OOH, premium video, CTV and broadcast, paid social, programmatic media and direct partnerships, before moving closer to individual communities through email, direct mail, organic social, in-branch digital screens, posters and flyers.
That citywide-to-local architecture was crucial. Fundraising executions localized the campaign by branch, asking New Yorkers to support programs in their own communities. Direct mail and branch materials made giving tangible. Donations helped local families access childcare, youth development and community programs, while a citywide challenge gave individual Y communities a shared reason to participate.
One creative platform could therefore do two things simultaneously. Tell a unified story about what the Y means to New York City, while giving neighborhoods across the five boroughs ownership of it.
It Starts Inside set out to strengthen New Yorkers' connection to the Y and turn that connection into community participation. The response demonstrated that people saw the message, and more importantly when it comes to impact, they acted on it.
Across the 2026 Y Community Week campaign, participation increased 66% compared to the previous year, while revenue increased 28%. On Y Day of Giving itself, the response accelerated dramatically: participation increased 156% year over year and revenue increased 170%.
The campaign also surpassed its fundraising target, reaching 115% of goal, while donor participation reached 161% of goal across the campaign period.
But for a campaign built around community, the most meaningful result happened at the neighborhood level.
The Y challenged its 24 branches to mobilize their individual communities around giving. Twenty-two of 24 branches met their fundraising goals, unlocking additional funding for their local annual campaigns. Across those branches, gifts of $10 or more reached 142% of the campaign's 1,000-gift benchmark.
The result was more than a successful fundraising moment. A citywide brand platform became a mechanism for local participation, translating a message about belonging into thousands of individual acts of support.
It Starts Inside helped remind New Yorkers what the Y has quietly been for nearly 175 years: a place where a city of individuals becomes a community and will serve as the springboard an expanded, multi-tier campaign for 2027 to celebrate the 175th anniversary.
