International (MNN) – Bethany Christian Services is rebranding their organization to reflect a broader outlook of their work and to help in the expansion and understanding of their programs with partners and beneficiaries.
“We’ve had the same materials around for years,” Bethany’s President Chris Palusky says.
“People, they’ve known us for domestic infant adoption… but people don’t seem to know about just these other areas that we have been working in. Domestic infant adoption is about 13 percent of our work. But working with refugees is about 40 percent of our work; working in the foster care [and] in the foster care adoption space is over 40 percent of our work.”
Rebranding
One of Bethany’s goals in rebranding their organization is to give a better picture of their work.
To do that, they first redesigned their logo. Their new logo is now a big ‘B’ with a cross as a part of it.
(Photo courtesy of Bethany Christian Services via Facebook)
Palusky says the idea that fueled this logo was to make it identifiable and easier to point beneficiaries in the right direction while Bethany workers are in the field assisting them.
“People could say, ‘Go to the big ‘B’ with the cross in it,’” Palusky says.
Bethany has also revamped their website to better reflect the number of programs they have and the different ways volunteers can get involved — whether it’s through praying, giving, refugee work, foster care, or adoption.
“But there’s so much more,” Palusky says.
“So, one of the reasons that we’re going through this rebrand is to say this is what Bethany is about. We are the gritty Christians. We always have been and we always will be. And, we’re in the middle of the mess. We’re in the middle of the foster care crisis. We’re in the middle of the unaccompanied minor crisis, and we’re in the middle of the global refugee crisis.
“We’re in the middle of the mess as the gritty Christians because that’s where we believe Christ would want us to be.”
In the Midst of the Mess
Bethany is in their 75th year and the organization has grown immensely. Marguerite Bonnema and Mary DeBoer originally founded Bethany in 1944. Palusky says they are described as being tough as nails.
They first assisted one child, then two, then three, and the number of children continued to grow, as did the number of their programs. As they grew, they kept in mind that family is the solution.
(Photo courtesy of Bethany Christian Services via Facebook)
Bethany has maintained Bonnema and Deboer’s mentality of ‘being in the mess,’ working with the most vulnerable people in the world, and keeping families together.
With the organization’s rebrand, Bethany wants to ensure that their materials, their approach, and their future work consistently reflect this to partners and beneficiaries, as well as the different fields they work in and plan to work in.
Palusky says alongside the media changes of their logo and website, Bethany will begin to change the way they speak about their programs.
“You’re going to see us talking more about how we’re working in these difficult places — be it domestically, be it on the border, or be it internationally…. I think you’ll see more of the breadth of what we’re doing, rather than just one service line.”
Bethany will continue expanding their work with in-country adoptions, in-country foster care, and working with unaccompanied refugee minors domestically and internationally.
Visit Bethany’s new website and find ways you can get involved on a local or global scale today. Get started here.
Header photo courtesy of Bethany Christian Services.
