Committee for Children
A customer marketing strategy built on lifecycle engagement, authentic storytelling, and data-driven retention - delivering over $20M in influenced revenue for a global EdTech nonprofit.
Committee for Children is a global nonprofit dedicated to advancing social-emotional learning (SEL) and human skills through evidence-based programs like Second Step. As Customer Marketing Manager, the work centered on one of the most meaningful intersections in B2B SaaS - helping educational institutions not just adopt a product, but fully integrate it into the lives of the students and educators they serve. The role demanded a deep understanding of the enterprise customer lifecycle, from onboarding through long-term retention, and required translating complex customer data into marketing strategies that felt personal, timely, and human. Every campaign, asset, and touchpoint was built with a single purpose: ensuring customers found continued value in programs that genuinely changed outcomes for children.
THE CHALLENGE: The core challenge was retention at scale. Sustaining engagement and demonstrating ongoing value to a diverse base of school districts, administrators, and curriculum decision-makers across multiple contract cycles was the daily mission. Enterprise education customers are mission-driven but budget-constrained, making renewal conversations high-stakes and deeply relational. At the same time, there was untapped expansion potential within existing accounts that required a more strategic, data-informed approach to uncover. The work called for marketing that could bridge the emotional resonance of the mission with the measurable outcomes superintendents and school leaders needed to justify continued investment.
THE SOLUTION: The approach began with building a customer marketing function grounded in lifecycle strategy, segmentation, and storytelling. Email programs were redesigned around behavioral triggers and customer milestones, resulting in open rates between 50–58% - well above industry benchmarks - by making every communication feel relevant rather than routine. A video testimonial program was developed and executed from the ground up, yielding 12 or more authentic customer stories that became core assets across renewal conversations, sales enablement, and activations.
Expansion efforts were driven by cross-functional alignment with the customer success and sales teams, resulting in a 32% lift in multi-license expansion by identifying high-fit accounts and equipping them with the right message at the right moment. The work was guided by a commitment to clarity while ensuring customers always understood the value they were receiving and the impact their investment was making for students.
THE RESULTS: The cumulative impact of the customer marketing strategy contributed to over $20 million in influenced retention revenue, positioning the function as a measurable driver of business growth, not just brand support. Customers who engaged with lifecycle touchpoints renewed at higher rates, expanded more frequently, and became active advocates for the program. The testimonial library and nurture infrastructure built during this tenure created lasting organizational assets that continued to serve the team well beyond individual campaigns. Most importantly, the work reflected a bridge between mission and margin, ensuring that an organization committed to the wellbeing of children could sustain the reach of its work. The results affirmed that when marketing is built around genuine customer success, retention becomes a natural outcome.
