Case Study: High Speed Rail Alliance

“Every year our average donor age gets one year older…”

The Challenge

The High Speed Rail Alliance was facing a common dilemma: They wanted to learn how to connect with their potential younger audience and how best to cultivate them without alienating their current, faithful donors.

Every year the HSRA’s average donor base was getting older - one year older—which meant their community wasn’t growing in a sustainable way. While they had tried some of the trends to engage younger followers and donors, they didn’t know enough about the audience. Who were they and how could HSRA connect with their motivations to support faster train transportation in the U.S.?


The Approach

Through our initial audit research, Emily discovered that HRSA’s Twitter/X account had many followers younger than the average donor, but these followers did not engage beyond the platform. By conducting a survey screener, Emily pulled data about a specific representation of people from the following to learn their habits, language, and motivations around high-speed rail.

Using these interviews, she created personas and specific wording or language that connected the organization directly to their younger donors with engagement strategies that kept the conversation going beyond a social media follow!

What We Accomplished

• Developed representative descriptions of ideal audience members to guide focused and relevant communications and campaigns to invite a younger audience to become the next generation of supporters and members

• Understood the differences in language and motivation between current and younger donors and how to uniquely tailor content to meet the spectrum of needs in audiences 

• Gave leaders confidence with a practical how-to so the work of HSRA can continue for generations to come