The Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation is the nonpartisan 501(c)3 nonprofit charged by Congress to design and build a monument on the National Mall to honor the suffragists who fought for women’s right to vote, catalyzed a movement for change, and transformed American democracy.
In the wake of Congress signing into law that the Monument will be built, Teal partnered with the Foundation to give their brand and website a full revamp from the ground up to help secure support and funding to make it a reality. This partnership was a pro-bono donation from Teal, combined with a financial donation from Jess Teal. As a woman-owned and woman-led organization, we are passionate about women’s equality, and have been thrilled to be a part of this historic project.
In order to truly do justice to this monumental challenge, we spent months thoroughly immersing ourselves in the history of the movement. A group of Tealers were able to tour the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument and directly study the vast amount of suffragist artifacts that remain undisplayed to the public. We gathered a large library of historical references from the time period to ground our visual language. And we learned directly from the Foundation’s leaders, who are experts on the movement’s history.
The brand messaging framework, including the values listed above, is the foundation upon which all other parts of the project rest. Extensive discovery and historical research helped us develop a messaging framework that provides not only powerful, inspirational language for supporters to rally around, but also clarity for the Foundation itself as it hones in on its mission, values, and key differentiators.
The creative story behind our visual brand captures the collective strength of the women’s suffrage movement, weaving together the past, present, and future, and is full of historical references. The bold color palette was inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement’s use of purple, yellow, and white. Authentic historical photographs from the nation’s leading cultural institutions put faces to the names of the suffrage movement. FCH Zitkála-Šá, the bespoke primary typeface created by first-generation Belizean-American artist and designer, Schessa Grant (they/them), specifically for this project, is inspired by the Art Nouveau style commonly seen on posters and flyers from the American Women’s Suffrage Movement.
For more information about the meaning behind the visual brand, visit the Foundation’s website.
FCH Zitkála is both soft and sharp, like the well-dressed suffragists who strategized and organized for the vote almost 100 years ago. The letterforms are inspired by their hand lettering and the art nouveau aesthetics concurrent with their movement. Working on this has given me a renewed gratitude and re-ignited flame for the challenges ahead. The namesake of the typeface is Zitkála-Sá (1876-1938), a Yankton Dakota writer, musician, and activist who worked tirelessly to see Native Americans be counted as voting citizens. We must remember her story too.
The website for the Foundation at this stage in its development is focused on telling the story of the Movement, the Monument, and the Foundation in a way that gets supporters excited. The main task of the website is to hit home the message that the time for this Monument has come — but it won’t be made a reality without public support. In keeping with the visual brand and overarching strategy, it is full of historical photographs and storytelling about the Movement. It’s meant to inspire a desire to get involved in this historic achievement, recognizing the dedication of all those who persevered to finally feature women’s contributions to American democracy on the National Mall.
The new website is everything and what you all have done for the project is truly transformative. And what you've done for women, this is how women deserve to be seen.
For a brand and website of this scale and ambition, getting the word out about the launch is critical. We supported the launch with a comprehensive marketing strategy, focused on email and social tactics to get new eyes on the site and inspire donations. The sleek, modern, and historically rooted brand and website make it easy to inspire potential donors with the gravity of this moment, and get them excited about the opportunity to make history by supporting this monument.
I had the privilege of seeing the musical SUFFs in my early days of working on this project, and one line keeps coming back to me: "I want my great granddaughters to know I was here." Every day working to bring this monument to life, I know we're helping make history. We're ensuring little girls of future generations will KNOW—they'll see a physical manifestation of the tireless work done by the women before them. It's an honor to do my small part in that lineage.
In February 2026, we worked with the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation to quickly launch a fun mission-driven fundraising campaign. Employing both a bit of mystery and low-cost easy-to-fulfill digital premium to entice donors to give, we successfully turned a usually quiet month into one of the organization’s top performing fundraising months of all time.
We find the best ideas often bubble up from casual conversations with our clients, and this was no exception. In the last week of January we were waiting for everyone to join our weekly check-in call, and we got to chatting about the fun Valentine’s decorations one of our clients had put up. She said “Did you know Valentine’s Day is actually connected to suffrage history?”… and we all dove down a wonderful rabbit hole. Mere minutes later we had conceived a suffrage valentine fundraising campaign and were deep in the details of campaign logistics and feasibility for a launch the following Monday (Feb 2).
We worked with the Women’s Monument team to make this campaign launch as efficient and nimble as possible. The entire campaign was built around a single graphic – a custom suffrage valentine’s card, which was offered to all donors who gave throughout the month of February. We launched the campaign with just a few key touchpoints:
Within the first hour of the campaign launch email going out, Women’s Monument was on track to have their biggest fundraising day since end-of-year, and we knew it was time to expand the campaign.
Throughout the month of February, we followed the data and continued to expand the Suffrage Valentine’s campaign as the Women’s Monument audience kept engaging. Ultimately, the campaign included:
Not only did we see strong engagement throughout the campaign, driving 8.34% of all unique website visitors in the month of February and a 98% increase in net follower growth on Instagram (compared to January) , it was a very successful fundraising mechanism.
Rebuilding the Open Path platform that helps people access affordable mental health care in the U.S. and Canada.
The part where we ask you to cough up your email. So we can discuss all the amazing things we’re gonna do together. No pressure. Really.
