Child Poverty Action Lab
Making a New Organization Easy to Understand
Brand, messaging, and website for a new kind of place-based organization in Dallas, in an ongoing partnership since CPAL's launch in 2018.
The challenge
CPAL launched in 2018 as a new kind of place-based organization in Dallas. A new kind of organization needed a brand and website that could explain a new kind of strategy simply: how CPAL takes a problem as seemingly intractable as child poverty, breaks it into smaller pieces, and tackles each one. The hardest part was the breadth of the work. CPAL's efforts span housing, criminal justice, maternal health, and more, and without a clear frame it can look like the organization does everything.
What we did
I have led CPAL's brand and communications since its launch:
- Brand, communications, and website strategy
- Naming, logo, and visual identity
- Messaging, including the "big bets" framework that shows how each area of work connects to reducing child poverty
- Website sitemap, design, copy, and development
I built CPAL's original website in Squarespace, then oversaw strategy and design for its WordPress site. After CPAL's tech team moved the site to Webflow, I took over managing site updates there.
Who it was for
Funders first, partners second, with the goal of moving both to get involved, or more invested.
Results
- Our work together led to transformative achievements in Dallas, including the fastest-declining child poverty rate in the country, increased participation in public benefits programs, and redirection of over $100 million in federal funds.
- Increased participation in WIC for the first time since 2017, after our communications and training materials supported CPAL's work with Texas Health and Human Services and the Dallas WIC office.
- A brand and website for Trust Her, CPAL's maternal health program, that helped enable CPAL to raise $10M to support contraceptive access at clinics across Dallas.
Where CPAL is now
The identity created at launch in 2018 is still in use today. It has carried CPAL through eight years of growth, as the organization drew national attention and national funders and came to be seen as a model for place-based work. This is context for the brand's staying power, not a result the brand caused.
- Since CPAL's founding, Dallas has reduced child poverty faster than any other major U.S. city.
- CPAL and The Commit Partnership launched Opportunity 2040, a shared community investment plan to halve the number of Dallas County children living in poverty and double the number of young adults earning a living wage by 2040. The plan raised $120M in partnership with Blue Meridian Partners (Dallas Innovates, November 2023).
- I worked on CPAL's 2024 Evictions in Dallas County report (published June 2026). It highlights how eviction filings vary widely across a county, using data visualizations and interactive charts to tell the story.
What they said
We would not have been able to build this engine for change with such momentum right out of the gate without Lane. I especially rely on her to rein in my many ideas and to take really complex information and make it simple.
Alan Cohen, Founder and CEO, Child Poverty Action Lab
Why it matters for place-based work
- The same core problem many place-based organizations have: explaining a place-based model to funders simply.
- A "big bets" frame that shows how neighborhoods, a backbone team, and partners fit together.
- Experience across Squarespace, WordPress, and Webflow.
- An eight-year relationship, not a one-off project.