The Chicago Lighthouse Shines a Light on Human Potential for 120th Anniversary

Aug. 27, 2026

The Chicago Lighthouse has launched “Lighting Up Human Potential,” an organization-wide brand platform and integrated campaign developed with Brand Imagination Group (BiG). Introduced as the nonprofit marks its 120th year, the work brings the breadth of its mission under one clear idea designed to build awareness, deepen understanding and expand donor support.

Developed with BiG, the strategic idea, verbal platform and visual system unify The Chicago Lighthouse’s extensive work across vision care, education, employment, assistive technology, independent living and social services. The campaign also includes a business-to-business effort highlighting The Chicago Lighthouse’s social business enterprises. 

Designed to move audiences from awareness to action, the campaign includes a 30-second brand anthem that features real Chicago Lighthouse clients achieving their fullest potential. The anthem campaign will be supplemented by a donor-focused effort that highlights individual stories, giving audiences clear and compelling reasons to care, engage and contribute. Beyond video, a phased content library extends the campaign through eight digital display and banner executions, Facebook and Instagram in-feed and Story units, and Meta carousels, with donation calls to action and recurring-gift appeals.

Across the campaign, the creative connects giving to making an impact across an entire lifetime, not just a single program or moment of need. Stories span childhood learning and mobility, literacy and technology, employment and career growth, veterans services, family life and independence, linking tangible outcomes to the larger promise of "Lighting Up Human Potential."

Barry Krause, founder and CEO of BiG said:

“This was bigger than a simple awareness film or fundraising campaign. The Lighthouse needed one unifying idea to carry 120 years of impact forward. ‘Lighting Up Human Potential’ highlights the organization’s wide range of services and gives people a compelling reason to care and give."

 

The campaign’s 30-second brand anthem serves as its emotional centerpiece, moving through education, employment, vision care, assistive technology, independent living, family and community. It opens with a young girl navigating a colorful playground with a white cane as “A film about human potential” appears with Braille dots beneath it. Viewers then see people across generations at work, learning, using technology and moving confidently through their communities. The film closes over the Chicago skyline with tagline “The Chicago Lighthouse. Lighting Up Human Potential.”

Two donor films focus that broader message on individual lives. The first, featuring Tommy, shows more personally how The Chicago Lighthouse’s services and support can expand independence and opportunity. A companion story features Peter, a vice president at The Lighthouse who has benefitted from its programs since he was a child, connecting the “Lighting Up Human Potential” promise directly to a lifetime of donor impact.

BiG also created a B2B campaign for Lighthouse Enterprises, The Chicago Lighthouse’s social business enterprise contact centers. Built around “Light Up Your Contact Center,” a separate 30-second film and digital campaign target organizations seeking to enhance their contact-center services while reinforcing the connection to The Chicago Lighthouse’s employment and social enterprise mission. The work highlights Lighthouse Enterprises’ scale, which includes 650 trained agents handling more than 4 million callers a year alongside a superior customer-service experience centered on listening, empathy and efficiency.

Dr. Janet P. Szlyk, President and CEO of The Chicago Lighthouse said:

“BiG helped us bring the full Chicago Lighthouse story together in a way that is clear, human and true to who we are. The platform shows donors how their support creates opportunity, independence and progress across a lifetime. The Lighthouse Enterprises campaign shows the power of active listening and responding and a team dedicated to delighting every caller.”

 

Since 1906, The Chicago Lighthouse has provided comprehensive social services for people who are blind, visually impaired or disabled, as well as veterans. Today, the organization serves more than 50,000 people each year through programs spanning vision care, education, employment and training, assistive technology, independent living and social enterprise.

The donor and Lighthouse Enterprises campaigns put one brand platform to work against two distinct objectives: engagement and contributions for The Chicago Lighthouse, and business leads for Lighthouse Enterprises. The planned media rollout, developed by KSM, spans connected and linear television, programmatic display and paid social, with audience-specific activity on Meta and LinkedIn.