How do you restore relevance to a legacy membership organisation?
Challenge
Not-for-profit veteran support organisation RSL NSW had been shrinking for decades, with a declining and ageing membership, and a brand perception challenge.
Membership had fallen every year since 1982, to a low just below 20,000. Only 9% of members were under 55 and the average age was 78. A third were older than the average Australian life expectancy, and fewer than 1,000 members were younger than 40.
Our approach
We established and executed a change and transformation strategy, focused on raising awareness of RSL NSW as well as its relevance to veterans and their families. This included the following steps:
- A review of the stakeholders we needed to engage, identifying the needs, pain points and triggers for each.
- Mapping perceptions of RSL NSW across these different stakeholder groups, with a focus on how existing members felt about transforming a very established organisation
- Establishing the case for change with internal stakeholders and members so they were well positioned to support the change and transformation agenda.
- Developed an external communications and marketing approach to demonstrate the importance of RSL NSW to all target stakeholder groups: veterans of all ages, their families and the broader community.
This strategy has been highly successful, and we continue to work alongside RSL NSW to drive growth, maintain member engagement and manage difficult issues.
Ongoing reputation building and management activity
We launched an award-winning editorial brand, and built internal, member and external campaigns around high-profile ambassadors and younger veterans. To build and maintain RSL NSW’s reputation as a youthful, relevant charity and community for veterans and their families, we:
- Relaunched RSL NSW’s traditional print magazine as a multimedia editorial brand with audience-led channels and formats
- Created clear and compelling narratives, and briefed key stakeholders and spokespeople
- Crafted a media approach to secure on-message tier-one coverage featuring younger veterans and their families
- Activated media visits and opportunities, and coordinated interviews for key spokespeople with leading print, online and broadcast outlets
- Created multimedia press kits featuring punchy radio grabs and photoshoot images
- Alongside proactive media and always-on content, played a key role in RSL NSW’s issues management
“The Mahlab team immediatelyunderstood the challengewe were facing and put forward a strategic approach that deliveredresults well above our expectations.”
Trina Constable, Head of Communications,
Marketing and Membership, RSL NSW
The strategy has delivered significant impact for RSL NSW and played a key role in futureproofing the organisation.
After four decades of membership decline, a focused change and transformation strategy contributed to a 62% increase between 2019 and 2026, and a 2,400% increase in members aged 20–29. It played a key role in building and protecting RSL NSW’s reputation, with proactive media activity in 2025 delivering an estimated reach of 253 million.
These achievements were further recognised by multiple industry accolades:
Mumbrella Publish Awards 2022: Association or Member Organisation Publication of the Year
CPRA Golden Target Awards 2022: Platinum Award for Excellence in Measurement and Evaluation, Integrated Marketing and Communication Campaign of the Year, Media Relations Campaign of the Year
IABC 2024: Media Relations Award of Merit