Client: Brandywine Health Foundation
We have been working with the Brandywine Health Foundation since 2002 and created its first community report in 2005. Over the years, we have told many stories about the work that the foundation does to improve access to health care in the greater Coatesville area of Chester County, Pa. We have watched the foundation’s endowment climb from $19 million in 2001 to $26 million. Since its inception, it has awarded $10 million in direct grants and scholarships. Incredible accomplishments.
The challenge this 10th anniversary year was to present these achievements – along with the stories of the grantee organizations, those who they assist and the donors and volunteers who help to make it all happen – in a distinctive, succinct community report. We had just eight pages and two covers to do it all.
We had already created a 10th anniversary logo. At about the same time as the release of the report, the foundation was to unveil its new web site (created by Neptune Moon Design.) We decided that since storytelling is at the core of all nonprofit messaging, we would tell the story of the foundation by utilizing: photos (by Rick Davis) of the faces of those connected to the foundation; brief, inviting text that primarily focused on the highly personal, moving stories of the end-user beneficiaries of services the foundation suppports; a timeline depicting milestone accomplishments; and extended flaps on the covers with nuggets of impressive data.
Since the stories had to be brief due to space limitations, we invited readers to not only read expanded stories on each of the service beneficiaries on the new web site, but to also view video interviews (by Springhouse Films) of them— interviews that were based on the written stories we developed first through extensive reporting. The web site’s home page also features photos from the report and multiple links that help the visitor make the connection between the printed report and its electronic partner. To tie the package together even further, the report—mailed in late November to coincide with end-of-year charitable giving—arrived in an envelope that begins to tell the story using the same enticing sentence printed on the community report’s cover:
“Ten years ago, if you were under- or uninsured and you were sick or your teeth hurt…”
To integrate the theme even more, the foundation used the same prose as the initial sentence in the donation-request letter that accompanied the mailed community report.
Thank you to Gary Zenker, a member of the foundation’s marketing committee and marketing director at Rouse Chamberlin Homes who remarks “Neat, balanced, impactful. Amy’s work is among the best I have ever seen. Her ability to transparently communicate strong messages and themes graphically to the reader is the mark of a true professional. Whatever the volume of text she’s handed, she has the ability to make sure it all gets communicated in a way where the basic message sticks, and the reader finds it easy to seek out the details.”
In early December, the foundation hosted a party for those stakeholders deeply engaged with the organization–donors, grantees, board members, volunteers, school board members, government officials—the community report was displayed and distributed and the logo made some prominent (and playful!) appearances. (See photos below.)
How has your organization used various marketing channels to promote its message?
To see a pdf of the full report, click here: BHF 10 year report
Related post: Invitation to the foundation’s garden party celebrating the 10th anniversary
Thomas J. Belmont, Jr, Immediate Past Chairman of the Board and current Treasurer, addresses guests at a 10th anniversary party as Harry Lewis, Chairman of the Board, looks on.
