Shared Foundation Identity and Marketing

Community Foundation Alliance

Opportunity

The Community Foundation Alliance is a network of nine community foundations in southwestern Indiana, supported by a central administrative office. While each community foundation serves its own county—which vary in size and demographic—they all work to promote philanthropy, build endowment and improve wellbeing in their local communities. The Alliance sought a way to harness the strengths of all nine foundations and leverage their collective impact for the betterment of philanthropy throughout the region.

Approach

Williams Group facilitated a series of discussions and conducted market research with the Alliance’s target audiences to understand each of nine unique communities—and to discover the common values they saw between their community foundations.

In collaboration with a representative group of stakeholders, Wg created a tiered messaging platform providing each affiliated organization with consistent language, along with a set of communication plans containing strategy, content and tools to support “3 Steps in 3 Months.” Each simple plan was designed to make consistent, effective communications easy and attainable for community foundations of all sizes and capacities.

Wg also created a new brand identity system to visually unite each foundation within the Alliance, while preserving their individual county names for greater recognition and credibility within their communities.

alternate logo concepts

Results

Today a comprehensive, cohesive visual identity system and style guide supports collective marketing ventures as well as each local community foundation. New logos, business cards and letterheads connect the Alliance and affiliated organizations while providing important local identity desired in local communities. All materials are designed for efficient customization and effective use in each location.