School Endowment Campaign

Gann Academy came to us to name, write, and design fundraising materials for their new endowment campaign. They already had a robust Tuition Assistance program and a healthy giving base, but had just formed a new long-term strategy to ensure the sustainability and growth of the school. In creating this forward-looking campaign, we had to be both aspirational and definitive, encouraging donors to “dream” with Gann Academy in addition to explaining concrete ways that their gifts would make a difference for generations to come. We collaborated with a wonderful writing partner, Sarah Valente, to weave together the right words and visuals.

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We began by conducting focus groups with parents and members of the donor community. This revealed favorable perceptions of Gann, along with opportunities to build on its strengths. We learned the nature of their transformative experience, which includes a balanced, intellectually confident, and ethically responsible approach that helps teens avoid some of the more egregious high school stressors. Families recognized the significance of the relationships formed between teachers and students and the leadership potential that grows from the school’s nurturing environment. All felt it was important to ensure the permanence of Gann as their legacy. These sentiments informed our approach to the campaign.

 

The first product we developed was a donor slide deck for peer-to-peer and school-to-parent sharing — perfect for the digital presentations that have become ubiquitous, and also quick and easy for the client to update as needed. The slide deck laid out the case for giving in a concise, accessible format.

 

We also designed a custom pocket folder with several inserts, which provided flexibility to tailor the message to a specific potential donor for in-person meetings, and the ability to update information easily and inexpensively. The inserts were designed as stand-alone one-pagers, and could also be sent as PDFs if needed.

 

Our partnership with Gann proved successful very quickly, helping the client to raise $5 million — 50% of their goal — in just 6 weeks!

 

Other Related Work:

NIF 40th Anniversary Legacy Campaign

Jewish Federation Let’s Talk Fundraising

National Cathedral School Annual Fund