Brandywine Health Foundation releases 10th anniversary community report
As the editorial director of Twist’nShout Editorial and Design Services, since 2006 I have been working with Twist’nShout’s founder and design director, Amy Pollack, on various communication projects for the Brandywine Health Foundation. 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. Since it was launched in 2001, the foundation’s endowment has climbed from $19 million in 2001 to $26 million—while it 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.
Amy 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. We decided that since storytelling is at the core of all nonprofit messaging, we would tell the story of the foundation by utilizing: photos 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 supports; 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 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.
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 designed by Amy made some prominent (and playful!) appearances—including as the decoration for a celebratory cake.
Click here to see a PDF of the full report.