Our Work: The Foundation for New Hampshire Community Colleges
Branding Case Study: Branding a foundation and telling alumni stories
CLIENT: The Foundation for New Hampshire Community Colleges
We helped the Foundation for New Hampshire Community Colleges build a brand, launch a website, develop alumni profiles and begin fundraising to help future students afford college. All of these components were necessary prior to their first ever annual campaign with 25,000 alumni.
What We Did
- Branding and logo design
- Website design
- Story development, alumni profiles
- Public relations
- Communications
- Gift to the Class of 2021
Logo design and branding a foundation
The key to branding a foundation lies in how it supports its origins. We took the Foundation team through the complete branding process including logo design, tagline creation and core messaging. The main goal was to create a unique brand that offered reference to the Community College System of New Hampshire. By incorporating the CCSNH “swoosh” into the design and adding a warm yellow gradient, we were able to achieve this. Development of the tagline “Give Opportunity” supports the Foundation mission and delivers a clear promise to donors and those seeking tuition assistance and scholarships.
Website design
It was important that the Foundation establish its own web presence independent of the Community College System, but also make it easy to access donation opportunities for each of the seven community colleges. By integrating the Foundation’s philanthropy software BlackBaud, the Foundation team is able to seamlessly manage donations independent of us. The informative WordPress website is easy to update within the Elementor website builder and provides flexibility for adding new pages and sections..
Developing alumni stories
Working with the seven community colleges, we helped identify alumni, interview them and craft compelling stories about how their community college experience helped them advance personally and professionally.
Communications and public relations
Cookson Communications worked closely with staff, the Foundation Board and college leadership to craft messaging that demonstrated that giving to the Foundation is a great way to “give opportunity to current and future students pursuing their dream of a college degree.”
Gift to the Class of 2021
The Foundation needed help with a campaign to encourage 2020 high school graduates to stay engaged in education and take a free class at a community college. We helped this effort by branding a landing page and developing a multi-faceted plan to leverage PR, social media and work with the seven community colleges and two foundations to help lead the effort. What resulted was not only awareness to the campaign and the NH’s community colleges but also an increase in students.
The team at Cookson Communications has been a true partner for the Foundation helping us refine our brand and messaging. This collaboration has allowed our Foundation staff to stay focused on fundraising to support our mission of helping the seven colleges educate and train a skilled workforce.
