Philanthropy: It’s Time to Speak Clearly

April 11, 2024

By: Peter Panepento

Foundations are losing the battle for Americans’ hearts and minds.

That’s the key takeaway from a new study by the Council on Foundations and the University of Florida’s Center for Public Interest Communications that is a must read for communications and PR professionals who work in or support philanthropy.

More importantly, it is a call to arms.

“Foundations have an opportunity to come together to build a shared narrative that can increase trust in the sector,” the study found. “A collective effort to develop this new voice for philanthropy is an essential endeavor for foundations to start now.”

For some of us, that work has already started.

Make More Possible Campaign - raising national awareness for community foundations in 2024.

Through our work with the Community Foundation Awareness Initiative, we’ve been building the framework for an awareness campaign that will introduce more Americans to the great work of community foundations.

It’s an introduction that is long overdue.

When you ask most people if they have any idea what a community foundation is — or what it stands for — you will likely be greeted by a lot of blank stares.

That’s because community foundations — despite more than a century of bringing donors together to make a positive difference in cities and towns in every corner of the U.S. — have not made a sustained investment in creating a cohesive brand.

To some degree, that’s understandable, given their intensely local missions. In fact, there’s a common saying in the field that “if you’ve met one community foundation, you’ve met one community foundation.”

But the truth is that while community foundations come in all shapes and sizes and are as unique as the diverse communities they serve, they also have a shared DNA.

They are built around the idea that when people in a community come together to pool their resources around a collective goal, they can achieve more.

In some communities, that means coming together to support educational programs, affordable housing, and job training programs. In others, it means seeding arts institutions or conservation efforts. In still others, community foundations and their donors are working to address Black maternal health and supporting newly-arrived refugees.

But regardless of what they prioritize as individual organizations, together they are about making more possible in their communities through the power of collective giving.

And, very soon, that message will start ringing out from sea to shining sea.

This summer, we’ll be launching Make More Possible — a national awareness campaign for community foundations.

The campaign, which our agency has been developing on behalf of the CFAI, will debut in the home markets of 25 community foundations.

These pilot organizations will invest in running digital, print, social media, and radio ads in their communities. Some will erect billboards and create branded swag.

At the same time, the CFAI will be launching a corresponding national campaign.

Together, we’ll be using a focus-group tested creative concept that is designed to appeal to civic-minded adults who care about their communities but who have not previously engaged with a community foundation.

We’re not quite ready for the big reveal.

But we’re excited to share it with our community of social good communicators.

Since Turn Two’s founding, we’ve been on a journey to help social good organizations make a bigger impact in their communities through powerful storytelling and communications.

Make More Possible marks an important step forward in that journey.

By bringing together more than two dozen foundations around a single campaign, we have an opportunity to truly build a brand for an important, but often overlooked, part of American philanthropy.

In turn, we hope we can begin to help our field win the hearts and minds of those who believe that America is stronger when we invest together in the communities we call home.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can get involved in the campaign, feel free to drop me a line.