The History

The Community Foundation of Sarasota County was founded in 1979 as a resource for people interested in making a charitable impact on the community. The foundation has assets of over $273 million in more than 1,200 charitable funds. Over the years,the Community Foundation has invested more than $145 million into the community through grants and scholarships.

The Opportunity

In a generous community like Sarasota, there are vast opportunities to attract donors; you just need to know how to reach them. In 2014, the Community Foundation realized they needed to strengthen their brand and better communicate with prospective donors and affirm the positive results of existing donors’ efforts. They turned to MagnifyGood for help.

The Solution

We interviewed dozens of board members and conducted numerous focus groups with prospective donors to get to the heart of the Community Foundation brand. We found that donors wanted to see the impact of their contributions through the difference they were making in the community. We also discovered that the Community Foundation’s strength is their compassion and active listening to the wants and needs of donors. We used these insights to build the Be the One campaign, a new creative campaign for external audiences that focused on the difference individual donors can make in the community by partnering with the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.

The GOOD

Through an extensive collaborative process, MagnifyGood helped the Community Foundation understand how to maximize budgets, take a more strategic approach to sponsorships and advertising, and leverage community platforms to share their story and the stories of their donors. We fostered alignment among internal audiences and strengthened their brand awareness.