The Rhodes Trust at Oxford University

Our partnership with the San Francisco Foundation produced major donor communications that elevate equity in a way that engages a diversity
of donor types, inspiring them to join the Foundation in a new vision for the Bay Area.

Sector

Colleges & Universities

Deliverables

Fundraising Campaigns
Marketing Materials
Strategic Planning
Video Production

Equity belief, with no shared words.

Challenge

Like most community foundations, San Francisco Foundation faced a challenge—to energize donors to both see the institution as a vehicle for individual family giving, and stoke their commitment to uplift community impact, specifically around economic justice.

With a new leader and a bold vision for strategic systemic change, they needed their next fundraising campaign story to help donors of all types understand the need to ensure people have affordable homes, a living wage, and the chance to participate in shaping the policies affecting them—especially people living in historically excluded communities.

Hands holding a Rhodes Trust brochure with a white falcon over a colorful burst, titled Exponential Potential

Bay Area activism is the through-line.

Insight

A commitment to equity wasn’t enough to set San Francisco Foundation apart. Many nonprofits in the Bay Area share that same commitment. To truly stand out, the Foundation needed to highlight the changes made possible by an inspiring vision, simplify its language, and boldly invite others to join their campaign to make enormous but achievable systemic changes.

Rhodes Trust printed brochure shown as multiple spreads with the colorful falcon cover and interior photos

The campaign strategy, theme, and messages are wonderful work. It’s powerful and engaging and will really equip us to be great ambassadors for this campaign.

Dr. Elizabeth Kiss

CEO
, The Rhodes Trust at Oxford University

A campaign about shared values.

Journey

Through targeted key messages focusing on what values donors of all types share with an energizing design, Mission Minded partnered with San Francisco Foundation to develop “Collective Power”—a bold campaign theme that draws on a history of activism in the Bay Area while also reinforcing what is unique about the San Francisco Foundation: its ability to bring together a broad group of stakeholders to achieve something bigger than any one actor could achieve on its own.

Rhodes Trust booklet spread headed Potential Differences with people gathered in a sunlit room

Donor conversations that finally land.

Impact

The board—frontline fundraising ambassadors—loved having a case brochure they could use as a practical tool in donor conversations.

Our work together gave everyone at the Foundation a unified way to talk about shared goals around equity. It resonated with both new donors already passionate about the issue and traditional community foundation supporters who may be encountering these ideas for the first time.

Laptop and presentation slides showing the Rhodes Trust Exponential Potential deck with colorful falcon

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