Hastings Public Schools Foundation
Ingenuity works with staff of the Hastings Public Schools Foundation to develop a theme, content and impactful design for the foundation’s annual newsletter. The newsletter highlights how annual “What If” grants help teachers and students advance courses of study and other skills. The goal of the newsletter is communication to all foundation stakeholders and celebration of grantee achievements — reporting on impacts of the annual grants and encouraging specific ways to contribute to the foundation throughout the year.
Marketing Strategy
Ingenuity’s communications and design consultants advise on editorial strategy, interviewing and ghostwriting, design and production of the newsletter — coming up with a theme for each annual issue that ties all the stories together. The foundation shares grant awards, and we select two to three for story development. We manage the timeline and request photos and subjects to interview at the school district or among volunteers. During the design phase, we suggest layouts to typically produce a 12-page newsletter.
Results
Over several years of Ingenuity’s involvement in the redesigned newsletter, the Foundation has experienced greater engagement with the print newsletter mailing by board members and the community. These powerful stories are also archived on the Foundation website to show a clear history of donor impact. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we discussed whether or not the foundation should publish a newsletter since many of the events or activities planned with the 2019-2020 district grants could not happen. However, we advised this great opportunity to showcase positive work that teachers and staff were accomplishing even with far fewer grants awarded in spring 2020. The result was a smaller, 8-page newsletter sent out in November 2020 around Thanksgiving with big thanks to donors and the community for their ongoing support. It promoted the foundation’s new mini grant program (in addition to What If grants) and offered key stories of triumph over adversity at Hastings Public Schools.