Northern Indiana Community Foundation, Inc. (NICF) serves the community foundations of Starke, Fulton and Miami counties in Indiana to maximize investment benefits and provide cost-efficiencies, thus allowing gifts to do more for the counties to which they are given. NICF asked MillerWhite to assist in creating a visual identity and pledge/tagline to increase recognition of its efforts for its audiences and to unite the three counties under one brand.

MillerWhite utilized its Unlocking the Power of Your Pledge® exercise to help NICF develop an active pledge that expressed its desire to increase giving and enhance charitable resources to benefit its communities. The pledge that was adopted was, “We will grow all charitable giving, cultivating permanent resources and harvesting positive community growth,” with the resulting tagline, “Where Giving Grows.” From this exercise, the logo – with the flower symbol representing growth – was created. A three-color identification system gave each county’s foundation a different color identity and incorporated all three into the flower. MillerWhite developed a new web site, stationery, collateral and annual report for the foundation that incorporated the new look and color system.

To define a new and encompassing culture for the boards and staff of the three foundations, MillerWhite provided a Message and Action Guidelines (MAG) document. It listed transitional phrases for often-used terms, for example, a “donor” was to be referred to as a “caring community member” and “soliciting donations” would instead be “cultivating gifts.” The MAG listed benefits provided by the foundation for its donors, community and nonprofit organizations, as well as messaging for staff and board when speaking to various audiences.