As the leading grant-maker in the region, Community Foundation Tampa Bay connects donors, professional advisors, nonprofits, and community partners to create lasting impact. What began with a single $100 gift has grown into a powerful philanthropic engine. By 2025, the Community Foundation had reached $1 billion committed to the future of Tampa Bay, supporting community-wide initiatives and transformative change across Tampa Bay and beyond.

As they approached their 35th anniversary alongside this monumental financial milestone, the Community Foundation needed a campaign that felt both reflective and forward-looking, celebrating their history while connecting with their audiences.

Our campaign objectives were clear: we needed to reintroduce the Community Foundation’s purpose and impact through compelling new messaging, reinforce their credibility and long-standing leadership in philanthropy, and expand their communication efforts to engage a wider audience more meaningfully. At the same time, we had to be intentional with how we communicated the $1 billion milestone—clarifying that this figure represented their commitment to Tampa Bay, not a direct donation from the Community Foundation itself. The messaging needed to celebrate the scale of generosity in the community while accurately positioning the Community Foundation’s role as a steward of philanthropic capital. Amplifying their messaging, we launched a newly designed website just days before their annual celebration, ensuring their refreshed digital presence aligned seamlessly with the moment.

35 Years of Philanthropy: Shaping a Brighter Future

At the heart of this campaign was a unifying theme, 35 Years of Philanthropy: Shaping a Brighter Future. This concept celebrated the Community Foundation’s legacy while emphasizing the future-forward work of its community partners, fundholders, and advisors. It acknowledged that while Community Foundation Tampa Bay has stewarded three and a half decades of giving, the best is yet to come.

Visually and verbally, we designed this concept to be both celebratory and strategic, with flexible messaging and design elements that could be embedded throughout the organization’s communications all year long.

Bringing the Campaign to Life

We began by integrating the campaign into Community Foundation Tampa Bay’s existing communications infrastructure. A celebratory campaign lockup and refreshed messaging were incorporated across all platforms throughout the calendar year. The campaign appeared in every major touchpoint, including media coverage, paid media, newsletters, website content, email communications, and the annual impact report. The Community Foundation’s Annual Meeting was expanded into a high-profile celebration, a centerpiece of the campaign that formally marked both milestones and reflected the depth of the Community Foundation’s reach in the community.

Beyond integrating the campaign into current efforts, we also created new opportunities to engage audiences more directly. A key element was the development of a video series that featured interviews with fundholders, professional advisors, and nonprofit partners. These videos brought authentic, human voices to the forefront and were used across the website, paid media, social media, and more. In addition, we pulled impactful quotes from each interview and wove them into the campaign landing page, reinforcing key themes and allowing stakeholders to speak in their own words.

Catalyzing the Next Chapter

The 35 Years of Philanthropy campaign gave Community Foundation Tampa Bay a platform that matched the scale of their impact. It honored the people and partners who made this milestone possible, while positioning the Community Foundation for a future defined by collaboration, generosity, and lasting change. More than a branding effort, the campaign was a narrative— one that told the story of a community shaped by giving and invited others to be part of what comes next.