Uncover & Understand
The Iowa Women’s Foundation uses five pillars to create positive, sustainable change for Iowa’s women and girls:
Research
Education
Collaboration
Advocacy
Grantmaking
A large portion of supporters are most familiar with the grantmaking pillar. While this is an important part of the mission, it’s only one piece. IWF needed to showcase the full scope of impact and outline the interconnectedness of the five pillars, highlighting how they work to benefit all Iowans—but most importantly, women and girls.
Ideate & Implement
In learning how their team talks about IWF, we gravitated around the metaphor of a river. This resonated and stayed with us beyond that conversation. We realized its potential to tell the story.
So, we put it to good use.
This metaphor represents what’s happening to Iowa’s women and girls in real life, as they try not to sink within our society’s various systems. The five pillars of sustainable change work to address these crucial issues upstream through prevention (research, education, collaboration, advocacy) and downstream by meeting immediate needs for relief (grantmaking).
Now, how do you show and tell that story? We developed a tangible and interactive direct mail piece. Using IWF’s nationally recognized work in childcare, we went fold by fold, revealing how each pillar creates a current of lasting change.
Refine & Refresh
The direct mail piece arrived at homes throughout the state, demonstrating IWF’s meaningful mission, proven track record, and undeniable impact.
The mailer tells the story of IWF’s impact on childcare in Iowa, but most importantly, it outlines how the organization’s approach drives progress, provides urgent support, and explores preventative solutions for broader systemic issues. This sets the stage as the organization prepares to address additional challenges faced by Iowa’s women and girls.
The piece was an instant standout, so much so that we created a shorter, modified version to use as a handout piece.
The Refreshingly Meaningful Part
By getting creative and conceptual, we reminded donors why they believe in and invest in IWF, and it prompted stakeholders to pay even more attention to the organization’s work—because their team is never finished.
The piece generated more than $20,000 in donations that will help address additional barriers and make waves for Iowa’s women and girls.
