New York University
Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising
To help boost enrollment in the Heyman Center’s Master’s Program in Philanthropy and Fundraising, the Center asked us to help it create a new brand face and voice.
Filmmaker and Philanthropist Abigail Disney speaking on a panel at NYU’s first conference on Women and Philanthropy, designed, curated and produced by BrandStories
(PHOTO: Dan Demetriad)
How do you transform classic into progressive?
Above:
Naomi Levine, Director of NYU’s Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, welcoming a sold-out crowd to the Women’s conference produced for the Center by BrandStories
(PHOTO: Dan Demetriad)
New York University
Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising
To help boost enrollment in the Heyman Center’s Master’s Program in Philanthropy and Fundraising, the Center asked us to help it create a new brand face and voice.
THE CHALLENGE
Following a month of research and student interviews, we identified a technology and communications gap in the curriculum, and increasing calls by students for improvements in community events and resources.
OUR WORK
We created a brand strategy and communications plan for the Center that added classes in digital fundraising, media technology, digital storytelling and content marketing. We also designed and
produced a sold-out, annual Speaker Series, Philanthropy 3.0, which featured a popular line-up of next-generation leaders to explore the rise of digital activism, mobile fundraising and use of cause video to change the way nonprofits tell and share stories about their work for social good. A twice-monthly digital newsletter we created, edited and maintained for the Center—its first—featured student and faculty profiles. It also expanded awareness of the Center’s new classes and academic events.
To cap off our re-branding efforts, BrandStories CEO and then-NYU media professor Marcia Stepanek conceived, designed, produced and co-hosted the Program’s first annual Women in Philanthropy Conference, an all-day, sold-out event attended by more than 500 students and sector leaders to recognize top women in philanthropy, nonprofit fundraising, cause advocacy and social enterprise. The event also was designed to honor the Program’s maverick Director, Naomi Levine, and to celebrate her many years of support for female philanthropists and women-led nonprofits dedicated to empowering women and girls.
“BrandStories’ work won faculty buy-in, expanded our programming, added new classes and gave us new visibility and credibility with the students we wished to recruit to our Master’s program.”
Naomi Levine
Former Director
NYU Heyman Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising
OUR IMPACT
The Center also asked BrandStories to create a social media strategy to help it recruit more international students and win a greater share of NYU’s general marketing budget. All told, BrandStories’ efforts helped the Center to raise awareness, engagement and fundraising—and helped to expand its student enrollment in a highly competitive market by 26 percent over three years.
Casey Rotter, a Heyman Center alum and Global Leader, UNICEF NextGen, moderates a conversation about cause activism during the women’s conference we produced for NYU
(PHOTO: Dan Demetriad)
A storyboard for a video we sent out as an invitation to a sold-out seminar offered by NYU’s Heyman Center to wealth managers serving family foundations, and which featured Alec Baldwin as a guest speaker