Opportunity

For 110 years, the Indianapolis Foundation (IF) has been a champion for the city, helping donors translate their love of Indianapolis into action. A new leader took the reins at IF in 2025, and several other team members transitioned in 2026, necessitating communications support before they could hire a new senior communications leader. They sought a partner both to manage ongoing communications efforts – from email to socials and thought leadership – and rethink its positioning in the community. 

Approach

To meet both immediate needs and address the need for a messaging rethink, Pen+Principle dove right in – developing social content, newsletters, thought leadership, flyers, and other collateral. In tandem, we worked closely with IF’s leadership team to better understand the culture, priorities, impact, and desired positioning for the Foundation. We delivered three different takes on messaging and tested them in real time through communications channels. This enabled us to get anecdotal audience feedback on messaging to provide the new senior director of communications with a starting point as she entered the role. 

Results

In just 10 weeks, Pen+Principle produced two newsletters that delivered strong open rates (~45%) and engagement, several weeks of social posts and two op-eds placed in the Indianapolis Recorder and Indianapolis Business Journal.

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