CASE STUDY

Black Belt Community Foundation

Building a 3-Year Communications Strategy

The Problem

Black Belt Community Foundation had been serving a rural and largely under-resourced region in Alabama for nearly two decades. But as a start-up community foundation with a limited endowment, BBCF had long lacked the resources to develop and execute on a communications strategy to help tell its story and raise visibility with potential partners and donors.

In 2023, with support from a private foundation grant, BBCF contracted Turn Two to create a three-year communications and PR strategy to help amplify its mission and impact in the 12 counties it serves.

The Solution

Turn Two developed this strategy following a comprehensive process that included:

  • A thorough review of BBCF’s existing communications;

  • In-depth interviews with BBCF’s executive leadership and key team members;

  • In-person interviews with community partners and residents; and

  • An analysis of communications and marketing activities at peer community and private foundations.

We also identified relevant best practices and resources gathered through our ongoing work with community foundation networks such as the Community Foundation Awareness Initiative and the Community Foundation Opportunity Network and individual community foundations from across the U.S. 

While we incorporated relevant best practices and examples from other communities into our process, our team also paid special attention to what makes BBCF, and the Black Belt, different.

Turn Two partnered with the foundation’s communications team to develop the “Black Belt Bold” awareness campaign to spotlight community heroes who are building a stronger region.

Results 

Turn Two delivered a comprehensive three-year communications and PR strategy, which included:

  • Recommendations for creating a more consistent brand.

  • A strategy for streamlining its internal communications.

  • A framework for providing executive communications support for the foundation’s President and other top leaders.

  • A detailed three-year calendar for BBCFs email, website, and social media communications.

  • An earned media strategy that leverages its existing media relationships and aims to amplify its visibility within and beyond the Black Belt.

  • A strategy for elevating public awareness of the Black Belt region — with the goal of increasing outside investment in its community.

As we worked with BBCF’s communications team to develop the strategy, we identified and captured immediate opportunities to raise BBCF’s profile through earned media and by co-creating a “Black Belt Bold '' campaign that showcases community stories.

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