My fifth week as a Summer Fellow with The Columbus Foundation was great as I was able to complete—and nearly complete—some important projects.

This week, I analyzed the data from my initial logo feedback form and narrowed the field down to four finalists. Before launching another survey, I created a mockup PDF demonstrating various ways each logo could be used, giving board members a better sense of how they would look in different contexts. These contexts included versions with and without a tagline (Local Giving. Lasting Change.), embedded in the Annual Report I authored, and formatted as a social media icon. From there, I decided a ranked-choice voting system would be the best way to make a final decision—ensuring a winner could be selected even without a clear majority.

Dennis Blair, Chair of the Board of Directors, and Hilary Stone, the liaison between The Columbus Foundation and The Westerville Fund, have both emphasized the importance of building a social media presence and community visibility ahead of The Westerville Fund’s 50th anniversary next year. To that end, we’ve concluded that collaborating with nonprofits that have previously received grant funding is the most effective way to generate compelling social media content while also amplifying the great work happening across Westerville. With that objective in mind, I spent a significant portion of this week developing a strategic outreach brief profiling nonprofits The Westerville Fund has worked with. The brief ranks each organization by both feasibility—accounting for existing connections and whether outreach would need to be conducted in person—and overall relevancy. This document will help inform our decision-making going forward and could serve as a useful resource for board members and future interns alike.

Halfway there,

Owen