Location
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sector
Arts & Culture
Over nearly a century, through passionate stewardship and creativity, the Turnblad Mansion at the American Swedish Institute (ASI) has become one of America’s premier historic houses and the heartbeat of a wide community in the Twin Cities.

But the much beloved Mansion is showing its age, and the deteriorating impact of time and weather have left their marks. It was clear that philanthropic support would be needed to raise the funds to rehabilitate the interiors and exteriors of the Mansion and Carriage House and to reimagine the Mansion’s interior spaces for programs, gatherings, and world-class exhibitions.

ASI leadership was in the early stages of campaign planning and had a preliminary case for support. Though the essence of the case had been prepared, it needed to be finalized and the campaign messaging needed to be developed so that communications elements could be created. ASI decided it was the right time to bring in outside communications expertise.

“BWF brought both passion and insight to the project to develop an ensemble of communications pieces that provided a sound framework for ASI’s important initiative to reach our donor community about a transformational campaign. The campaign case, which is resonating with our widely diverse audience in communicating the many facets of ASI that are connection points for donors, is helping inspire their generosity toward our multimillion-dollar goal.”
Bruce Karstadt
President and CEO • American Swedish Institute

First, content for the case statement was completed by conducting interviews and reviewing background material. While the content was being finalized, ASI received creative concepts and graphic treatments for design elements for bringing the campaign to life. Once the creative concept was chosen, the case statement was laid out with the approved copy. In addition, a PowerPoint template was created based on the creative concept and messaging. ASI received a deck to use when presenting the case in Zoom conversations with prospective donors in the near term (and in face-to-face presentations in the future).

Shortly after the project was completed, ASI used the case messaging to create a campaign website and then went public with the $22 million Stories, Stonework & Stewardship campaign. The campaign is slated to be completed by fall 2023.

ASI utilized the marketing & communications services offered by BWF.