Kinship Foundation
Kinship Foundation is the private operating foundation of the Searle Family.
The Foundation operates Kinship Conservation Fellows, a global environmental leadership program. It also supports Chicago-based, grant-making initiatives through the Searle Funds at The Chicago Community Trust, including Food:Land:Opportunity.
Kinship Conservation Fellows
Kinship Fellows trains mid-career conservationists to use incentives to address conservation challenges. The program has three primary strategies: train practitioners through a month-long Fellowship and regional workshops; support the Fellows community through chapters and affinity groups; and distribute learnings and outcomes through the creation of knowledge products.
My role included defining strategies for engaging the Fellows community and to attract new applicants to the Fellowship program. I lead the redesign of the program website, redesigned recruitment materials, and introduced video storytelling.
Food:Land:Opportunity
Developed in collaboration with The Chicago Community Trust, Food:Land:Opportunity (FLO) is a multi-year initiative designed to build the local food economy in the Chicago region through strategies that focus on land access, strengthening the skills of those who work in the local food system, and attracting capital. The initiative uses several philanthropic tools, including strategic grantmaking, an innovation competition, convenings, research, and the sharing of best practices.
My efforts focused on developing and implementing a communications strategy for the initiative. I wrote and designed content for the website, social media and email; created templates for internal presentations and board books; and managed grantee communications. I managed communications related to the Food to Market Challenge, a prize competition designed in collaboration with Carrot (formerly Common Pool).
Food to Market Challenge website
Articles/reports:
Food to Market Challenge Winner Launches Food Box Programs (December 2017)
Press Release: Food to Market Challenge Awards $500K to Bring Healthy Food to Underserved Communities (October 2016)
Unlocking Capital: Report from the Capital Landscape Roundtables - PDF (June 2016)
Family board engagement
In addition to developing program-related communications, I managed communications to engage Searle family members in the work of the Foundation. I produced materials for board meetings, presentation decks, and the Foundation’s annual report. I introduced an email program to inform and engage family members in the programs and grantees supported by the Foundation.
I was the sole producer of annual reports (interviews, writing, design and layout and some photography):