As the reality of stay-at-home orders and business closures unfolded in the spring of 2020, Heurista made a decision: if one of our nonprofit clients asked us to complete a project, we’d do it even if it meant our team would need to travel. We completed many amazing projects over the course of the year, but none as large or as surprising as the work we did for the Lowcountry Food Bank.
Read MoreNonprofits are subjected to persistent criticism around the practice of naming opportunities. The questions being lobbied are not new. Students, faculty, under-represented constituents, and the media have pointed to the disparities, if not the outright hypocrisy, in how naming rights are awarded. Who is being honored and why? Most often, the answer is the donor making the largest gift.
In light of the current focus on systemic racism, some organizations are considering naming rights removal often under daily pressure from the press. Many nonprofits are coming to terms with the risks inherent in the naming of institutional assets and facing the reality that ethical challenges may come from aligning with the ever-evolving legacies of individual, fallible people.
Read MorePhilanthrosphere®, Heurista’s online platform for interconnected storytelling, was recently launched at the Topeka Shawnee County Public Library. Awarded Library of the Year in 2016, the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library serves as a bustling community hub. The library has a long, rich history in the area and features a 100,000 square-foot addition designed by architect Michael Graves.
Read MoreThe inaugural exhibit celebrated the Greenville Hospital System School of Nursing which opened its doors in 1911, one day before the hospital, and trained nurses until it closed in 1974. Drawing from a substantial archive of historical information and artifacts, subsequent exhibits have highlighted children’s medicine, the size and scope of the GHS system, the system’s centennial anniversary, and the importance of academic and clinical education to provide a pipeline of healthcare workers for the regional community, and orthopedic surgery. Future exhibits may include obstetrics and gynecology, oncology, neurology, and mental health.
Read MoreThis display is unique at Phoebe. Rather than relying on a traditional naming opportunities strategy, all donor recognition is grouped in a display in the main lobby. Heurista recommended this approach as a result of our work with other residential housing projects. This strategy puts all donor recognition displays in the most public of the areas in the facility. Likewise, it helps foster a sense of place at the apartment door for each resident, minimizing the signage to only that required for wayfinding and fire safety.
Read MoreTo foster those relationships, the Floyd Foundation created a display that coordinates with the structure, look and feel of system-wide donor recognition but conveys stories specific to the local community. There's a panel acknowledging the legacy of giving in this community, space for communicating current philanthropic initiatives, and a segment to recognize Phoebe Worth employees who participate in the SPIRIT employee giving campaign. The panels are updated annually to keep stories and list up-to-date and connected to the experience of those who work or are treated at Floyd Polk Medical Center.
Read MoreRecently, we had the good fortune to work with UCS on a history wall to be used at several events across the country this year as they celebrate their 50th Anniversary. Highlighting major milestones throughout their organization's history to give an overall view of their progress while making it larger than life, easy to set up, and light enough to ship cost effectively were the charges we were given.
Read MoreIn 2018, Heurista was awarded the design commission for the donor recognition and history exhibit in the new Kennedy Outpatient Center at the Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This is a dynamic was environment designed to engage the community and provide positive experiences for children and their families needing outpatient services. Notably, the Kennedy Outpatient Center also heralds a new era in the evolution of the Erlanger Health System and the Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. It is the first of several new buildings to be built in the coming years.
Read MoreHammond School provides a unique pre-K through 12th-grade educational experience in Columbia, SC. The program focuses on character development, leadership, and experiential learning. The Innovation Center, completed in 2018, demonstrates the atmosphere where students at Hammond have the opportunity to learn and share experiences that go beyond what is available at many colleges. Education in facilities of this caliber is made possible through the support of philanthropists who support the school’s mission, vision and values.
Read MoreA nearly unbelievable thing happened: for a while, there was no football at the University of Alabama Birmingham. This was a decision that rocked the university and the city, pulling them together in support of a sport that was integral to the community and its sense of place. Over a remarkably short time, the community stepped forward supplying the necessary enthusiasm and financial support to rebuild the football program at UAB.
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