Driving Donor Engagement and Strategic Message Alignment

The Challenge

The College of Pharmacy was evolving its narrative to better reflect its role in healthcare transformation, research impact, and donor partnership. Existing materials contained strong language but required refinement to ensure credibility, clarity, and alignment with stakeholder expectations.

At the same time, the College was navigating a rapidly shifting healthcare and higher education landscape, requiring messaging that was both visionary and grounded in institutional reality. The goal was to preserve ambition while anchoring it in measurable, defensible impact.

The Initiative

We conducted an in-depth discovery and research phase to ensure strategic alignment before refining any language. This included:

• Extensive review of institutional materials and advancement communications

• Deep research into pharmacy education trends, healthcare transformation narratives, and peer institution positioning

• Competitive and comparative analysis across leading pharmacy programs

• Two structured stakeholder focus groups to gather qualitative insight from internal audiences

Through these sessions, we identified areas where messaging felt overstated, unclear, or misaligned with stakeholder perception. We synthesized feedback into clear themes, pinpointed narrative gaps, and defined opportunities to strengthen differentiation.

From there, we refined the Case for Support and donor-facing materials, calibrating language to improve clarity, credibility, and alignment with fundraising priorities while maintaining the College’s institutional voice and strategic vision.