FOOD FOR THOUGHT: GATHERING A COMMUNITY

Project Overview

The Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF) is Wisconsin’s largest community foundation. Since 1915, GMF has been at the heart of Milwaukee’s civic community, helping donors achieve the greatest philanthropic impact, elevating the work of changemakers across neighborhoods and bringing people and organizations together to help the region thrive.

The Challenge

In 2017, GMF launched On the Table MKE, a coordinated effort to inspire as many people as possible in Milwaukee, Washington, Waukesha and Ozaukee Counties to gather in small groups, all on the same day, to share a meal and engage in meaningful conversation about what we must do—individually and collectively—to improve the quality of life in our community. Recognizing the grand scope of the project, GMF engaged Mueller Communications to be its communications partner for the inaugural initiative.

The Solution

The Mueller team helped expand GMF’s reach and impact by leveraging existing relationships and connections to drive engagement and participation. In total, Mueller compiled and managed a database of almost 2,000 contacts spanning a range of demographics, psychographics, work industries and zip codes. Mueller conducted regular outreach to these contacts through social media, e-newsletters and personal appeals in order to recruit table hosts and participants.

To help drive general awareness of the initiative and encourage individuals to learn more and sign up to host a table, Mueller organized a “soft” launch of the initiative during GMF’s annual meeting. Soon thereafter, Mueller planned and executed a highly successful, large-scale public launch media event on the rooftop of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.

Mueller also assisted GMF in creating two videos to help introduce the On the Table concept and attract participants. The first video was an illustrated “how-to-host” video, and the other was a montage video featuring community influencers posing with the On the Table “logo”—a thought bubble. At the time, the illustrated video was GMF’s most watched video of all time.

5,400

PARTICIPANTS

29,377,899

PRINT AND BROADCAST IMPRESSIONS

30,538,395

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS ACROSS ALL CHANNELS

The Results

Mueller’s promotion strategy for On the Table far exceeded goals, involving nearly 5,400 participants (far exceeding its stretch target of 3,000) and dramatically increasing GMF’s presence in the community by generating 29,377,899 impressions through print and broadcast coverage, as well as a total of 30,538,395 social media impressions across all channels. Following the event, Mueller helped conduct a post-event survey. The results of this survey were then compiled into a Mueller-designed Community Impact Report for GMF’s board.

The Mueller team helped expand GMF’s reach and impact by leveraging existing relationships and connections to drive engagement and participation. In total, Mueller compiled and managed a database of almost 2,000 contacts spanning a range of demographics, psychographics, work industries and zip codes. Mueller conducted regular outreach to these contacts through social media, e-newsletters and personal appeals in order to recruit table hosts and participants.

To help drive general awareness of the initiative and encourage individuals to learn more and sign up to host a table, Mueller organized a “soft” launch of the initiative during GMF’s annual meeting. Soon thereafter, Mueller planned and executed a highly successful, large-scale public launch media event on the rooftop of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.

Mueller also assisted GMF in creating two videos to help introduce the On the Table concept and attract participants. The first video was an illustrated “how-to-host” video, and the other was a montage video featuring community influencers posing with the On the Table “logo”—a thought bubble. At the time, the illustrated video was GMF’s most watched video of all time.

5,400

PARTICIPANTS

29,377,899

PRINT AND BROADCAST IMPRESSIONS

30,538,395

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPRESSIONS ACROSS ALL CHANNELS