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Niagara Community Foundation

Niagara Community Foundation (NCF) has been Niagara’s philanthropic partner for 22 years. As an organization that puts Niagara first, NCF strives to connect donors to causes and communities to resources. They came to Hughes&Co for a complete and comprehensive rebrand. This included a new logo, tagline, brand identity, and website. This project included diverse and inclusive imagery, visionary design elements, a brand identity refresh and empowering and compelling content. To achieve this, we moved through a thorough brand analysis as well as a competitive analysis to understand where NCF stood in the market, who they are trying to attract to their donor portfolio, and how they want to make an impact in Niagara.   

  • BRAND IDENTITY + DEVELOPMENT
  • WEB DESIGN / DEVELOPMENT
  • PRINT DESIGN
  • ART DIRECTION
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BEFORE

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AFTER

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We designed NCF’s website with functionality in mind; going from a massive site with more pages than anyone could name to a streamlined, super usable and audience centric digital experience.
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The new branding was designed to feel inclusive, bright and inviting while maintaining an evolution-like progression from their past brand identity.

Results

Our team focused on compiling thorough research to understand NCF’s initial needs. The objective was to position NCF as Niagara’s philanthropic leader and attract a new demographic all while remaining true to their roots. It was this research that led the Hughes&Co team to create  NCF’s new tagline “Turning intent into impact” and secondary tagline “Connecting donors to causes, communities to resources.” These new taglines outline NCF’s commitment to helping enact change in their donors’ communities. It was important to convey the expert knowledge of NCF within the not-for-profit sector while also making their mission accessible to newly interested donors and charities. 

The rebrand also included a complete redesign of their visual assets from logo to website to print and more. The final logo included digital design elements and a colour palette that was sourced from Niagara Community Foundation’s previous brand colours, blue and green. The blue and green elements of the logo are a nod to NCF’s history and speak to Niagara residents as we are known for our proximity to two Great Lakes and robust agriculture. These elements were then implemented throughout the new website to ensure a cohesive feel and increase brand recognition. You’ll note these elements in assets and materials being produced by the organization moving forward as well. We love a versatile brand. 

 We wanted the site to be easy to navigate and clearly outline that NCF is a representative of the Niagara community. All information is thoughtful but simple; there was no need or room for unnecessary complexity from an organization designed to simplify a sometimes complex process. The website redesign helps new and current donors find the information they need while giving charities the information they are looking for to apply and receive grants. Simple!

Truly, NCF’s rebrand is a fresh take on an impactful organization. As NCF’s online presence continues to grow, the Hughes&Co team will continue to partner with the foundation to create thoughtful and compelling designs to speak to new or young donors who may want to make a great impact in the community while designing communications with existing donors and relationships in mind. The true nuance of this work is found in the universally positive reception of the brand - this collaborative branding experience had an incredible result.

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Reflecting on our experience with Hughes&Co, we feel confident in referring them to others. They repeatedly demonstrated their abilities to be professional, timely, accountable and forthright. We are very pleased with the results and our greatest measure of success has been the overwhelmingly positive response from our community, congratulating us on our new brand and our effective communication tools.

Suzanne Veenstra
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
NIAGARA COMMUNITY FOUNDATION


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