Kellogg Capital Campaign
Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University

From Success to Significance

Academic excellence. Cutting-edge research. Collaboration. Continuous innovation. These qualities have secured a place for the Kellogg School of Management in the top tier of business schools worldwide for decades. They also inspired the communications strategy and plan that Grillo Group developed for Kellogg’s capital campaign during the quiet phase, which served as the foundation for Kellogg’s subsequent Transforming Together campaign.

We began with a careful review of the school’s extensive marketplace research followed by our own independent investigation, interviews, and competitive assessment. In a comprehensive communications plan, we laid out, by specific target markets, a road map for strategy, messaging, tactics, and implementation from pre-launch and campaign execution to groundbreaking, construction, and dedication of the school’s new global hub.

To create a compelling campaign case statement for a building that had yet to be designed, The Grillo Group engaged prospects’ imagination by “building” on a vision. Literally.

Using words and ideas that epitomize the Kellogg experience, we “constructed” a visual representation of the building and then projected it onto the proposed construction site. By merging present-day reality with future vision, we created a convincing case statement targeted at potential alumni donors.

Grillo Group content lead, Max Russell, continued with the implementation of the Transforming Together campaign, working with internal marketing and design staff to develop messaging and content for case statements, web presence, targeted major gift appeals, stewardship reports, and other fundraising collateral for the school’s new global hub and other strategic initiatives including endowed chairs, scholarships, research, and global expansion. He also played a key role in annual fund messaging and alumni communication for more than 10 years.

Client Success
The development campaign plan, identity, and collateral laid a solid foundation for the success of the subsequent multiphase, multi-year efforts, which far surpassed the original $350 million goal, funding the construction of the school’s dramatic new home on the Lake Michigan’s north shore and other initiatives.

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