Location
Bainbridge Island, WA
Sector
Environment & Animals

IslandWood is a nationally recognized leader in outdoor education, based on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. The environmental nonprofit offers a variety of immersive programs throughout the Seattle region to help children, educators, and community members deepen their understanding of the world around them. Over the last five years, IslandWood has greatly expanded its program offerings, including its research and advocacy work, to ensure that all children in the region can experience education outside.

In looking to the future, IslandWood knew that philanthropy would become increasingly important as the organization launched plans to deepen its impact by increasing access to outdoor educational experiences for students in under-resourced schools. With a successful brand-building initiative already underway, the organization was ready for an assessment to ensure it could successfully mount a fundraising campaign.

“Our collaboration with BWF meant that we were able to get our organization on board with a campaign, moving more quickly and more confidently with the professional guidance of our BWF collaborators. I would recommend BWF because of the depth of their support across many areas. Our principal BWF partner, Jodie Miner, has been a critical partner to us, supporting and guiding our process and helping us to think strategically.”
Jennifer Kim
Vice President of Philanthropy • IslandWood

The assessment revealed areas of opportunity and included recommendations to enhance internal systems and deepen engagement among key constituencies in advance of a campaign. In addition to the campaign readiness assessment, IslandWood received a customized annual giving plan. Counsel also focused on working with leadership and the board to put in place key elements of a campaign infrastructure, which included preparation of the case for support.

In the end, the assessment provided a clear plan to strengthen both internal operations and external engagement. The next step is an external assessment, the results of which will help IslandWood design a campaign that won’t just help the nonprofit raise money for today but will also help it achieve a new level of sustainable fundraising for the future so it can continue supporting students for generations to come.

IslandWood utilized the Program Assessments and Optimization service offered by BWF.