IndispensAble Atheneum

The Nantucket Atheneum, Nantucket Island’s beautiful public library, found itself in an all-too-common situation—it could no longer safely rely on fundraising events to supply the revenue needed to fund operations. They decided to launch a major gifts program and they needed a case for support to introduce it.

You’d think it would be easy to raise money from a population that includes some of the wealthiest people in the country, but these potential donors are solicited for philanthropic gifts from literally hundreds of organizations every year.

Our challenge: how do we make the Atheneum stand out to this sophisticated and ask-weary audience?

We combined a persuasive argument for support with an entertaining page-by-page photo-and-narrative tour of a typical day in the life of the Atheneum, showing its fundamental importance to the surprisingly broad range of Nantucket residents that rely on it.

And we packaged it in a beautiful format, with a hard cover and library binding to evoke the books on the Atheneum’s shelves.

The very first donor to see it told us, “It gave me chills. It’s a beautiful piece—I can’t wait to pore over every page.”