Organizational Intelligence Is Building the Brand
Client: United States’ largest conservation and environmental education nonprofit headquartered in Reston, VA, with nationwide affiliates and program leads
Engagement: Retainer since 2008 – each new assignment starts with something valuable already in place
- Organization-wise brand stewardship
- Digital & promotional design
- Event and fundraising design
- Print collateral
The Relationship: Branding and Communication Strategy for Confident Decisions
National Wildlife Federation communicates with audiences ranging from members of Congress and major donors to educators, families, and conservation advocates. Across dozens of programs, campaigns, departments, and channels, each audience requires something different — without losing sight of the organization behind it.
That means fielding requests across multiple departments and program teams at once — communications, policy, education, and state affiliates — and applying the same brand judgment to each. The openbox9 team moves fluidly between digital work (microsites, blog architecture, social content) and offline production (print reports, signage, apparel, event materials), often in the same week.
Since 2008, openbox9 has helped NWF navigate that complexity. Those years of working across the organization means we don’t start each assignment by learning the brand again. We understand its history, its audiences, its programs, and how the pieces relate. That accumulated knowledge lets us move quickly, maintain continuity across teams, and help communications leaders make new decisions in the context of what has come before.
Brand Stewardship at Scale
NWF’s identity has to flex across a large portfolio of programs, campaigns, and initiatives without becoming fragmented. That requires more than enforcing brand standards. It requires knowing when consistency matters, where a program needs room to develop its own personality, and how far the system can stretch while still feeling like NWF.
openbox9 functions as NWF’s living brand archive and engineers: advising on organization-wide visual strategy, maintaining brand standards across teams and departments, and making the judgment calls needed to extend the identity into new programs as they launch. That foundation lets NWF’s Congressional testimony, classroom curriculum, highway signage, annual reports, advocacy campaigns, and fundraising events all read as coming from the same organization, even when they’re produced by different program teams for different audiences.
Website(s)
Since 2008, openbox9 has designed and built 12+ campaign microsites for NWF, including platforms focused on Gulf of Mexico restoration, offshore wind development, and sustainable agriculture practices, plus action-oriented sites like the Clean Earth Challenge. The work goes beyond page design to include database architecture for tools like funding trackers, interactive mapping for restoration progress, and integration with third-party political action platforms so visitors can act after being informed. As NWF’s content strategy changed, we revisited the blog architecture four times — treating the website as an evolving communications platform rather than a finished product to protect.
Print & Reports
openbox9 produces NWF’s print and publication materials, including its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice policy report series and its Annual Impact Report, alongside classroom curriculum such as the Outdoor Learning Toolkit. The work also extends into less conventional formats — highway signage for wildlife habitat certification, car wraps for traveling advocacy campaigns, advertisements in NFL yearbooks, and Ranger Rick apparel — each adapted for its specific audience while staying visually tied to NWF’s core brand.
Annual Campaigns
Each spring, openbox9 refreshes the microsite and campaign materials for National Wildlife Week, NWF’s flagship annual event. Because the event repeats annually, the retainer model lets openbox9 carry forward what worked in prior years while refreshing the creative for each year’s new theme.
Also each year openbox9 develops an interactive impact report with storytelling interfaces such as filterable maps, infographics, and data visualizations to show the difference the work accomplished in the prior year and engage further support for the work ahead.
Content & Communication Strategy
openbox9 built a multi-channel social media strategy that included a distinct visual and copy approach for each channel, matched to the corresponding audience and format. It was implemented with a structured A/B testing plan to improve performance year over year. The content strategy work runs alongside the design deliverables rather than after them, so messaging and visuals are developed together.
Results Over Time
- 12+ campaign microsites designed, built, launched, and maintained
- Blog architecture realigned four times to match evolving content and organizational strategy
- NWF’s Annual Impact Report designed and produced each year
- National Wildlife Week microsite and multi-channel social campaign refreshed and relaunched every year
The clearest evidence of success is durability and reach: NWF has continued the engagement since ‘08, and openbox9’s design work touches nearly every major public-facing channel the organization operates.
“You are a fantastic group and I truly always enjoy working together. Thank you for being such incredible creative partners. I am always openbox9’s biggest advocate and tell all my colleagues to utilize this partnership!”
Melissa, Senior Director of Donor Relations and Special Giving, National Wildlife Federation
The best creative partnerships get better with time.
See how an ongoing openbox9 partnership can bring continuity and creative momentum to your communications.
Services: Branding | Integrated | Print | Digital | Social Media
Sector: Environmental Nonprofit
Year: Since 2008, active