National Retail Federation Foundation

One Team, Every Hat

Client: The philanthropic arm of the National Retail Federation, providing training, scholarships, and access to retail careers. Active monthly retainer since 2017

• Brand architecture and sub-brand management
• Fundraising event design
• Print design and impact reports
• Digital marketing and website UX design

Results: $12M+ raised for scholarships and retail programming since 2017; 75,000+ people nationwide helped advance retail careers

The Relationship

The NRF Foundation speaks to a wide range of audiences under one mission — a student applying for a scholarship, a manager building skills toward a promotion, a teacher bringing job-training curriculum into a classroom, an industry leader deciding where to invest in the next generation of retail talent. The Foundation needed a design partner with real range: brand strategy, web, print, event design, and copywriting, all working from one consistent brand.

Since 2017, openbox9 has managed that work as an embedded partner. The relationship has grown alongside the Foundation’s own program list, expanding from brand and communications support into managing an entire portfolio of sub-brands and annual events. The continuity enables the openbox9 team to anticipate needs, develop repeatable systems to save time and cost, and create an enjoyable thought-partnership.

Strategic Foundation

Developed over time, a thoughtful brand architecture gives each program its own distinct identity and voice while keeping a clear family resemblance to the parent brand. Each area of work can speak to its own audience, and to a shared funder-audience.

That structure only works with sustained thought partnership. Over years of collaboration, openbox9 has become both responsive to immediate NRF Foundation needs and proactive about anticipating what’s coming next. Every new initiative is built to extend the existing architecture, so a scholarship page, a gala stage design, and an email campaign all visually and emotionally connect users to the same brand.

Event Design

Event design is one of the most visible parts of the partnership. Since 2020, openbox9 has designed the NRF Foundation Honors — “Retail’s Biggest Night” — including stage and ballroom design, step-and-repeat backdrops, screens and signs across multiple levels of a large hotel, table signage and menus, and exclusive pre-event branding.

Additional annual events include a 4-day workshop for students and a 2-day event for those early in their professional careers ready for the next step. These events include stage design, directional signage, email campaigns, social media marketing, and printed collateral from table numbers to pillows and t-shirts.

Print & Reports

Recurring print deliverables extend the identity system from inboxes, social media scrolls, and websites into the tangible environment. openbox9 regularly produces physical items that include the NRF Foundation’s annual Impact Report; tablecloths, popup banners, and hand-outs for presence at conferences; and infographics. Context is valued to ensure wherever users encounter the Foundation brand, they instantly connect to its identity.

Website

openbox9 supports the web presence by ensuring each program’s section reflects its individual sub-brand while staying connected to the Foundation’s overall site experience and brand guide.

Communication Strategy

Messaging is tailored to each audience the Foundation serves — a scholarship applicant, a working manager, an educator, or a corporate donor — rather than using one generic voice across every touchpoint. openbox9’s team handles that variation end-to-end: researching, writing, designing, prototyping, and testing content across email, print, and event materials, with transparent collaboration throughout so campaigns are refined together with the NRF Foundation team rather than delivered as a finished product with no input.

How we work together

The NRF Foundation retainer draws on nearly every specialty openbox9 has: brand strategists, web developers, project managers, graphic designers, vendor collaborators, fundraisers, copywriters, information architects, all coordinated around a single account relationship rather than handled as separate vendor contracts. The scope regularly extends past traditional design work — the team has coordinated photo shoots and physical event production (including, notably, a Hershey’s-branded photo shoot requiring custom chocolate props) to execute specific creative concepts. That range lets NRF Foundation bring nearly any communications need — digital, print, or in-person — to one team already familiar with its full brand system.