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Zoe over at the DNCC along with Bill Mitchell and Jayne Buck of the DNCVB allowed the Cunningham Foundation to put up posters advertising the Foundation's different causes. We got the opportunity to put together the marketing copy as well as the design. I can't be happier that each design included one of my photographs from the 2007 trip.

HotPress Web Sponsors Cunningham Foundation Posters at DNC from Brent Weaver on Vimeo.

A special thanks to Bill Slosberg of the DNCC for giving us the access we needed to the building and making sure we had everything we needed. Thanks Bill.

Planning and executing this event was a little more complicated than others that we have done. There were basically two sides to it, motivating the high school students to create videos for an original contest that had not been done before, and then getting people to the actual event.

After working out some specific partnerships with Montbello and Cherry Creek High School - we were able to post advertisements to students throughout the schools. The yield was four completely original videos being produced:

Click to view the videos

So the premise of the contest was the students would submit videos having something to do with the 4 Quarters for Kids program and the winner would come to Ethiopia with us this next fall.

Well, a nice turn of events was that after we started the program, the Foundation decided to take the top two, then two other private donors provided the money to have the other students go - so we are proud to have all four students accompany us on the 2008 trip to get some great web content.

I got the opportunity to present the Cunningham Foundation to practically the entire Cherry Creek High School which was a lot of fun, but we made this video of our interview of Jordan Junge - one of the students there - to show at the school. We simply edited in some b-roll from the trip, but it is still very moving production.

One thing we enjoy bringing to the table is creativity. Whether it is creativity with a website, business idea, video project, or a marketing campaign - we really don't like setting limits. So this event idea came to mind to bring high school kids into the content creation portion of the Cunningham Foundation.

The idea: challenge high school students to make a video under 5 minutes for the Foundation's 4 Quarters program. The winning student will go to Ethiopia and film with us for next years CF content.

One of the projects that has the most bang with the Cunningham Foundation is the HOPE Bracelet and Heart Beads projects. Both of these train local Ethiopian students that do not pass their 10th grade exams how to make glass jewelry. One of our friends Alex Boyd that traveled to Ethiopia with us is an extremely talented beadmaker and taught a handful of Ethiopian students while we were there.

Here is the video we made to highlight the project:

We had the opportunity of creating a video from our Ethiopia footage to play at the Governor's Mansion for the Cunningham Foundation. The video highlights the Ethiopia Library Project that Ethiopia Reads co-sponsors. Basically it only costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to build and operate a library in Ethiopia for 3 years.

Enjoy the video:

Cunningham Foundation Ethiopia Trip 2007 DECA Benefit Concert from Brent Weaver on Vimeo.

Part of achieving great content with clients is becoming a part of their business or organization. After working with the Cunninghams' to gather as many details about the Foundations projects in Ethiopia, Noel finally said - "Why don't you just come to Ethiopia with us and you can learn all you want."

Steve and I jumped on board. Our mission on the journey was to capture as many photos and video as we could so we could use it for various content projects in the next 12 months.

Here are the photos: 

Here is an hour of video highlights that acts as a "video slideshow" to be used during Foundation dinners and Speeches:

I recommend putting on a good CD to enjoy the slideshow fully.

Proud to launch the new Cunningham Foundation Website. The Cunningham Foundation is a nonprofit, 501(c)3 organization that was founded in 2003 with the mission of helping the courageous people of the impoverished areas of Ethiopia to help themselves.

Steve Thiel and I met Noel and Tammy after regularly going to Strings Restaurant for business lunches and dinner. You can typically only go to Strings a couple of times before Noel will approach you with information about the Cunningham Foundation.

We wanted to capture the new brand as well as African design concepts with the new website. Additionally, we wanted to make sure the website was easy to navigate and understand - hence our simple navigation tabs across the top and easy-to-read font selections throughout the website. 

The finished product:

Click to Launch the Cunningham Foundation Website

Finished the branding project for the Cunningham Foundation.