Meeting the Challenges of Our Moment

Building on the foundation laid during the first campaign of our partnership—10,000 Reasons: The Campaign for Salem State University—Libretto conducted interviews with key stakeholders to learn how the University had grown and developed in preparation for a new initiative that would be more than twice as ambitious as the last.

As a public institution serving students of all backgrounds and levels of need, Salem State was particularly impacted by the COVID pandemic. At the same time, a burgeoning opportunity to reimagine their campus footprint thanks to state funding made this a perfect opportunity to celebrate the power of coming together—in person—to overcome challenges together. This combination of factors inspired the theme of the campaign, which would become a rallying cry for community members and donors who are striving to help Salem State meet this moment and all those moments yet to come.

In the run-up to the campaign, Libretto also worked with the Annual Giving team to create a theme for annual support: Vikings Rise. This guided the appeal communications for a two-year period while the campaign priorities were refined. When the campaign was unveiled in May 2023, we created a donor communication that blended the theme Vikings Rise with Meet the Moment and introduced the campaign to the broader community of annual donors.