Introduction
Did you know national philanthropic foundations give less than 0.2% of funding to AANHPI communities, and a fraction of that to AANHPIs harmed by incarceration, deportation, and violence in the U.S.?
New Breath Foundation (NBF) delivers critical under-resourced, frontline groups the exact resources they need to help empower, heal, and change AANHPI lives in real-time by modeling collaborative philanthropy, where social change is happening now—not years in the future.
Uniquely, NBF was founded in 2017 by Eddy Zheng, the first formerly incarcerated AANHPI “juvenile lifer” to serve as President and Founder of a philanthropic foundation. Eddy, alongside other directly impacted leaders, steers NBF in growing a coalition of funders and individual donors who trust impacted communities to shape solutions that heal and transform the lives of AANHPIs and all people of color affected by the unjust U.S. immigration and criminal legal systems.
Our Objectives
New Breath Foundation stands alone in its policies and intentionality, supporting dozens of grantee partners who accomplish unparalleled movement work across the country and intersectionally, touching on such issues as the needs of immigrant youth, protecting sex workers, and healing generational trauma. Our objectives included diving deeper into these relationships in order to maximize the organization’s reach and visibility within such diverse spaces while building NBF’s strong, unique, and striking branding and aesthetic.
As we began to work together, Mixte identified key opportunities for growth and to better educate audiences, which included: developing active relationships with grantees, funders, and partners in order to create collaborations; identifying what drives NBF’s top audiences to engage meaningfully; and, scaling assets that celebrates the organization’s unique mission and accomplishments separate from that of their founder’s tremendous story.
The Outcome
An important goal for the organization is equitable coverage and profiling of We Got Us grantees throughout the year. Mixte created systems of review in order to monitor and assure a cadence in which NBF’s partners are appreciated and uplifted, and that potential funders see the distinctive value of the foundation.
After time spent analyzing NBF’s existing efforts through reporting and research, as well as continued optimization of social media channels, Mixte generated priority audience journeys and a social media strategic plan in order to align goals with KPIs and establish best practices and benchmarks to optimize across digital channels.
Mixte also generated templated graphics and assets in order to refresh NBF’s visible storytelling and education and entice diverse audiences to go beyond vanity metrics and engage authentically and consistently.
