THE MAPLEWOOD FOUNDATION

The Maplewood Foundation is a community foundation dedicated to improving quality of life for residents of Maplewood and South Orange, NJ. Through an endowment model that grows year over year, every donation becomes a permanent source of support, funding grants across education, racial equity, the arts, emergency relief and more.

The Opportunity
When our partnership kicked off, The Maplewood Foundation was building something new for their community, and they needed a brand that could do some heavy lifting. It had to explain a funding model most people aren't familiar with, earn the trust of donors across a wide range of backgrounds and means, and do all of that while feeling nothing like the stodgy, institutional foundations that can dominate the nonprofit space. The word "foundation" carried baggage for the foundation's diverse board of trustees, and the goal was to shed it.
The Strategy
Our strategy centered on a simple but powerful idea: this foundation belongs to everyone. Not just major donors, not just grant recipients, but the whole community. That meant the brand needed to speak clearly and compellingly to three distinct audiences: donors being asked to invest in something new, community members who needed to see themselves represented, and grantees who needed to trust that the foundation understood their work. Vibrant, approachable, and rooted in local pride rather than philanthropic formality.
Our first engagement in 2023 focused on what the foundation needed most at that stage: a strong visual identity and a landing page built to attract early donors. Working alongside RoseComm on copy, we developed a brand system that leaned into color, warmth, and community energy. A custom icon suite brought each of the foundation's giving categories to life, and the giving pattern — a visual explanation of how the endowment model works — translated a complex financial concept into something clear and compelling.
As the foundation grew and developed a clearer picture of its donor base and community response, they returned to Wonder & Co. for a more robust website and an annual report template, tools built to sustain and scale the work ahead.

The Results
By their second year, The Maplewood Foundation had awarded $92,900 in grants to 12 nonprofits, topping the previous year's giving by more than $20,000. In 2026 they raised $102K at their annual celebration, proving that a brand built to launch them was ready for every stage that followed.

Website: themaplewoodfoundation.org