THE HOME DEPOT
RETOOL YOUR SCHOOL
Historically Black Colleges & Universities have historically been overlooked and underfunded. The Home Depot did something about it. In 2009, they established the Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant Program, a competition to help HBCUs update their campuses. So they can stick around for years to come.
FINDING COMMON GROUND
IN TENNESSEE
2019 saw a Retool Your School hat trick: Three out of Nashville's four HBCUs won campus improvement grants! We wanted to celebrate all three with a content series.
Common Ground highlights just how much these distinct HBCUs share: a common purpose to educate, a common goal to improve their campuses, and their literal common ground of Nashville, TN.
In helping to concept, storyboard, research, cast, interview, and more for this series, I saw firsthand the resilience, power, and history these institutions hold.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE POWERED BY PURPOSE
In the wake of the US's summer of social justice reckoning, loads of organizations pledged millions of dollars to HBCUs – something The Home Depot had been doing. As they (rightly) put it: "We're not new to this."
For Retool Your School's 2021 campaign, they wanted to strengthen the program identity while reinforcing its longstanding support.
I created Powered by Purpose to acknowledge why HBCUs exist and how Retool Your School furthers their legacy and impact. I wanted to share the sense of pride, duty, community, and empowerment that fuels the continued commitment of both.
THE POWERED BY PURPOSE VOICE & TONE
Writing for Retool Your School means balancing The Home Depot's voice – authentic, confident, conversational – with the vibe of HBCU life: hype, familial, reverent.
To cement the tone, I laid the foundation for messaging pillars that support Powered by Purpose: people, purpose, power (and a sprinkling of passion).
It all comes together in the multimedia content I wrote: emails (that I also designed), website blurbs, videos, social media posts, radio spots, and media partner content.
10,000,000 votes and counting! #HomeDepotRetool wouldn't be here if it weren't for the power of the incredible people who show ❤️ for their HBCUs. Who's ready to find out the winners on April 14?
