The Challenge
Homewood City Schools already carries a reputation as one of the reasons families move to and stay in the city. That strength made the Homewood City Schools Foundation's story harder to tell, not easier. When a district already looks "best in class" from the outside, donors need a reason to keep giving beyond the assumption that the schools are already fine. HCSF needed a film that could explain why a high-performing district still depends on community funding, without ever sounding like it was pointing at a gap or a problem.
The Approach
Ninety Nine Natives partnered with HCSF to produce a 3 to 5 minute brand film built around a single idea: strong schools don't stop asking "what else can we give our kids while they're here." Rather than framing HCSF as a solution to underfunded schools, the film positions the Foundation as the mechanism that turns a strong district's biggest ideas, teacher grants, National Board Certification, and beyond into real classroom experiences. Told primarily through the voice of HCSF administration, with supporting voices from teachers, staff, and a parent, the film traces why the Foundation exists, what it believes about supporting teachers, and what its funding actually produces for kids.
The Execution
The film moves through four acts: the strength of Homewood's schools and the "what if we could" questions that strength creates, HCSF's belief that great teachers are the engine of a great school system, concrete stories of teacher grants and National Board Certification funding at work in classrooms, from adaptive PE equipment to STEM labs to vocational training, and the personal, human outcomes those investments produce for students, teachers, and the wider Homewood community. Interviews were built around specific, funded moments rather than general statements about education, giving donors a plain-language look at where their support actually lands.
The Result
The film gives HCSF a piece built to anchor fundraising events, live as an evergreen asset on the website and social channels, and support one-on-one donor and board conversations, with a message built to turn an assumption ("Homewood schools are already great") into an invitation ("here's what your support makes possible that a great district couldn't otherwise afford"). Because Homewood's schools already carry deep community trust, the film's job isn't to prove HCSF's case. It's to make donors who already believe in Homewood schools see exactly what more looks like.
