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Wisconsin Family Ties

Updated Messaging for a Family Mental Health Nonprofit

After two years of flat donor growth, CauseMic sharpened Wisconsin Family Ties’ story with a new value proposition and core messaging.

The Challenge

Founded in 1987, Wisconsin Family Ties (WFT) is a parent-led family wellness organization providing peer support for families of children with mental health challenges. Their mission includes improving children’s mental health policy through advocacy, working closely with child-serving professionals, and helping parents use their voices to change systems that impact the lives of their kids.

WFT came to CauseMic looking to diversify their revenue sources. WFT’s work had historically been funded primarily through contracts with human services agencies, and the small amount they raised from individual donors had plateaued for two consecutive years.

We saw an opportunity to build on WFT’s existing relationships with stronger messaging and a clearer case for support.

The challenge was that WFT’s team didn’t yet have a clear, compelling way to explain what made their mission and approach unique. Their executive director had long been the person telling that story and winning hearts, but he was already stretched thin. The broader team needed messaging they could use to make the case for support themselves.

family playing in living room

Specifically, Wisconsin Family Ties had three key questions they needed help answering:

  • How can we communicate the importance of our unique operating model?
  • How can we articulate why donors should support us?
  • What is our value proposition when communicating with supporters?

Our Solutions

We dug into WFT’s existing materials and talked with the people who knew the organization best, then turned our learnings into a messaging toolkit the whole team could use.

Organizational Story & Value Proposition

  • We interviewed internal subject matter experts and audited existing collateral, then created a clear value proposition, case for support, origin story, and description of WFT’s vision.
  • To help the WFT team explain their mission, services, and model, we developed an organization-level narrative with context, examples of impact, and supporting statistics.

Fundraising Messaging

  • Leveraging WFT’s updated narrative and value proposition, we crafted actionable and inspiring appeal statements that gave the team clear, compelling language to use across fundraising communications.

The Results

  • WFT now uses its value proposition and core messaging to run more unified fundraising campaigns across channels.
  • The organization’s value proposition is inspirational, highlighting the most appealing, exclusive, credible, and clear aspects of what makes their work special.
  • A centralized messaging document gives team members ready-to-use language for stewarding relationships and communicating with constituents, saving time and improving consistency.

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It all starts with a compelling story.

Your donors should understand what makes your nonprofit different—and why that difference matters. We help nonprofits turn complex missions into clear, compelling stories to set them apart and inspire giving.

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