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No other state has an organization like the Nebraska Cultural Endowment (NCE). A unique partnership that matches state funding with private donations, NCE funds more than one-third of the programs and grants delivered by Humanities Nebraska and the Nebraska Arts Council. Emspace + Lovgren works with NCE to support the organization’s ongoing, strategic communications and impactful projects.
Early on in our partnership, NCE identified a unique challenge: People were giving to the Endowment, but they didn’t fully understand how it worked or the impact of their gift.
Now, we send out an elegantly designed quarterly mailer package to every funder that includes a letter from the executive director, a grantee spotlight story and other relevant information, such as funding data. Funders have noted that they feel more connected to the organization, and patterns of increased donations within one month after mailing support these reports.
NCE’s previous logo expressed interconnected partnerships through weaving lines. Rather than scrapping the previous logo, we strengthened and refined its balance and spacing to extend its long-time brand equity.
As grantee organizations update the new logo on their materials over time, it also reduces brand confusion and facilitates a more seamless transition. In addition to the logo refresh, we added depth and flexibility to the NCE brand. Its wider palette brings more life to the brand and its applications with vibrant yet refined colors that evoke both urban and rural Nebraska.
To support a successful brand roll-out, we developed a digital brand guide that can be easily accessed by NCE, its grantmaking partners and grantee organizations to download static and motion logos, program ad templates and the various organizational lock-ups.
In early 2026, NCE’s state match funding match was at risk. We rapidly produced a community information campaign to spur support for protecting the funding.
We delivered a letter to funders, an advocacy one-pager to reinforce consistent talking points, social posts and funding impact lists for every Nebraska senator that detailed recent arts and humanities funding in their district.
