The Community Music Center of Boston set out to raise $15 million through its 2022 to 2025 Capital Campaign, an effort to reimagine music education through an equity-centered lens. With more than a century of history and a pioneering role in music therapy and public school engagement, CMCB needed to articulate a vision that reached beyond Boston: transforming music education nationally.

That history was both the asset and the challenge. A hundred years of legacy, current programs, and ambitious future plans had to be distilled into a single case compelling enough to inspire eight-figure investment.

Fenton’s team of strategists, writers, and designers led a multi-phase process, beginning with research and discovery to understand CMCB’s goals, stakeholders, and donor landscape. We facilitated workshops and stakeholder interviews, grounding the work in CMCB’s unique positioning as a leader in culturally inclusive, learner-centered music education.

From that foundation, we built a narrative and visual strategy framed around a single theme: Valuing All Voices. The frame connected CMCB’s deep legacy to its present impact and its boldest ambitions, and was designed to inspire action and investment.

The partnership repositioned CMCB for donors and stakeholders: not just a local treasure, but a national model for equity in the arts, ready to lead the next century of music education rooted in the neighborhoods it serves.

The case for support gave the organization a unified story it could carry through every campaign conversation, connecting what CMCB has built over a hundred years to what it intends to build next.

The completed Case for Support emphasizes CMCB’s legacy, its current impact across Boston Public Schools and public health systems, and its plans for facility renovation, teacher support, youth employment, and curriculum redesign.

Delivered as both a narrative and a visual strategy under the Valuing All Voices theme, the document now anchors the organization’s $15 million campaign.