What would it look like if our nation embraced immigrant families with open arms? What if we could support our neighbors, instead of growing further apart? These possibilities fuel Welcoming America, an organization helping communities enact policies and practices to ensure everyone can truly belong and participate civically, socially, and economically. Throughout our nation, people report feeling lonelier and more isolated than ever before — making welcoming spaces vitally important. In 2024, Welcoming America sought to commemorate their 15-year anniversary with a report about the state of welcoming initiatives and programs across the country and world. The report would also share lessons learned with fellow organizations working to create inclusive communities.   

   

Mission Partners first held a visioneering session to help Welcoming America identify its core messages and determine how to best reach key audiences. Then, Mission Partners worked with Welcoming America to find a compelling and creative way to package and present the report so it would make a lasting impact. Ultimately, the report’s success hinged on developing a cohesive narrative that would pull audiences in and encourage them to take action. To tell the story of the welcoming movement, Mission Partners synthesized 15 years’ worth of data and interviewed key partners to find the most important takeaways.   

  

The “State of Welcoming” report was published as an accessible, interactive website. Its user-friendly format made it easy for Welcoming America to communicate top findings with funders, partners, and community organizations. One funder who read the report shared, “The format, design, structure, and content all work together to tell a powerful and effective story of Welcoming America. I just shared it with my team as an example of how to do a project like this right.”