Advancing HBCU Impact with The Home Depot’s Retool Your School Grant Program
Client: The Home Depot
Role: Strategic Marketing Lead
Services: Program Marketing Strategy • Community Engagement • Content Development • Digital Campaigns • Partnership Activation
Challenge:
The Retool Your School initiative is one of The Home Depot’s flagship community impact programs—providing funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to improve their campuses and strengthen student experiences. As the program grew in reach and reputation, The Home Depot needed a refreshed marketing strategy to better tell its story, increase participation, and deepen engagement with both students and alumni communities.
Approach:
As Group Account Director with Walton Isaacson, Kim Williams leads marketing strategy for Retool Your School, building an integrated campaign that celebrated the legacy of HBCUs while showcasing The Home Depot’s long-standing commitment to education, equity, and Black excellence.
Key elements of the work included:
Messaging strategy and content development to better communicate the impact of grant investments across campuses
Community engagement tactics targeting students, alumni, and HBCU leadership to drive participation and votes
Creation of digital and social media toolkits to empower schools to activate their networks
Video storytelling and branded content that highlighted the transformation of campuses and the voices of students
Collaboration with internal stakeholders to align the program with The Home Depot’s broader multicultural and corporate social responsibility efforts
Results:
Increased voter participation and engagement across digital and social channels
Strengthened alumni involvement, resulting in heightened awareness and advocacy for the program
Enhanced storytelling that helped humanize the impact of the grants and reinforced The Home Depot’s role as a true partner to HBCUs
Reinforced The Home Depot’s brand as a community-driven leader in corporate giving and educational equity
Keywords: HBCU marketing, community impact strategy, corporate social responsibility, The Home Depot Retool Your School, grant marketing, multicultural marketing, higher education campaigns, cause marketing, alumni engagement, education equity
