The American Pet Products Association (APPA) hoped to add more bark to its social media bite to help encourage pet adoption. The nonprofit organization enlisted The Impetus Agency to help shine a social media spotlight on its Pets Add Life (PAL) campaign. The team created a detailed social media strategy across various platforms to share its message and took home top honors in the Best Use of Social Media category of PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards. 

On YouTube

PAL paired heartfelt with humor through a YouTube video series featuring “Pet Interviews.” PAL worked with video creator Andrew Grantham to create a six-series collection of YouTube videos of “talking pets.” Pets “talked” about their desire for human companionship. The video series received 2,869,822 views and achieved viral success. 

On Facebook

PAL’s Facebook content includes updates about pet ownership news, fan-submitted photos, and questions to encourage fan engagement. Additionally, a “Call to Action” custom application was created to encourage fans to take a pledge to either adopt a pet, volunteer at a shelter, or capture and share a picture of an adoptable pet. 

PAL also launched a “Help a Shelter Out” contest that encouraged fans to earn cash prizes for their local shelter. PAL’s creative use of Facebook doesn’t stop there. The campaign created a contest for pet owners to submit poems about pets. 

On Twitter

To build engagement, PAL paired with celebrities like Lauren Conrad, TV personality and fashion designer, and Alison Sweeney, host of the popular television show “The Biggest Loser.” The mix of celebrity endorsements and timely content resulted in 7,245 clicks on important links on Twitter and more than 6,000,000 impressions. 

Social media has greatly helped PAL share its pet adoption message, no bones about it.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

The winner of the Best Traditional Marketing Campaign category in PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards is the world’s first out-of-hospital dialysis organization, Northwest Kidney Centers in Seattle, Wash.

Northwest Kidney Centers has taken a decisive step beyond saving the lives of kidney disease victims. It has decided it must be a leader in the fight against obesity and adult-onset diabetes in order to mitigate a 30 percent rise in kidney disease in the last decade.

Its vehicle: Northwest Kidney Centers’ 50th anniversary celebration. Northwest sponsored employee celebrations in its 15 dialysis centers, held lunch seminars and patient parties at all locations, hosted an educational lunch for kidney doctors’ office staff, put on a Nutrition & Fitness department open house, and scheduled its annual Kidney Health Fest for African-American Families, among many other activities.

Other special 50th anniversary projects included:

• A yearlong campaign to renovate its flagship building.
• A launch of its website, facesofnwkidney.org, with 50 stories of patients, donors, and supporters, with more stories added throughout the year.
• Production of a video about the history of Northwest Kidney Centers.
• The opening of its free Dialysis Museum and Gallery to the public.
• A short version of its annual report included as an insert in 50,000 copies of The Seattle Times.

The energy of these varied activities paid off handsomely:

• Media outlets published 465 news stories about Northwest Kidney Centers, including stories in Forbes, the Boston Globe, The Seattle Times Pacific NW Magazine, MSNBC.com, CBS Seattle, Yahoo Finance, and many others.
• Facebook likes grew by 20 percent.
• Twitter followers increased by 33 percent.
• Its fundraising breakfast and its Kidney Center Gala raised record amounts.
• Its capital campaign to create a kidney resource center surpassed its $1.5 million goal.

The public relations team at Northwest Kidney Centers responsible for all this includes Jane Pryor, Linda Sellers, Angie Hinh, Jen Nibley, and Marijana Pavlich. Flash Media Services provided outside media consultation.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

On India’s roads, a fatality happens every 3.6 minutes. Two-wheeler riders account for about 25 percent of the accidents, and 7 percent of the victims are under 14 years old. A lot of those lives would be saved if only riders wore helmets, yet only 12 percent of two-wheeler riders are committed to always wearing a helmet. These devastating statistics catalyzed ICICI Lombard, India’s leading private general insurance provider, to launch a campaign to increase helmet use. Its efforts have earned it first place in the “Public Health or Safety Initiative” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

The campaign focused on turning children into influencers. Workshops presented in partnership with four NGOs reached 300 schools and spotlighted the particular risk to children; each child attending was given a helmet after ascertaining their parents were licensed to drive. Some 24,000 helmets were distributed. The children, in turn, appealed to their parents who rode two-wheelers to start wearing helmets.

A nationwide survey of millennials in impoverished areas raised awareness. The news media was brought to bear, sharing survey results and raising awareness of the tragedies occurring on India’s roads. ICICI Lombard also initiated a social media campaign. 

The metrics ICICI Lombard used to quantify the campaign’s effectiveness all point to one overwhelming outcome: dramatically changed behaviors among a significant number of two-wheeler riders. That undoubtedly will save lives.

Congratulations to ICICI Lombard for its work.

For 30 years, Kaiser Permanente has aggressively treated every person on its health plan rolls infected with HIV with the latest technology, drugs, and medical practices. In addition to surpassing the national average regarding detection, treatment, and virus control, Kaiser Permanente’s patients receive no treatment disparities among black and Latino HIV-positive patients and have an HIV-mortality rate half the national average.

Thousands of lives have been saved. 

On Jan. 26, 2012, Kaiser Permanente announced its HIV Challenge campaign at the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s Care Innovations Summit in Washington, D.C.

The idea of the campaign: Help health care providers across the country improve health equity for people with HIV by increasing access to HIV care and boosting health outcomes based on Kaiser Permanente’ best practices.

Kaiser pledged to give health care providers and community health clinics:

• Kaiser Permanente’s clinical best practices.
• Patient and provider education materials.
• Mentoring and training.
• Health IT expertise.
• Quality-improvement programs that measure gaps in care.
• Prevention and treatment guidelines.
• Ways to set up multidisciplinary care teams that model the “medical home” so that HIV specialists, care managers, clinical pharmacists, and providers work together.

To get this done, Kaiser set up a program-wide best practices toolkit and website to share knowledge and spur participation in its HIV Challenge. Kaiser also shot four videos of KP experts on HIV and of KP members with HIV. 

Kaiser Permanente’s HIV Challenge achieved spectacular results:

• The press release about the HIV Challenge generated 300+ news postings, 200 social media posts, and stories carried by The Associated Press, UPI, KCBS Radio, and Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer.
• The executive director of the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved publicized the HIV Challenge to the association’s 8,000 clinicians and 900 organizations.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation blog New Public Health ran an article about the HIV Challenge.
• The HIV Challenge website was viewed almost 6,000 times, the KPLink story was viewed 1,125 times, and the HIV videos were viewed 1,400 times.

Thousands of lives will be saved because of Kaiser Permanente’s 2012 decision to take its health plan fight against HIV nationwide to raise awareness of life-saving protocols and team-medicine practices that are a part of Kaiser’s everyday culture, and to make KP’s best practices standard in every town and city in America.

That’s why Kaiser Permanente’s HIV Challenge campaign wins top honors in the Best Social Responsibility Campaign/Initiative category of PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

Actors are skilled at creating expressions of shock, horror, and fear, so a public service video of Hollywood stars and celebrities like Emily Blunt, Tom Felton, and South African pop star Yvonne Chaka Chaka expressing their revulsion at some disturbing images might provoke skepticism. Is it real? Or are they just acting?

But any viewer who sticks it out to the end of the video produced by Sabin Vaccine Institute will understand that those celebrities’ reactions weren’t faked—and why this video won first place in the Best Public Service Announcement category of PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

Sabin needed to raise awareness about diseases like schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, and others—Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) that infect 1 in 6 people worldwide, including more than 500 million children. To break through the information glut and reach the general public, Sabin launched the END7 campaign.

For its PSA, “How to Shock a Celebrity,” Sabin enlisted a handful of celebrities to simply watch a video showing the impact of some of these diseases on children. They included Blunt, Felton, and Chaka, along with actor Eddie Redmayne (Marius in “Les Misérables”), actor Tom Hollander (King George III in HBO’s “John Adams” and Cutler Beckett in two “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies), and Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra (also an international recording artist). 

Watch the video if you dare. Some of these stars couldn’t: They cringe, look away from the images, weep, and in some cases walk away. But the U.K. and U.S. version of the video, available on YouTube, received more than 400,000 hits in its first month and was one of the top 10 most watched YouTube videos for several days. Seventy-five percent watched most of the two-minute clip (which is more than one Ragan judge can say). 

And the financial support has been overwhelming: Donations have averaged 20 cents per view, a tremendous rate in a medium that is not known for winning over new contributors on the first try (55 percent of contributors are new to the cause).

For sheer power, “How to Shock a Celebrity” is a definite award-winner that will keep you up at night.  

Here’s the video. Warning: You’ll feel shocked watching it even if you’re not a celebrity.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

Grab the reader. Write compelling copy. Don’t use jargon. 

Orchard Strategies did all of the above and crafted a successful press release on behalf of client Family Resource Center (FRC).

The firm pulled together inspiring examples of love, including stories of public adoption made possible by FRC, in a bilingual press release, which won the prize for Best Press Release in PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

When putting together a publicity campaign last November to coincide with National Adoption Month, Orchard showed reporters the benefits of adoption through stories. Remember that? Showing not telling? It worked—big time.

After consulting with FRC, Orchard developed a press release in English and Spanish that included public adoption facts and stories of family strength through public adoption examples. 

One story was about a single mother who adopted five children (all siblings) so the children would not be separated in foster care. Another involved a woman who fostered more than 90 children in her lifetime, and adopted a few of the most vulnerable children she cared for.

The campaign was picked up as a cover story in the Miami Herald, a feature on Fox News’ “Parent to Parent” show (online and televised), and a segment on “The Ricki Lake Show.”

We congratulate Christina Daigneault, Orchard president, and Antonia Donato, junior publicist, for their efforts.

Read the original press release here and the Spanish version here.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association sought to increase recognition of women’s contributions in the automotive aftermarket and promote industry career opportunities for young women.

Plus, in a $30 billion industry that the uninitiated may consider a male-only domain (think: guys and cars), SEMA wanted to highlight the parts and services member companies produce through an all-female creation of a vehicle.

So it got Ford Motor Co. to donate a Mustang, partnered with a major media company, and set a volunteer team of women to work to beef up the iconic car. The “SEMA Mustang Build Powered by Women” was a huge success on a PR/media budget of less than $1,000.

This is why SEMA has won the prize for Best PR on a Shoestring Budget in PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

With the help of manufacturer donations and a major media company, SEMA’s team created not only the car but YouTube videos of the work the women did. That, along with sharing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and online and print media, maximized exposure by building a community of advocates.

SEMA accumulated more than $60,000 worth of donated products for the project, secured donated PR services, gathered an all-female team of more than 50 volunteers, and partnered with groups as diverse as eBay and Facebook. 

Along the way it won coverage on “CBS Evening News,” drew 85,000 views on Motor Trend’s YouTube channel alone (with tens of thousands more on Ford and other sites), and won 65,000 Facebook likes.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

One common criticism of corporate social responsibility efforts is that an organization may take a specific action in order to check off the CSR box without changing anything about how it functions. At Delphi Automotive, CSR is pushed down to each country and facility, where leaders and employees take tangible steps to infuse day-to-day processes and activities with the core values of CSR: ethics and compliance, respect, and health and safety. Delphi’s consistent efforts have earned it first place in the “Global CSR Initiative” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social responsibility Awards.

Delphi employees are inspired not only to give back to their communities, but to innovate “so consumers reap the benefits of sustainability including greater fuel economy, reduced emissions, and increased safety through fewer automobile fatalities while working toward a zero-waste world by investing in recycling technologies, processing methods, and market opportunities,” the organization explains.

Building sustainability into its processes and products was all part of Delphi’s 2016 global CSR theme, “Making it Possible: Transforming Mobility.” The employees at the heart of the effort got information and learned about outcomes via the intranet, a global CSR Yammer group, global communication channels, global and local events and an annual CSR report. 

The impact of Delphi’s CSR commitment is far-reaching, including 30 tons of trash cleaned up, 1,500 trees and plants donated (which absorb nearly 72,000 pounds of C02 each year), global greenhouse gas emissions per employees lowered by .18 metric tons per employee and global waste disposal reduced. In addition, four Delphi sites became ISO compliant. 

The organization’s belief in its employees is humbling. Congratulations to Delphi Automotive and its workforce for the win.

Software developer Citrix is a long time supporter of Movember, a global fundraiser for men’s health, and Pinktober, a global fundraiser for breast cancer awareness and research. In 2016, however, Citrix realized that its employees were experiencing giving fatigue. Its solution has made Citrix a winner in the “Fundraising and Philanthropic Initiative” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Citrix decided to consolidate both charitable efforts, along with efforts to encourage employees to take care of themselves and their communities, into a single campaign called “IMpact Health, Get INvolved,” or “I’m In” for short. 

Citrix set four goals for the campaign: engage employees globally, raise funds for cancer research and treatment, increase employee use of the organization’s match program for community-based giving, and support internal health screenings for its U.S. employees. The communications developed to support “I’m In” covered the range of Citrix’s channels. 

Senior executive support was a crucial component of the campaign. Communications were tailored for local relevance, and activities like Mo’Kart racing, Pink Bra Bazaar, Mo’Hawk Party and an employee driven Creative Showcase added elements of fun to the campaign. 

Ultimately teams from around the globe sparked awareness in their office locations, leading to donations of $71,500, a 15 percent increase over the previous year’s efforts. Citrix also increased the number of employees using the matching donation program, and 34 percent more employees took advantage of health screenings. 

Congratulations to the team of Heather Lahr, Consuelo Ferreira, Heidi Anderst, Anita Motiram, Balsara, Kate Stemle, Jo Moskowitz and Jennifer Campbell.

The enormity of the problems plaguing parts of Africa, from lack of education and health care to inadequate infrastructure, overwhelms most of those who aim to be part of the solution. Arrow Electronics saw things differently. Innovators at heart, the group (along with its Belgian nonprofit partner, Close the Gap) saw an opportunity to address several issues at once—and in so doing, took first place in the “Education or Scholarship” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards. 

The solution took advantage of the most unexpected of resources: used 40-foot steel cargo containers. Arrow and Close the Gap converted these discarded hunks of steel into solar-powered “DigiTrucks.” As Arrow explains, “These fully equipped, insulated, secure classrooms and health clinics are delivered and used in remote rural African villages to open otherwise vulnerable children to educational opportunities that are changing their lives for the better.” 

The first DigiTruck was created for use at Tuleeni Orphanage in a remote Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. The orphanage serves some 200 children, most of whom have lost their parents to AIDS. Donated IT gear inside the truck includes laptops, tablets, printers, routers, an LED TV flat-screen monitor and more, all renovated by Arrow’s value recovery business. 

Arrow employees also raised $4,000 over the 2016 holiday season for a scholarship program to benefit the students, an amount Arrow’s CSR team found corporate partners to match. 

This year, Arrow and Close the Gap are building another DigiTruck to serve the Nairobi area. 

Congratulations to Joe Verrengia, Alex West and Rich Kylberg.

One relief nonprofit got creative with its PR when a hurricane left its staff working from their kitchen tables across the Eastern Seaboard with intermittent electricity, limited email access, and dying cellphone batteries.

Another relief organization found a way to get llamas and goats into TV news studios—therefore boosting the idea of giving Christmas gifts of animals to the poor abroad.

Both the Jewish Federations of North America and World Vision found ways to creatively promote their causes in unusual ways, making them the winners of the Best Media Relations Campaign category in PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards. 

Amid the turmoil of a superstorm, the Jewish Federations secured widespread coverage of the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund. Staffers got the word out about where to donate and pitched stories about on-the-ground relief efforts to mainstream and Jewish media, scoring coverage on CNN.com, NBC News, Forbes, Bloomberg, BuzzFeed, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

World Vision promoted its annual gift catalog as a way of avoiding the usual holiday greed-fest by encouraging families to buy goats, cows, chickens, and other gifts for needy people abroad.

World Vision trained representatives and provided live animals to appear in TV shoots and studio pieces, offering amusing images of bewildered goats penned in flashy TV studios. All this increased media placements in 2012 by 62 percent over the previous year, with more than 1,406 hits. And it boosted fundraising in seven of the top 10 media markets, among them New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, and Seattle.

For grace under pressure—and for understanding the concrete needs of the image-hungry media—these two groups tie for first place in our Best Media Relations Campaign category.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

Many children in the United States know without question that they will attend college someday.

But there are also many children who, due to their families’ financial situations, will never be able to.

In a recent fundraising campaign, the Tiger Woods Foundation aimed to raise enough money to send 10 first-generation students to college. For its work on the campaign, the Tiger Woods Foundation earned first place in the Best Fundraising Campaign category of PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

The campaign took place on Tiger Woods’ Facebook page. People around the world could contribute as much or as little as they wanted, with a minimum donation of $1. Woods matched each donation dollar for dollar.

The Foundation launched the six-week campaign during the week of the 2012 Masters Tournament with a personal video from Woods. In the video, Woods described the program and explained his personal connection to the cause. The Foundation launched the campaign during the Masters to capitalize on the media attention around the event.

To keep up the campaign’s momentum, each week the Foundation awarded a prize to the highest fundraiser. Prizes included signed memorabilia and a phone call with Woods. The grand prize winner won a spot at the 2012 AT&T National in Washington, D.C., and a private putting lesson with Woods.

There were also minicampaigns within the six-week period. Here is an example Facebook update: “Whoever raises the most money in the next 24 hours will receive a personal phone call from Tiger.”

To further publicize the campaign, the Foundation asked numerous athletes and celebrities to spread the word, including Darius Rucker, MC Hammer, and Blake Griffin. It also pitched various media outlets.

The Foundation raised $12,000 in small donations in the first eight hours and, by the end of the six weeks, reached $100,000.

Donations came in from 15 countries, and 75 percent of the donations were $20 or less, making the $100,000 total even more significant. Combining social media, online, and traditional media coverage, the campaign received 1 billion impressions.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.

Cantonese opera, the traditional Chinese art form with origins in the 13th century, combines music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics and acting. Among affluent young shoppers in Hong Kong, however, interest in Cantonese opera had faded. The solution from Times Square Limited, a high-end, 17-level mall in one of Hong Kong’s most dynamic retail districts, has led to it taking first place in the “CSR Event” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Recruiting new talent and getting funding from the Hong Kong government to support Cantonese opera has been difficult. To rekindle interest, Times Square decided to bring Cantonese opera to the mall in a highly visible way: as “artetainment,” which would be seen by shoppers who could interact and engage with exhibits. 

The exhibits and performances were seen by 3.3 million people; it would have taken 275 shows at HK Coliseum, Hong Kong’s largest performance theater, to equal that audience. Nearly all the local Cantonese opera masters attended the event, along with two rarely seen local opera queens. 

More than 20 local non-opera celebrities supported the event by recording videos. Ninety-five percent of local publications and magazines covered the event, all of which helped build interest among the younger audience, who shared photos and posts across social media. Twelve thousand participants used the exhibit’s photo booth and shared images via their mobile phones. 

Congratulations to Times Square Limited for producing a wildly successful event to boost an important art form.

Healthy forests produce trees used to make paper, so it makes sense for International Paper to commit resources to forest conservation. International Paper’s approach to the issue—forming Forestland Stewards, a partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)—has earned first place in the “Corporate-Community or Nonprofit Partnership” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

There’s nothing particularly sexy about International Paper’s relationship with NFWF. It involves serious planning, hard work and meaningful outcomes. Rather than do what many organizations do when establishing a partnership—throw money at the other organization—International Paper and the NFWF combined financial and technical resources under the name Forestland Stewards to restore forests, strengthen fish and wildlife populations and protect watersheds, while also promoting and supporting working forests in eight states across the southeastern United States. 

The Forestland Stewards Steering Committee, made up of employees of both International Paper and NFWF, makes recommendations on proposals submitted to the group. In its second five-year agreement, International Paper has increased its donation to $10 million over the next five years to enhance the partnership’s ability to work with private landowners, government agencies and conservation groups to develop science-based conservation business plans and guide investments that produce meaningful conservation results. 

Through its work, the partnership has connected more than 8,000 forest landowners and supported restoration, enhancement and protection of nearly 240,000 acres of forest habitat, exceeding its original goal by 20 percent.

Congratulations to the International Paper and NFWF team.

Another annual report. *snore*

Not so fast. 

This one tells about waves of human dramas, one upon another, played out on a global stage and altering the course of history. It features indelible photographs that supplement and surpass the storytelling capacity of even the abundant facts and figures therein.

Welcome to the Human Rights Watch Annual Report, “A Year of Change: The Arab Spring 2011,” our winner for Best External Publication or Report in PR Daily’s 2013 Nonprofit PR Awards.

It casts a glaring spotlight on Egypt, Libya, and Syria, recounting what transpired—the atrocities and the successes—as well as what lies ahead for each. The writing is concise and potent. The photographs range from the exultant to the abhorrent. Numbers tell their own story; faces tell theirs.

Its coverage doesn’t stop with that regional focus, though. Reporting includes updates from Mexico, Papua New Guinea, the Balkans, and the United States, as well as the struggle for the rights of women and girls worldwide.

The report was published in English, French, German, Japanese, and Arabic, reflecting the organization’s global scope and audience.

The latter part of the report deals with financials, but even that element isn’t dryly conveyed. The Global Challenge section specifies major initiatives and a snapshot of fundraising efforts toward those ends. The lengthy lists of contributors’ names are broken up with quotations about the organization’s works. 

Finally, the How We Work page explains in straightforward language the organization’s modus operandi.

Congratulations to Michael Burlingame and the Human Rights Watch communications team for an exceptional achievement.

Read the full report here. 

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here.