Sometimes we get the opportunity to practice our craft and do some public good at the same time. We have been able over the years to work with some outstanding 501c-3 charities and do just that. While these organizations seldom launch a product or send their employees on incentive travel junkets (not that anyone does much of THAT anymore), they do a lot of the same type of events that we have developed so much expertise in, working for our corporate clients. We have produced national events, presentations, videos, golf tournaments, fashion shows, auctions, training events and awards banquets for these organizations to the same standards that we bring to corporate events. When an organization relies on donations to survive, public image is a very important issue, and regardless of how much good an organization does, there always manage to be a few people set on tarnishing their public image. The same techniques in reputation defense, defensive search engine optimization and social media opinion tracking that have worked so well for our corporate clients, provide the same value when applied to these organizations.

One of the opportunities we have found to be really compelling is to involve an organization's donors in telling the story of the good work that the organization is doing; creating a direct relationship between a donation made, and a life changed... or in some cases a life saved. Too often people think that their contributions will not make a difference or that the work that an organization does really does not benefit them personnally. Enlightened self-interest, while not perhaps the purest of human motivations, which works remarkably well in convincing a corporate worker that using social media tools can help her in doing her "day job" can work just as well in motivating donors to support the public good... we just have to remind them that they ARE the public. We are very good at working with an organization to do this. We have great buying power with our vendors that can benefit non-profits just as much, if not more than it can benefit the corporate event planner who is trying to conserve funds.

These are just some of the successes we have had in working on fundraising events. Whether you are an organization seeking to organize an event, or a donor seeking a sponsorship or public visibility for your generosity, we would love to help you maximize the effectiveness and visibility of your efforts.

It began as a request by the Pacific Symphony for a video tribute to Carl St Clair, their Musical Director, who celebrated his 20th year with the Symphony this June. As we discussed the project, and how it was to be featured on their new website, we discovered some other great opportunities to increase the visibility of the symphony, to widen the reach of their educational and family programs, and to recognize the efforts of many of their major donors. Over the next six months we expect to produce a series of videos about the Youth Ensembles, profile the principal musicians, interview donors, and produce segments of the Musical Storytime program to run as a regular segment on a network television series, which will start running on major networks in September. We are also working with the Symphony’s development team in seeking sponsorships for these and other efforts.

May 2009, For the Simon Wiesenthal Center, we produced their Annual Awards Benefit honoring Will Smith. The event, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, was a resounding success; attended by nearly 1000 supporters and raising over $3.8 Million for the Foundation. We provided Technical and Management Services, and provided support services for the industry press. We had 4 cameras, playback for a message from Israel, and a tape produced by Will Smith's Production company, Overbrook Films

The Taco Bell foundation for Teens is committed to inspiring teenagers to graduate from high school and become caring, educated and productive adults. In driving this effort the Taco Bell Foundation for Teens is the largest donor to Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Inc. (BGCA) giving more than $23 million to support teen programming since 1995. In addition, TBFT provides grants to other worthy programs that are designed to help teens stay in school and on the path to graduation. Some of the funding for these efforts comes directly from Taco Bell customers through in-store donations, but much of it is raised through events involving the Franchise organization, and employees. We have helped raise millions by producing and supporting auctions, Golf Tournaments, contests and foundation events. We have produced presentations to help tell the foundation's story to franchisees, employees and the public.

We first got involved with the PADRE foundation, a local Orange County California organization which supports Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes research and education, when one of our corporate customers was serving on the board. The cornerstone fundraising event for the organization is an annual fashion show. What differentiates this event from many other fashion show fundraisers is that it is also one of the cornerstone events for the kids that the organization supports. This fashion show is a family show... with men's, women's and kids fashions. The models for the adult clothes are professionals, but all of the kids in the show are the kids from the organization. The level of enthusiasm is incredible, and the funds raised at the show and auction fund much of the organization's annual budget.