How You Can Matter

Susan Rosenstock is a friend and colleague whose teenage son Evan took his own life four years ago.

Where other parents in pain withdraw, Susan advanced.

Her cause is now teenage suicide prevention; her student-led organization, umttr ("you matter"); and her outreach, nationwide.

The nation needs Susan's efforts. The rate of suicide deaths among teens has doubled in the past decade, according to the CDC.

ummtr has just teamed up with The Capital Classic, the nation’s longest-running high school basketball All-American game, to launch “44, 44, 44,” a grassroots campaign to raise funds through ticket sales.

The idea behind the campaign: Evan Rosenstock’s basketball jersey number was 44. The 2017 Capital Classic is number 44. And everyone who joins agrees to sell 44 tickets to the game, which takes place April 8.

Funds raised through ticket sales will directly benefit the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. And your involvement in the campaign will help increase awareness that teen suicide is preventable.

If you can sell 44 tickets, please contact Susan.

If not, please donate to the campaign now.

Thanks!

Words and Pictures

“The effect in sickness of beautiful objects, of variety of objects, and especially of brilliancy of color is hardly at all appreciated.”

— Florence Nightingale

After a five-year effort, the Susan Sebastian Foundation has just completed the permanent installation of original artworks in every inpatient room in Vermont's 14 hospitals.

The project resulted from ideas expressed in Dr. Esther Sternberg's Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being.

Citing research, the book argues that art activates endorphin-rich parts of patients' brains, speeding their recovery.

The nonprofit's founders read Sternberg's book and tackled the project in memory of a long-suffering patient, Susan Sebastian, whose last wish was, “When I get out of here, I am going to sell my house to buy art for hospital patient rooms.”

Sternberg, a pioneer in the science of the mind-body connection, is floored.

"When you write a book, you never know the impact it will have, and to see my words made into reality on this scale is tremendously fulfilling," she says.

Esther Sternberg is a friend of mine, and I can recall vividly the manuscript pages of Healing Spaces stacked on her writing desk. Who knew all those words would matter six years later?

Pictures have power; words do, too.

We're so awash in both, that's easy to forget.

It takes activists like the folks at the Susan Sebastian Foundation to remind us.

HAT TIP: Edward Segal pointed me to this story.

Event Producers: Still Scared of Social

Six social media perils still frighten many event producers, says the inimitable KiKi L'Italien in Event Manager Blog.

"Not everyone is thrilled about all things social media," L'Italien says.

Producers' six most prevalent fears?

I'll look bad. Fear of boo-boos, trolls and spammers persuade many producers social media's too risky. The answer? Develop a social media crisis plan.

I have too many choices. Periscope, Instagram, Snapchat, Peach. Platform fatigue is no hobgoblin. To zero in, ask your audience where it wants to engage. Don't guess.

I'll invite criticism. Fear of handing critics an arena daunts many a producer. But criticisms are natural and may deserve response. And advance criticisms open the door to mid-course corrections.

It's not for us. A presumption your audience doesn't engage is outdated thinking. Adoption statistics prove otherwise.

It's invasive. Yes, some aspects of your event should be protected, such as your exhibitors' intellectual property and your attendees' personal privacy. What to do? Ask a lawyer for advice.

It cheapens my live event. A misplaced worry. Streaming video actually boosts future-event attendance. It's like a sample of crack.

L'Italien's last word to fraidy cats? 

Get a grip.

"Social media is a regular part of today’s expected communication repertoire," she says.

"Making decisions based on fear is never a good idea."

Do Donors Love Facts?

Dragnet's Joe Friday nabbed a lot of criminals sticking with "Just the facts."

But do facts help fundraisers capture donors?

Jeff Brooks asks the question in Future Fundraising Now:

"Is there someone on your organization's staff (or board) who wants you to turn down the emotional content of your fundraising because they believe emotion is dishonest or manipulative? 

"Do they tell you to 'stick with the facts' because making the rational case with facts and numbers is the only honorable way to motivate people to donate?"

The answer: it depends.

Large donors love facts, small ones don't, as a recent Yale University study shows:

"Altruistic donors are more driven by the actual impact of their donation, and thus information to reinforce or enhance perceived impacts will drive higher donations. 

"On the other hand, for warm glow donors, information on impacts may actually deter giving by distracting the letter recipient from the emotionally powerful messages that typically trigger warm glow and instead put forward a more deliberative, analytical appeal which simply does not work for such individuals."

Effecting Change on a National Level: 3 Lessons I've Learned

Youth leader and activist Susan Rosenstock contributed today's post. She is a cofounder of umttr, a nonprofit that champions the caring support and mental well-being of teens.

My 16-year old son Evan, a high school sophomore, took his life on May 20, 2013, leaving a community shocked and saddened. 

Evan had never suffered from any mental illness prior to a basketball injury. That injury led to a back surgery, which then led him to feeling as though he'd lost his identity as a varsity athlete.

Four of Evan's friends came to me and said, “We have to do something to raise awareness about depression and teen suicide because, if this could happen to a kid like Evan, it could happen to anyone.” Their concern became the foundation of our non-profit umttr (you matter).

umttr has grown more than I would have believed possible only two years ago. With that growth, I have learned what it takes to create positive change in a community and on a national scale.

How do you do it? Here are the three most important lessons I can pass on to anyone hoping to effect change:

1. One size does not fit all.

To reach a large audience effectively, you need to understand what motivates that audience. What may work for adults may not work for teenage students. Be sure to tailor your promotional activities to the audience you want to reach by asking that audience what would work. Don’t guess! 

We work with teens and often find ourselves in situations where the adults and teens disagree about how to market to the “teen” audience. We always go with the teens.

2. Ask, ask ask.

Ask a sample of your audience about your promotional plans. Ask sponsors about the best way you can work with them for mutual benefit. Ask other activists if you can help to advance their goals. When in doubt, ask. 

Here's an example. When the Campaign to Change Direction, a White House Initiative launched by Michelle Obama in March 2015, asked umttr to become a founding member, we made a pledge to educate 70,000 students about the five signs of emotional distress over five years. In just six months we have already reached 50,000. All the campaign had to do was ask.

3. You're only as good as your words.

Language matters. Check with other activists, educators, nonprofits and companies in your field, to make sure the language you’re using promotes effective change.

We try, for example, never to say an individual “committed suicide.” That language still carries the stigma of suicide as a crime. Saying someone “died by suicide” or “ended his life” is preferred. This may seem like a small difference, but changing word-choice alone represents a big step toward recognizing that every suicide can be prevented.

All We are Saying

In a full-page ad this week in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, Burger King called for a one-day halt to the "burger wars" with its rival McDonald's.

The Whopper shop wants to "get the world talking" about the UN's annual International Day of Peace next month.

Wasting no time, McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook posted an 87-word "No thanks" on Facebook, spurring critics to call him a wet blanket.

Easterbrook might have replied with one word, "Nuts," like American General Anthony McAuliffe did at the Battle of the Bulge, and proved at least that his company values efficiency.

Branding gurus are unanimous about linking your brand with a cause: just do it. Want to shake down those activist do-gooder Millennials?  Wear "capitalism with a conscience" on your sleeve.

But Burger King's cheesy stunt, by sugarcoating a serious issue, shows why you should take gurus' advice with a grain of salt. 

Easterbrook's reaction, though sound, isn't savory, either.

The whole episode, in fact, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

All we are saying, is give peace a rest.

All You Need is Love

Simply by adding one word to a fundraising appeal, two behavioral scientists doubled donations during a study conducted in France.

Nicolas Guéguen and Lubomir Lamy placed collection boxes in stores every day for two weeks, and recorded the amounts given at the end of each day. 

The boxes featured a photo of a starving woman and infant and read, "Women students in business trying to organize a humanitarian action in Togo. We are relying on your support."

Each box was identical, except for a call to action printed under the money slot. 

Some boxes read, "Donating = Helping" under the slot. Some read, "Donating = Loving." And the rest had no call to action.

To assure store location didn't bias the study, the scientists relocated the boxes at random each morning.

The results after the two weeks were startling.

Every day, the boxes reading "Donating = Loving" attracted twice as much money as the other boxes.

"We can conclude that evoking love is a powerful technique to enhance people's altruistic behavior," the scientists said.

10 Steps to Better Media Coverage for Your Association

Association executive Edward Segal, CAE, wrote today's guest post. He is CEO of the Marin Association of Realtors and the author of several exceptional books on public relations.

Associations face two important challenges in generating the publicity they want. First, it's impossible to know what stories every reporter, editor, or blogger is working on or may be planning. Second, if journalists don't know your organization exists, they'll never think to contact you for quotes or information for their stories.

Your association can quickly overcome these hurdles by becoming a resource to as many news outlets as possible. Here are 10 steps to help make that happen:

1.   Take stock and cast a wide net. Make a list of all the topics and issues in which your organization has knowledge, expertise, or information. With this list in hand, identify the news organizations, as well as Websites and blogs, that follow or might have an interest in these matters. To ensure you haven't missed anyone, conduct a search of relevant keywords and phrases in Google's Web, blog, and news categories.

2.    Initiate contact. Send emails to appropriate contacts at these outlets to tell them about the topics and issues in which your organization has expertise. Explain that your association wants to be a resource for their stories in these areas, and ask how you can be of help in upcoming articles.

3.    Stay in touch. Reach out to these reporters on a regular basis. By staying on their radar, journalists are more likely to think of you when they need you. But don't become a pest.

4.    Alert yourself. Set up Google Alert for the topics and issues for which you'd like to generate additional publicity for your organization. Evaluate the results and, as appropriate, contact the editors, reporters, and bloggers to offer your organization as a resource on future stories. If you contact them quickly enough and have something to contribute, they might include you in updates to those stories.

5.    Cast an even wider net. Join one or more online services that provide subscribers with inquiries from journalists, or help link experts with reporters. These sites include Help a Reporter Out, Muck Rack, PR Newswire's ProfNet, The Yearbook of Experts, and Radio-TV Interview Report.

6.    Don't wait. Respond immediately to all media inquiries. Whether reporters are on deadline or not, the sooner you get back to them, the more likely it is that you will have an opportunity to be a resource. Given the competition organizations face for publicity and the deadlines under which reporters work, the expiration dates of these opportunities may be very short.  

7.    Give good quotes. Journalists can be inclined to interview people who have demonstrated that they can give good quotes. When reporters see you've been interviewed by other news organizations, they may seek to contact you for interviews for their own stories. Consider your sound bites to be auditions that can lead to additional publicity opportunities.  

8.   Get a room. Establish a "press room" page on your Website. Make it as easy as possible for visiting journalists and bloggers to immediately see your association's areas of knowledge and expertise and how to contact designated spokespeople. Keep press materials current and ensure that links to news stories where your organization is mentioned are working.

9.    Plan ahead. News organizations may post editorial calendars on their Websites, or will be glad to send them to you on request. The calendars can be an early warning system about future stories: armed with this advance notice, you might be able to position your organization as a resource to the reporter or editor and wind up with more coverage for your association.

10.  Be patient. Providing journalists with whom you've had no prior dealings with tips and information for their stories can be an investment in time and resources. Sometimes the payoff will be immediate, such as a quote, attribution, or profile. At other times, your efforts may take some time to bear fruit. But if you don't try, the payoff will be zero.

Nonprofits and Noble Cause Corruption

Washington, DC (where I live and work) is the cradle of cause-related nonprofits.

The majority do great things, no doubt.

But I've also seen the dark side of a few of these organizations.

Some never pay their bills and don't think twice about stiffing honest, hard-working suppliers.

In fact, I've seen so many defaults by cause-related nonprofits, I won't take work from them.

Call it holier-than-thou zeal, if you want. 

I think the better term is noble cause corruption.

Noble cause corruption is a form of "police crime" in which cops break the law in pursuit of a goal they believe will benefit society at large.

A common example: fabricating evidence to ensure a conviction.

Noble cause corruption may serve society. 

But it can just as easily lead to the punishment of innocents.

Do you work for a cause-related non-profit? 

If so, have you checked your accounts payable lately?

With apologies to Eldridge Cleaver, if you're part of a solution, you may be part of a problem.