For a nonprofit organization that had provided programs, services and good works to its community for 85 years and had outgrown its facility, Team PR helped build community support for its new cross-town location, overcoming a small, vocal and well-entrenched NIMBY group’s negative influence. Team PR was brought on board to work with the organization’s CEO, marketing director and board of directors several years after working on an initial project that included a strategic communications review, report and recommendations to help the organization move ahead with its goal of finding a new site. Although the organization had now chosen the site and was well involved in the planning stage, it was still having difficulty building community consensus around this plan. A counter-plan was needed to offset the NIMBY group’s influence with town boards that would ultimately approve the project. Team PR developed a program whose objectives and tactics would help to accomplish this goal. Using an array of public relations tools, including a viral email marketing campaign and an intense letter-writing/op-ed initiative, we galvanized wide support among key audiences, including members who had not been previously asked to help, and board members who needed to take a more active role. Although it’s never easy to get pro voices to stand up, Team PR succeeded in its effort to counter the naysayers by consistently communicating the organization’s mission, the services it provides to the community and what the town would lose if it could not grow to meet needs. After the longest approval process in the history of the town, the project was approved by all six commissions and the organization is preparing to finalize fundraising and begin building!

For a nonprofit – a major entertainment and tourism destination – we developed a PR program to create awareness of the organization’s lesser-known educational mission and to support its annual scholarship fundraising event. Team PR was brought in for the event’s second year, since it had received little attention in year one, despite great success and patronage from celebrities. On behalf of this client, Team PR combined its experience in publicizing not-for-profit development efforts and special events. We achieved steady media coverage of “progress reports” and information about the client’s educational programs and the event’s honorees and sponsors in the months leading up to the fundraiser. The print and broadcast media coverage expanded beyond the client’s traditional media. This helped widen the support base and participation.

Team PR helped the client surpass its fund-raising goals and established the event as a “Must” invitation for ensuing years.

For a unique nonprofit bank that also provides an array of services for first time homebuyers and advocates for affordable housing, we developed clear communications about its diverse mission, highlighted its CEO’s role as a national authority on affordable housing, leveraged its relationships with major commercial banking partners and other organizations, publicized its expansion and built credibility with donors. Starting with its process to position its clients’ communications and identify and craft key messages to tell a consistent and compelling story, Team PR shown a spotlight on this highly effective and innovative organization. We publicized the major grants the client received, its regional seminars featuring nationally-known speakers, its partnerships, new programs and staff appointments, and other news as part of a strategic plan to reach out and connect with each of its varied stakeholders, while communicating its effectiveness. Articles in both local and national media – including financial and real estate trade publications and consumer publications such as the New York Times and First Time Homebuyer Magazine -- also proved to be valuable tools to include in donor packages and its annual report, which Team PR helped take to a new level with more focused content and compelling graphics by a Team PR design partner. The result of Team PR’s efforts was an elevated presence that supported the client’s expansion into new markets.

For a nonprofit organization providing food, shelter and a continuum of services for the homeless, we planned and executed an integrated 18-month awareness campaign in conjunction with a major capital campaign. In leading up to the fund-raising piece of the campaign, which would be used to buy and maintain permanent affordable housing, we first needed to raise and broaden community and corporate awareness of the positive work accomplished by the organization. This included a program of monthly news releases that resulted in continuous coverage, significant media placements, and radio and TV interviews. The plan also incorporated community events that helped forge personal relationships and created further opportunities for publicity. The positive publicity helped the organization exceed its goal for its annual holiday fund-raising effort and accelerated pre-launch fund-raising, leading to a capital campaign kick-off and completion months ahead of schedule. A highlight of the program was a rare nonprofit story we placed in Business Week about  homelessness in affluent suburbs!

For a dynamic and growing New York City-based social service agency providing an array of services from substance abuse treatment to development of affordable supportive housing, we used the opportunity of creating a new Web site to help its management better tell its compelling story.  When called in to spearhead development of and write the content for this client’s second generation Web site, Team PR put on its strategic consulting hat to make sure that the new Web site reflected the agency’s strategic objectives and communicated consistent messages. We first helped the group determine who would be likely Web site visitors and users, as well as how to address the information needs of these diverse audiences. Through an extensive interviewing process, we developed a thorough understanding of the agency’s history, services, programs and partnerships. We then told the story in human terms that gave impact to all communications – regardless of audience – and augmented the more fact-oriented approach of the agency’s original Web site. Team PR worked closely with the client’s design and technology consultants to ensure that public relations extended to the look and feel and navigability of the site. Key strategic additions to the new Web site included an on-line contributions area, a separate menu tab devoted to its growing housing development initiative, a history of the organization and information specifically targeted toward funders.

For a nonprofit Research, Education and Advocacy Network devoted to fighting a growing chronic disease, Team PR provided strategy, community & media relations, and fundraising planning & support. The first step was to change the organization’s name to reflect its growth from a local grass-roots movement to an organization with a growing national profile. We publicized its efforts to educate the public and healthcare professionals, including educational workshops and curriculum development, and a video for students and educators -- as well as its close work with state and federal government officials. Team PR helped plan, and then publicized, its annual galas to raise funds for the creation -- at a prestigious New York City teaching hospital -- of the first endowed research facility in the nation focusing on this chronic disease. And, we collaborated with the hospital’s PR department to include the organization in its medical newsletter and then to celebrate the completion of the new endowed research center!