Category Archives: CreateAthon

CreateAthon

A Riggs Partners community service program that provides pro bono marketing planning and materials to area nonprofits. There have been two offshoots: the National CreateAthon Network, with agencies across the country participating; and CreateAthon OnCampus, developed for the university setting. Combined gifts: $11 million

posted by Teresa

Mar 13, 2013 @ 10:26am

Global Pro Bono? CreateAthon Worldwide? Believe.

“YOU are CreateAthon?”

            “Well, uh, yes, I guess I am.”

“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s really you! I talk to people in India about CreateAthon all the time!”

That is what greeted me within 10 minutes of stepping into an evening reception at the Global Pro Bono Summit, hosted recently by Taproot Foundation. It was a moment that took my breath away, and the start of a 24-hour experience that filled me with the promise of good in the world like never before.

Joining me at the event in NYC was none other than  CreateAthon Chief Evangelical Officer Peyton Rowe. That, in itself, is enough to get me pumped up on the matter of all things pro bono. Then there were our friends from Taproot Foundation, A Billion + Change, and other swell folks from socially minded corporations we’ve come to know. I expected to see these flag-bearers for pro bono, and to once again be inspired by their leadership.

What I encountered was something altogether different.

I was surrounded by people from about a dozen different countries who were part of Taproot’s global fellows program. Then there were “intermediaries,” people throughout the US who lead programs designed to mobilize pro bono efforts in their respective industries and/or communities. Like CreateAthon.

Before we intermediaries were introduced to the global fellows, Taproot Founder and event organizer Aaron Hurst provided some meaningful context to us on why these people had come to New York, and why we had been invited to meet them:

“Understand that most of the people you’ll meet today come from countries in which pro bono is neither encouraged nor tolerated. In some cases, they are not only putting themselves at professional risk for advocating the practice of pro bono, but also personal. They can go to jail for this.

“You’re here to get to know them, encourage them, and connect with them from now on, so they can be prepared to carry out this work when they go home.”

That got our attention.

Then here they came, 22 of the most delightful people I’ve ever met. Between their broken English and my heavy Southern accent, we often had to repeat ourselves or help interpret each other’s sentences. But what transcended that awkward dialogue was the immediate, shared spark of something between us: the belief in pro bono.

There’s so much to say about this experience — perhaps I shall come back here and unpack all of my takeaways — but for now, I hope you’ll be inspired by three things I now know to be true, thanks to this global gathering of good.

Pro bono is going to become an industry, not a nice to do.

We can capitalize on it and make a living giving it scale throughout the world. What some may have once considered a pipe dream is now quickly becoming a force.

People are different. Their hearts are the same.

The power of human connections around a central cause has never been more palpable to me than in the last two weeks. All it takes is one moment, and an extended hand.

The impact of CreateAthon has only just begun.

Our 24-hour marathon model is being noticed in places far from here, not just in India. In France: “We now have a marathon model in place inspired by CreateAthon.”

In the Netherlands: “Oh yes, we’ve heard of you. What a great program!”

In Germany: “We love CreateAthon, and I am going to get you to Berlin to teach us how to do it.”

Where do we go from here? Global fellows, corporate leaders, and intermediaries like us will reassemble for Global Pro Bono Summit II a year from now. In the meantime, we’ll be connecting with each other, one by one, sharing ideas and offering encouragement. We’ll also be working together on a number of initiatives coming out of the summit that will help to move the global pro bono movement forward in the next 12 months.

The last thing I know for sure?

If you have a little idea, it can be big.

Peyton checks in at our mod venue, Steelcase

 

Telling our stories, one by one

P and T reunite with our global bestie, Armin from BMW Foundation.

Heated debate among the panel of judges for best global pro bono plan

Champion of pro bono and lover of all things CreateAthon: Taproot Foundation founder Aaron Hurst

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posted by Teresa

Nov 12, 2012 @ 4:15pm

Altria and CreateAthon Connect for Good

So here’s what happened: One year ago last week, Peyton Rowe and I found ourselves in Washington, DC at the launch of A Billion + Change, a national movement to mobilize billions of dollars in pro bono service. We were there to talk about CreateAthon® as an example of what a small business can accomplish when it chooses to put its talents to work for social good. In between pinching ourselves, we had the opportunity to meet a great number of people with very impressive titles from very big companies.

The shocker? When one person after another came up to us and said “Oh, CreateAthon. I’ve heard of that.” At which point Peyton and I would not look at each other for fear of blowing our cover as global marketing sophisticates.

One of those friendly folks was Cynthia Cecil from Altria, a Fortune 500 company and parent of Phillip Morris USA, US Smokeless Tobacco, John Middleton and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. We stayed in touch, and to our delight got a call from her this summer, asking if we might be able to help their brand strategists organize a CreateAthon event. You can imagine the back flips we threw over the idea of bringing CreateAthon to a company like Altria. One, I might add, that just last Thursday was named to Bloomberg’s Civic Top 50 list.

Since that time, Peyton, Yanti and I have been working with the Altria teams, conducting workshops, organizing conference calls, and providing all manner of consulting on the secret sauce that is CreateAthon. We also had the pleasure of having Jamie Berkowitz and Alex Viscarra from Altria at the CreateAthon Mothership’s 15th annual event. (They lived to tell the tale, and were even more fired up after they had their own dousing of the CreateAthon spirit.)

All of which leads us up to this Thursday, November 15, at 8:00 am, when just over 40 employees and volunteers will gather at Altria’s first-ever CreateAthon to make marketing magic for four Richmond-area nonprofits. Special guest volunteers will be branding gods from none other than Landor Associates and the PR gurus at CRT/tanaka.

And in the glorious middle of it all will be Peyton, CreateAthon’s Chief Evangelical Officer. She’ll be throwing around the pixie dust and signing on more CreateAthon converts for life.

Are we surprised to see CreateAthon land in the Fortune 500? Not really. Because pro bono service isn’t about small business or big business. It’s about people with big hearts. And we’ve found plenty at Altria.

Stay tuned for some goodness.

Jamie and Alex: they came, they created, they were converted.

 

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posted by Teresa

Oct 31, 2012 @ 10:48am

A Billion + Reasons to Believe

Earlier this month, we had the honor of officially welcoming A Billion + Change and the national movement for skills-based, pro bono service to South Carolina. Along with our friends at the Central Carolina Community Foundation, we hosted a gathering of 60 or so bright-minded business leaders with the intent of starting a dialogue in South Carolina on the benefits of skills-based volunteerism.

We Riggs folks are always up for a conversion about pro bono, and the Billion + breakfast was a great way to share our belief in skills-based volunteerism as a means of corporate social responsibility. But my new best Twitter friend Paul Klein unearthed a whole new perspective in his Forbes post this week by stating “social change isn’t the responsibility of business, it is the result of business.”

That’s what A Billion + Change is really all about: helping American businesses understand that the fastest and most profound way to create results in the community is to give employees the opportunity to put their best business skills and talents to work for nonprofits. In doing so, they help NGOs and NPOs build the kind of capacity and intellectual resources they need to build sustainability and move their missions forward.

We’re thrilled with the enthusiastic response from the A Billion + Change event, and we look forward to sharing more news very soon about the South Carolina companies that are taking the pledge to create or expand their own skills-based, pro bono programs. As always, we believe South Carolinians will rise to the occasion, expressing our collective belief in doing the kind of work that matters most.

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posted by Teresa

Oct 01, 2012 @ 3:46pm

Prepping Nonprofits for Pro Bono

It never fails. Post CreateAthon, we find ourselves contemplating a certain set of questions related to the work we develop for nonprofits during 24+ hours of caffeine-injected, creative madness.

“Will they really be able to execute this work?”
“How can we know this work will be successful?”
“Should we enforce more upfront parameters?”
“Was this nonprofit ready for us?”

We’re not alone in this line of thinking. Every company involved in a pro bono initiative wants to know its investment of time and professional expertise will make a real impact within the nonprofit organization it supports.

But just when these questions began to creep again in this year, we were greeted by a brand new book from our friends at Taproot Foundation that begins to put it all in perspective. Aaron Hurst and company have put the question of nonprofit readiness to the test in Powered by Pro Bono, a guidebook designed to help nonprofits prepare their organizations in a way that can attract and make the most of pro bono service. The book clearly defines the difference between “getting some free stuff” to integrating pro bono service as a highly strategic tool to help build capacity in a nonprofit organization.

Why should nonprofits care? Every day, more and more companies are developing pro bono programs that allow employees to put their professional skills to work for social good. The flip side of that demands nonprofits must prove themselves as worthy beneficiaries, and it’s not enough just to ask for help: They must be able to both articulate a compelling case for support and demonstrate their ability to act on the pro bono counsel and deliverables they receive.

Every nonprofit that ever hopes to secure pro bono services would be wise to read this book now and immediately put its principles and resources into action. It’s a gift to every nonprofit that recognizes the power of pro bono and has the chops to bring it to bear within their organization.

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posted by Julie

Sep 27, 2012 @ 6:50am

CreateAthon delivers for nonprofits again.

On Thursday, September 20, a group of workers gathered in West Columbia. They began when most workdays do, but they didn’t stop when most others called it a day. They worked all day and all night for nine nonprofits — one as far away as Michigan.

The WECO was again home base for the 15th annual CreateAthon, an epic 24-hour probono event imagined by two women in 1997 – one that’s spawned a national network of generosity. The late-night brainstorm of Cathy Monetti and Teresa Coles is now a national corporate social responsibility vehicle. This year, 25 companies, colleges and universities, and creative collectives adopted the model throughout the year – many during National CreateAthon Week, September 17-21, 2012.

What did 41 inspired professional volunteers accomplish in just 24 hours? This:

  • 11 : collateral pieces (soup-to-nuts)
  • 5 : social media strategies with supporting graphics
  • 5 : Powerpoint presentations
  • 4 : logo designs (from scratch)
  • 4 : website (IA, design and content)
  • 4 : full letterhead/ID packages
  • 3 : brand strategies
  • 2 : logo refreshes
  • 2 : fundraising theme ideas
  • 2 : outdoor campaigns
  • 2 : sticker designs
  • 2 : brand standards handbooks
  • 1 : brand re-naming
  • 1 : marketing strategy
  • 1 : campaign creative concept
  • 1 : website content refresh
  • 1 : fully-written website
  • 1 : video (on-the-fly)
  • 1: brand jewelry design

Don’t mistake the real value of CreateAthon. It isn’t quantity. It’s the joy we bring to over worked, underpaid nonprofit staffers. It’s the hope we bring to a group that wants to raise money but doesn’t know where to begin. It’s the services we bring to life – programs that shelter pets, help children grow, protect the rights of individuals with disablities, help families in crisis and so much more.

CreateAthon is a buffet of brilliance for people who get by with what they have year after year so others need not go without.

We’re not here to create a truckload of marketing stuff the world doesn’t really need. The heart of CreateAthon is our nation’s nonprofits. Their hard work is what our world cannot afford to be without.

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