Best Friends Helping Best Friends - Canine Cancer Campaign

In August our family patriarch passed away. Red (aka Reddrick von Poopenheimer III) was the classiest of dogs. A Hungarian Vizsla, Red was as close to a human as a dog could be. He could open the fridge on his own, sing a tune and give you the slyest of winks. He was woven into our lives like nothing else, and we miss him every day.

It’s in honor of Red and all the other GFM fur babies who bring so much love and slobber into our lives that we’re working to raise money for canine cancer research as part of GroundFloor Media's Get Giving 10th Anniversary campaign.

Morris Animal Foundation's Canine Cancer Campaign is helping scientists worldwide prevent, treat and, ultimately, cure cancer in dogs. We believe that, working together, we can one day cure canine cancer. Research funded through the campaign will help develop prevention strategies, test new treatments, establish tools for cancer researchers and train new scientists specializing in cancer research.

Please donate today to help us create a healthier tomorrow for dogs.

~ Ashley

Knee-Deep in Underwearness

It’s not every Sunday afternoon that we find ourselves knee-deep in thousands of pairs of kids’ underwear. Now before you go calling the authorities, consider this: according to the Colorado Health Foundation’s most recent Colorado Health Report Card, more than 143,000 children in Colorado live in poverty. Our state ranks 14th in the nation for children living below the poverty line.

What do these things have to do with each other? Well, this holiday season thanks to a start-up charity called Underwearness, thousands of kids will receive new, clean underwear – something most of us take for granted, but for many underprivileged kids it is a rare extravagance. As part of its Get Giving 10th Anniversary campaign, GroundFloor Media’s Underdogs team (Wendy Artman, Carissa McCabe, Amy Moynihan, Claire Mylott and Ramonna Robinson) helped Underwearness founder Koree Khongphand-Buckman purchase and hand-sort thousands of pairs of girls’ and boys’ underwear. Koree started Underwearness out of her home when it came to her attention that some poverty-stricken children do not have underwear — clean or otherwise.

With Koree’s help the Underdogs team literally emptied the aisles at the local Kmart, then proceeded to count, sort by size and gender, and jam-pack boxes to help fulfill orders for several nonprofit organizations around town, including Safehouse Denver.

As we were diligently counting and sorting, what struck us most was the sheer volume of underwear needed by each organization. Safehouse Denver alone needed more than 1,000 pairs of varying sizes of underwear to accommodate the boys and girls it serves. All of us who volunteered that afternoon are mothers ourselves, and it was hard not to think about our own children and how fortunate we are to be able to provide for them. By literally being knee-deep in underwear destined for shelters, our eyes were truly opened to the dire straits of other Colorado families. There is something particularly enlightening about holding another child’s basic needs in your hands that stops you in your tracks.

In an effort to include GFM team members outside Colorado, too, the Underdogs have joined forces with Underwearness to launch a giving campaign in Milwaukee, where Wendy is based. Koree introduced us to a local supporter there, and we are helping to promote a drive with the goal of collecting 5,000 pairs of underwear for local nonprofit Journey House. Journey House will then distribute the underwear to families in need on Milwaukee’s south side.

We couldn’t be more proud to have helped Underwearness on a recent Sunday afternoon and to have expanded our support outside Colorado to the current fundraising drive in Milwaukee. Although our part is just a small drop in the bucket toward satisfying the demand for clean underwear, we walked away with a new appreciation for what a good heart, a great idea and lot of hard work can do. Thank you Koree and the Underwearness team for all you do to give kids dignity!

NOTE: if you’d like to get involved in our effort to support Underwearness in Colorado or in Wisconsin, please contact getgiving@groundfloormedia.com.

The Art & Science of Key Messages (part two)

(See Oct. 31 post for part one, which covered identifying target audiences)

Limit Key Messages to Three and Back Up with Proof Points

There's no magic to three key messages other than it's usually easier for people to remember items in threes. Coming up with three targeted, memorable messages will help everyone in the organization serve as ambassadors, delivering consistent messages each time they communicate on behalf of the organization. Developing proof points to accompany your messages will help bring your messages to life and make them stand out. This is where you can come up with a "kitchen sink" list of proof points for each message. Examples of proof points may include: awards and recognition, research, statistics, real-life examples, practical applications, etc.

Key messages Should Be One or Two Brief Sentences

Messages that are three or four sentences each will not be memorable or resonate with your target audiences. By writing your messages down, this will help you focus on making sure they're brief, concise and understandable.

Practice Makes Perfect

Once you develop key messages, it's critical to vet them. Practice your messages with people outside your company or organization. Deliver your messages to friends, family, neighbors and complete strangers, asking them to repeat back what they heard to ensure you’re accurately communicating your key messages. If your messages don't easily flow from your tongue and the recipient is having trouble repeating them back, they may need more work.

Train Your Employees, Volunteers

The final step, and one that is often overlooked, is training your spokespeople, employees, volunteers and other ambassadors for your company or organization on how to effectively deliver key messages and proof points when speaking to target audiences. Media train your spokespeople and have them practice delivering key messages in mock interviews. Role playing in groups where employees can team up in twos and practice sharing the messages in different mock settings (cocktail party, business lunch, child's soccer game) is another effective way to learn and become comfortable with the messages.

Uses for Key Messages

Your key messages and proof points should be incorporated into all internal and external communications efforts including media interviews, news releases, speaking opportunities, marketing materials, proposals, social media outreach, employee communications, website, etc. They should be reviewed and updated, especially your proof points, several times each year to ensure they remain relevant and timely.

GroundFloor Media recently worked with several nonprofit organizations, including Youth Opportunity Foundation, Colorado Youth at Risk and Rose Community Foundation, to help them develop key messages and proof points for their respective organizations.

~ Barb Jones

The Colfax Crew Connects with the Colfax Community Network

The Colfax Crew team has adopted Colfax Community Network (CCN) as its beneficiary for GroundFloor Media’s 10th anniversary Get Giving program. For Amanda Brannum, Laura Love, Jennefer Traeger, Kimmie Greene and myself, all it took was a few words about CCN to make us realize that we wanted to be a part of supporting its mission.

Let’s start with one simple question…

What do you think about when you drive down Colfax Avenue and pass motel after dilapidated motel?

I am willing to bet you don’t think very highly of the people who are inside. The terms drug addict, criminals and prostitutes probably come to mind. There may also be an assumption that the motel dwellers deserve to be there, or that they haven’t worked hard enough to find better housing.

However, what if you learned that those motels actually house hundreds of families with young children—children who do not choose to be born into poverty and spend their entire childhood growing up in those conditions? What would you think if someone told you that the grandparents, parents and children in the residential motels are more of a community—a community of good people who are struggling every day to stay one small step above being homeless?

When the Colfax Crew team learned the truth about those “seedy” Colfax Avenue motels, we knew that we wanted to donate our time and Get Giving donation budget to these families and the CCN staff.

Currently, CCN focuses on the following services for the motel community:

• Family Night
• Emergency Walk-In Services
• Access to Services
• After School Program
• Summer Camp

CCN is also always looking for volunteers and donations. We encourage you to visit the “Get Involved” section of the website to review available volunteer positions and current wish list items.

In the coming weeks our team is thrilled to be donating time and resources in several areas. We will attend a Family Night gathering to meet motel families and learn first-hand about their struggles and the support CCN provides. We are also sponsoring six field trips for children serviced by CCN in order to expose them to new, positive Denver experiences and hopefully lighten their spirits in the process. And finally, we will collect clothing and hygiene products for the families to help fulfill CCN’s current wish list needs.

We look forward to sharing our experiences with you here on the GFM blog. Click here to read more about our work with CCN, and please email us at getgiving@groundfloormedia.com if you would like to get involved as well!

~Alexis Anderson