Today, we continue our new series on community relations, Community Tuesday. These posts, pioneered by Eric Shainock '14, focus on best practices and highlight feel-good stories from throughout the industry.
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By: Eric Shainock '14
As a part of my graduate program, I was fortunate enough to complete an internship with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. I flew down to Memphis the week before the 2013 FedEx St. Jude Classic tournament to help prepare for the golf tournament at St. Jude headquarters and then at TPC Southwind, which is located by FedEx headquarters.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is the second largest non-profit, impacting children all over the world. To fund the hospital, ALSAC (the fundraising arm of the hospital) must raise $1.9 million per day just to cover its costs because no child pays a penny when he or she comes to St. Jude. This means that St. Jude has to be creative in ways that it fundraises to continue providing research and cures for childhood cancers.
The tournament that is now known as the FedEx St. Jude Classic was founded in 1958 as the Memphis Open. In 1969, Danny Thomas agreed to lend his name to the tournament and St. Jude became the event's sole charity. This continued until 1985, when tournament officials agreed to put more emphasis on the hospital, and so they changed the name to the St. Jude Memphis Classic. One year later, Federal Express became the title sponsor and donations drastically increased. By bringing in a high-profile brand as a partner, the tournament prestige skyrocketed. In almost 40 years, the tournament has raised more than $25 million dollars, with the majority of it coming since FedEx attached its name to the tournament. During the week leading up to the tournament, there is also a benefit concert and benefit dinner to help raise money for St. Jude. What was once just a golf tournament has evolved into a week full of events to raise awareness and money for the children of St. Jude.
John Rich of Big and Rich said, "St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital holds a very special place in my heart, that’s why I'm excited to kick off the FedEx St. Jude Classic with the John Rich & Friends concert." Rich says on his noble headlining duties, "I don't know how you could spend your time any better on this earth than to support something like St. Jude. It’s truly God's work – taking care of them babies."
St. Jude is also heavily involved with the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a partner of Hoops for St. Jude week, a national campaign with NBA Cares to raise funds for the children of St. Jude. It has player ambassadors throughout the league and the hospital tries to get each team to visit the hospital when they come to town to play the Grizzlies. This helps raise the children's spirits as well as provide a rewarding opportunity for the players to give back.
St. Jude also works with Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Football League (NFL) through its Play 60 campaign and St. Jude's annual Thanks and Giving campaign. By associating themselves with world class leagues and sports, St. Jude is able to reach millions of people through the use of sport. In the fundraising space, the first step is to create awareness for the need, which St. Jude is successful at through its sport initiatives. The second step is to acquire these people and hopefully turn them into donors. In sports, we are lucky to have an emotional connection with potential donors because of the passion that comes with athletics. In turn, we can use this emotion to tie it with a worthy cause, either in the non-profit or community relations space.
Takeaways for Community Relations
- Try to partner with existing high-profile brands or associations
This gives more credibility to any event if someone is willing to back it with his name. St. Jude is fortunate that Danny Thomas originally lent his name to the tournament and it only grew from there with the addition of Federal Express and Window World. These partnerships will create awareness, which in turn will hopefully lead to donations.
- Partner with local brands or companies
St. Jude and FedEx have been perfect partners because both are located in Memphis. It gives the tournament a local feel that helps bring out the most ardent supporters. However, it also reaches a national audience because the tournament is an official PGA event. Thus, it will receive and national exposure by being branded with high-profile brands.
That’s a wrap for this week. As always, please feel free to give suggestions on how Eric can improve his posts and any future topics that would be of interest!
Next week Eric will discuss the work being done in the college space with the Badgers Give Back program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Contact Eric
Community Tuesday Archives
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How San Francisco Made a Wish Come True
As a part of my graduate program, I was fortunate enough to complete an internship with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. I flew down to Memphis the week before the 2013 FedEx St. Jude Classic tournament to help prepare for the golf tournament at St. Jude headquarters and then at TPC Southwind, which is located by FedEx headquarters.
