Ed Weihenmayer has forged all kinds of relationships between corporations and causes, some that have made international news, even history. At Wall Street stalwart Solomon
Brothers, he worked with New York City School summer programs to pair up employees with inner city kids. As the manager, partner, and self-acknowledged PR guy for Erik
Weihenmayer, who last week became the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest, he pressed the corporate flesh to get backing for a documentary of the expedition. Ultimately, a
New York-based independent PR person working with the Weihenmayers lined up Aventis, a pharmaceutical company that makes the allergy drug Allegra.
"We found Allegra just three or four weeks before the climb," says Weihenmayer. "And it was big for us, because the shooting of the documentary [including] sending cameras to
Nepal, cost more than the climb itself."
A blind climber and an allergy medicine don't seem like a serendipitous match but in an Aventis release, Erik confessed that the blooming Nepalese flora would be his greatest
challenge. "Allergies may seem like a minor nuisance but they are actually a huge distraction, so I talked with my doctor about treatment options," he said. "I haven't let
blindness stop me from achieving my goals so I was certainly not going to let my seasonal allergies stop me either."
Personal triumphs over adversity make great causes for corporations to rally behind, and Chris Rosica, president of the New Jersey-based PR firm Rosica Mulhern, argues that the
less serendipitous, the better. "Finding a good match between a for-profit and a nonprofit is more about exploring key principles, not looking for what seems like would be a good
fit," says Rosica, adding, "if a relationship is too obvious, I would say that's not a good match."
At First Glance
Some years back, Rosica recalls handling PR for a professional race car driver from Oregon. In the course of regular meetings, Rosica noticed his client wore an eye patch and
inquired about it. His client replied he did so on the advice of his doctor, who recommended it as a way to strengthen his vision, which is very important in a sport that exceeds
speeds of 200 miles per hour.
Rosica ran with the information and pitched it to journalists, promoting his client as an advocate for the importance of healthy vision and regular eye exams. And Rosica hit
the media jackpot--his client landed on the cover of Parade magazine, the first race car driver ever to appear there. Development execs at Sears Craftsman Tools read the
story and ultimately gave his client a sponsorship of $10 million dollars over three years. A couple in Seattle bequeathed $1 million to the Seeing Eye foundation, citing the
Parade article as the reason.
Rosica is also a firm believer in chasing down philanthropic endeavors that no one has heard about yet. Corporations who get behind nearly invisible causes, he says, may start
the metaphorical trickle that begets a raging river of support.
Back in the 70s, Rosica's firm handled publicity for Wally Amos (when he was not famous) of Famous Amos Cookies. Rosica picked Amos's brain about becoming involved in a
cause that wasn't burning up the papers and found that Amos had problems learning to read as a child and wished to promote literacy. Rosica worked the phones and set up Amos as
the spokesperson for the literacy Volunteers of America, a small nonprofit.
The partnership attracted enough media attention to attract Barbara Bush, not yet First Lady. She called Rosica to inquire more about the program and he convinced her to join
Amos as a co-spokesperson. Once her husband won the White House, Mrs. Bush adopted literacy as her central work. "The most successful causes inspire other peoples' passion,"
comments Rosica.
Think Like a Business
As Corporate Manager of Public Relations for Nissan North America, Dierdre Francis-Dickerson is first to say that education-related philanthropy can't miss for boosting a
company's image. In 1989, Nissan development staff, in discussions with UCLA professors, noticed a substantial drop-off in the number of minority students who were continuing on
to post-graduate education. They decided that working with professors, not college students, might be more effective in encouraging minorities to enroll in graduate programs.
Nissan staff created a professional development seminar, the Nissan-ETS Historically Black Colleges and Universities Summer Institute, to travel each year to historically black
colleges around the country. The idea was to expose professors, who tend to remain cloistered, to cutting-edge business research that would help them motivate students to pursue
advanced degrees.
The program, in its thirteenth year, now also targets college administrators. Francis-Dickerson says it's had a positive impact on minority education and Nissan's branding
efforts, stating that while fulfilling corporate goals to focus heavily on education, the Institute allows staff to "work with an audience that we also target" because minorities
"are a consumer group whose disposable earnings power is increasing every year."
Francis-Dickerson says that encouraging colleges to think and act more like businesses have been part of the reasons why the program has succeeded. Allison DaSilva, Vice
President of Cause Branding for Cone, Inc., Boston, agrees. She cites the Boys and Girls Clubs as a good example of a nonprofit's flexibility in meeting a corporate partner's
needs. The Clubs create internal account teams committed to making sure the organization meets the corporate project objectives. Such action wins the confidence of the corporate
sponsor and may even work against the stereotype that nonprofits are sleepy, inefficient organizations compared to for-profit groups.
(Ed Weihenmayer, 904/321-1938; Chris Rosica, 201/843-5600; Dierdre Francis-Dickerson, 310/771 -6461; Allison DaSilva, 617.227.2111; Ann Andrews, 703/683-7838; Chris Rosica,
201/843-5600)
Greed is Good
Ed Weihenmayer doesn't believe his son Erik's greatest achievement will be treading the top of the world but, perhaps, shattering the stereotype that the blind are less capable
of leading a normal life. "Maybe this will inspire disabled people to reach beyond what they might otherwise reach for," he says. And in return, he retains a healthy respect for
Aventis' wish to turn a profit from his son's media exposure. Weihenmayer says that corporate philanthropy probably wouldn't exist if profit weren't an incentive and that PR
professionals should never dance around this reality. "We're really enjoying this relationship [with Aventis]," he says. "And if you structure it so both sides are winning, the
benefits will never end."
Winning Philanthropy
Business Ethics magazine released their 100 best corporate citizens, recognizing "America's most profitable and socially-responsible companies." Proctor and Gamble tops the
list, recognized for earthquake relief in Turkey and community building projects in Japan. Selected winners who use their Web sites to promote their philanthropic efforts appear
below, with their rankings on BE's list. View the entire roster at http://www.business-ethics.com.
Proctor & Gamble (#1)
http://www.pg.com
Hewlett-Packard (#2)
http://www.hp.com
Cisco Systems (#19)
http://www.cisco.com
Starbucks (#24)
http://www.starbucks.com