Winner: Noreen Heron & Associates – Fellowship for the Performing Arts, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation & Troops First Foundation
Noreen Heron & Associates’ unique team approach to public relations is supported by its repeated success in bolstering nonprofit missions and campaigns. A pioneer of new communications technologies, NH&A developed a database to directly target consumers in the Chicagoland area that has now grown to over 50,000 contacts. Its grassroots marketing and forward-thinking digital practices continually push the envelope and achieve unmatched results for their clients.
For the past four years, Heron and her team have managed public relations, community outreach, direct mail, group sales and advertising for Fellowship for the Performing Arts, a Christian theater production nonprofit. In 2013 they helped the FPA to produce 85 shows to more than 57,000 patrons across the country. Over the year, they secured national media placements in The New Yorker, the LA Times, The Boston Globe and several major market dailies—not to mention more than 5 million media impressions.
NH&A helped the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to secure record-setting publicity on their annual fundraising event the Grand Chefs Gala. The event garnered immense press coverage that included two segments on ABC and coverage in a number of Chicago-based new outlets and ultimately raised $550,000, making it the second most successful Grand Chefs Gala in the 17-year history of the event. A three-week campaign for Feherty’s Troops First Foundation supported the nonprofit’s Operation Warrior Call program, which encourages service members nationally to reach out to their “battle buddies” in order to re-connect and check in on each other’s well-being. The public relations professionals at NH&A secured radio and television interviews with former pro golfer David Feherty as well as over 300 million media impressions and executed grassroots marketing efforts that included outreach to over 500 military organizations.
Honorable Mentions:
- Rock Orange – AARP: life Reimagined
- C Fox Communications
- Cone Communications Leverages Cause Legacy to Help Nonprofits Drive Greater Social Impact
- Eastwick – D-Rev: Design for Impact
- The Horn Group
- PRR, Inc.
- Weber Shandwick on behalf of the Ad Council – TEACH
- Weber Shandwick and Join My Village