Campaign: Birthday Blessings for Pope Benedict XVI
Winner: Nat'l Catholic Educational Association
What do you give a man who has everything--including the highest post in the Catholic Church--for his birthday? If you are the NCEA, you give him the gift of community service.
To honor Pope Benedict XVI's 81st birthday, the organization solicited volunteers from its network of U.S. Catholic elementary and high schools to communicate the group's
commitment to bettering communities.
With only eight weeks to prepare for the event, which would take place during the Pope's visit to the United States, the communications team set out to clock 709,560 hours of
volunteer work, representing the total number of hours in the Pope's 81 years of life. Reaching out to members via e-mail blasts, a Web site, promotions in association
publications and press releases distributed to targeted Catholic and secular media, the team began its mission for pledges promising volunteer hours.
Pledges started pouring in so quickly that the team bumped up its goal to 1 million volunteer hours, which was ultimately surpassed with a grand total of more than 2.2 million
hours of pledged community service. Association members and three students had the opportunity present the gift in person April 16, 2008.
Honorable Mentions
Cone and T-Mobile for T-Mobile Huddle Up--In 2006, Cone teamed up with T-Mobile USA to launch Huddle Up, the company's national community outreach effort that connects high-
need kids of urban areas to positive people, places and programs. Since its inception, the initiative has helped serve nearly 100,000 children and families through donated time
and products.
United Way for Day of Action--June 21, 2008, marked the longest day of the year, and United Way took advantage of the extra hours of daylight to ignite a social movement across
the country. More than 70,000 people nationwide linked up to participate in volunteer activities that day, involving 202 local United Way chapters and garnering more than 20
million media impressions.