Did you know that Easterseals South Florida has been serving families in South Florida for nearly 80 years?

Or that…

  • Nearly 600 Children and Families are preparing for success in Easterseals’ Head Start and Early Head Start programs?
  • Each year, 750 older adults and their caregivers are helped by Easterseals’ Adult Day Care and In-Home respite programs?
  • More than 1 in 4 Americans are affected by a disability?
We were delighted to learn about Easterseals’ work in helping every child in their Head Start, early education, and special education programs to reach his/her full potential and every adult living with Alzheimer’s or other memory disorder—and their caregivers—to live the fullest and most dignified life possible.

As you may know, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated nearly $4.2 Billion in gifts to hundreds of nonprofits in late 2020. Her comments on the giving, made via her blog post on Medium, included the sentiment that, “These 384 carefully selected teams have dedicated their lives to helping others, working and volunteering and serving real people face-to-face.” These gifts were both unsolicited by the nonprofits that received them and unrestricted in their use—and Ms. Scott shared that the recipients, “help by delivering vital services, and also through the profound encouragement felt each time a person is seen, valued and trusted by another human being.”

Easterseals South Florida was one of five organizations across Broward and Miami-Dade Counties to benefit from one of these gifts. The $6 Million contribution was the largest cash gift ever received by Easterseals and the largest single gift to the organization in more than 20 years.

As a result of Ms. Scott’s generosity, the leadership team and Board of Directors wanted to develop and execute a communication plan to celebrate this astonishing generosity and to express their sincere gratitude for Ms. Scott’s support of their mission.

Our strategy focused on the series of emotions that such a surprising contribution, given at the end of the hardest year in memory, evoked across the organization: surprise, encouragement, amazement, inspiration, motivation and gratitude. We developed content for internal and external emails, social posts, press releases, and FAQs; crafted personalized communications assignments for each executive staff and board member; and engaged local media to extend the outreach.  From hundreds of texts, calls, and emails exchanged during the course of the activation, the most gratifying part of the project was the true collaboration with the Easterseals team.

As former CEO, Loreen Chant, shared, “In December, we learned that Easterseals South Florida was a recipient of a gift from author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Starting on the Saturday morning before the announcement, Carla and her team took decisive action in developing a comprehensive internal and external communications plan. From the emails we sent to our employees to our social media posts and media relations, her team created thoughtful content and prepared us to activate our plan as soon as the formal announcement was made. We were thrilled to be featured in The Miami Herald, Community Newspapers, and The Sun Sentinel and to highlight our gratitude for this generous gift in as many ways as we did. Carla worked effectively with Easterseals’ staff and board members, and we felt involved every step of the way. I cannot say enough about this great team.”

We were delighted to help the Easterseals South Florida team build audiences, engage communities, and create connections.

Does your organization need to celebrate your supporters, to recognize your partners, or to share your community impact? We can help.

Let’s talk and hatch a plan together.