Gina Elise of Redlands, Calif., writes this week’s Help This Hound question:
“I am the Founder of Pin-ups for Vets, an award-winning non-profit organization that supports hospitalized veterans and deployed service members.
“We produce World War II-style pin-up calendars that raise money for hospitalized veterans. We use the money to buy rehabilitation equipment to help our veterans in their physical, occupational and cognitive therapy sessions. Although we have won a number of community service awards, we have never been funded. We’re using hundreds of volunteer hours to keep the organization operating.
“Our biggest challenge has been to get the word out there to the rest of the U.S. about our small organization with the big heart so we can help more wounded warriors .
“As the 1940’s-style calendar girl in the Pin-Ups for Vets calendar, I have made thousands of personal bedside visits to ill and injured vets in VA and military hospitals across the U.S. and overseas to present the donated calendar gifts from my supporters . The response to the hospital visits has been overwhelming!
“We would love to find a way to spread the word about our organization and have had some publicity on FOX news, in Stars & Stripes and in other media, but we need more. We can’t afford a publicist right now. Can your Publicity Hounds give us some ideas on how to spread the word about what we’re doing so we can sell more calendars and help more injured vets?”
I have a client that would be of great service to you. She is a coach who helps nonprofits with marketing, fund-raising, publicity, etc.
She’s Sandy Rees and she can be found at http://getfullyfunded.com/gff-home/. If you want to get more ideas, see her blog at http://getfullyfunded.com/blog/
She and other non-profit coaches have a promotion under way and you can pick up lots of free goodies that will help you. Go to http://nonprofitgoodies.com/
Sandy is a terrific resource for nonprofits! She’s so good, in fact, that I invited her to be the guest expert on a webinar I presented a few months ago.
Gina’s work sounds so worthwhile. Perhaps she could organise an old fashioned bathing beauty competition where contestants are asked to dress in the style of the 40’s – bathers, shoes, hair and make-up. This event could be used to launch the latest calendar and major media outlets could be invited to the event. It would provide an opportunity for great black and white shots or even footage for TV. WIth the movie “Silent Movie” being nominated for this year’s Academy Awards the timing seems to be great. Better still, why not approach someone like David Letterman or Jay Leno to do a segment for their show covering the contest and helping to promote the cause.
One of the things I love about Help This Hound, Sophie, is that Hounds like you make this so much darn fun.
The 40s theme would be a blast and I can actually see young women getting excited about this. Love the tie-in to Silent Movie. Thanks for sharing.
How about tying in to dance clubs that do be-bop, swing and other era-style dancing? they are vibrant and often young communities that would probably love the calendars. good luck with your promo!
Great idea, Margaret. It would be worth going over to Meetup.com to see what dance groups you can find over there.
Thanks to you, Joan, for sharing this information. The timing couldn’t be better for my writing partner and I to share your information with our readers. I’m co-authoring Once Upon Our Times (because life isn’t a fairy tale): 65 Years Growing Up Baby Boomer, due out in May. The website and blog, also being redesigned in about 3 weeks is http://www.onceuponourtimes.com – and we will feature Gina and http://www.pinupsforvets prominently in a future blog post, plus in our new website Resource Section with a description.
And Gina, if you have a favorite World War II pin-up of you, we’d like to use it in our book’s W.W. II chapter among our photos and illustrations (and of course, give you the credit line as well as be in our Resources at the end of the book.
My tail wags every time somebody like you reaches out and starts a relationship with a Hound who needs help, Sharon. I’m sure Gina will be thrilled. So glad to be able to connect both of you.
As a veteran and someone who works in the nonprofit sector, this question caught my attention.
There are hundreds of veteran groups on LinkedIn – but don’t limit yourself to those centered on Iraq and Afghanistan. This is because there are 10’s of thousands of vets willing to help those serving now who didn’t happen to serve in these conflicts. Just search on “groups” in LI and use the term “veterans” and you’ll get a long list.
Join some groups and post a clever discussion with a link to a unique landing page with a photo and story of one veteran’s response to receiving the calendar. Then explain how donors can help more vets with their donation. Don’t talk about what YOU do…talk about what donors accomplish. This is the secret to fundraising known as donor-centric copy.
Hopefully you have a Facebook page and can do something similar. You might consider running an ad on Facebook. They are rather simple to create and you can control the budget similar to Google Adwords. Again, lots of vets and patriotic family members in Facebook.
Use social media. And Gina, if you want to contact me perhaps I can feature you in one of my blog posts.
Facebook ads–yes! So each to really drill down into a niche. Thanks, Karen.
Thank you all so very much for your comments and suggestions! @Christine, I will definitely have to contact Sandy! Thank you for the heads up! @Sophie, Love the bathing beauties idea! We are planning a fundraising event in Hollywood for February, and I think we’re going to do a pin-up contest! @Margaret, I hope to get a burlesque troupe to perform at this next event! @Sharon, I would love to give you one of my shots to use in your book! Please e-mail me at gina@pinupsforvets.com and I can definitely send one to you! @Joan…thank you so much for posting! I really appreciate it so much! And please fan the Facebook page if you haven’t! Lots of exciting things coming up 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/pinupsforvets
Glad we could help, Gina. Check back here periodically to see if others have left comments.
Hi Gina,
Reece Franklin here in Chino Hills, a stones throw from you. I am very involved with many senior networking groups out here (senior industry groups like Access to Seniors and Networking for Seniors, to name a few of the 32 groups in So Cal.)
Give me a shout and I will direct you to the Presidents and right people so you can begin to attend the free meetings, meet the movers and shakers, and get them to know you and your group. About 40 – 60 people attend each meeting. You don’t have time to go to all, but after 13 years in the senior marketing biz, I know which ones are good, and which are not.
email me: reece4seniors@gmail.com
Cell: 909-841-0527
Reece, how generous of you! Gina will really appreciate this. Thanks a bunch.
Gina —
I would welcome a guest blog post from you for my blog http://www.mrslieutenant.blogspot.com — I will then promote the post through my social media activities, including being active on Twitter for #sot (support our troops) and #milmon (Military Monday).
You can email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com
Phyllis
Phyllis, thanks so much for the offer. You’e a great contact for Gina.
I added the “Pin-Up for Vets” on my Pinterest – created a Veterans Board.
Cynthia, that’s terrific! Please share the link here.
Here is the link where I posted “Pin-Up for Vets” on Pinterest.
http://pinterest.com/ladyfarmer/veterans/
Terrific! Why not search for “veterans” on Pinterest and find a few other photos for your board?