PR Move of the Day:matching of a worthy recipient who will draw attention, support the charity and match its goals can be very complex, and the charity itself, especially if it is a local affiliate of a national charity, has its work cut out for itself making sure that all the goals stay aligned, while at the same time getting a recipient who will generate some buzz. Making the award sustainable over time and keeping the date and the event on the calendar as a “must attend” for donors is also a major challenge.
On.award that is continuing to meet all those challengesthe Thurman Munson Award and dinner, held in early February in New York each year. The foundation, which assists challenged children, is named after the late Yankee great and supported by his foundation and family, and always looks to honor diverse athletes, with a solid tie back to baseball and the Yankees, while also finding other athletes who will suporrt the cause. This year that charity took a strategic approach that seems to be paying off with a wide variety of advance coverage (which hopefully leads to more revenue generated and awareness of the award) by using ties t.local teams (Alex Rodriguez and David Wright), a tie t.the Hispanic community (Melky Cabrera), a tie to a retiring future Hall of Famer with local roots (the Astros Craig Biggio) a solid local basketballer (Jamal Crawford) and an Olympic twis.(Kristi Yamaguchi). Although a large number of recipents of “Thurmans” may dilute the award according to some, the PR buzz generated by industry vet John Cirillo both on the local and national level has ranged from notes in all the local papers (Bergen Record, Daily News, New York Post) and on a host of well trafficed sites like mlb.com. The difference here is that the PR spin has tied to timely issues regarding the athletes that fit in the regular news cycle, and pulling the charity mention in that way has given more traction than just saying “so and so is an award winner.. It has added more meat to the connection and actually given beat writers both access to athletes in the offseason and a solid reason to include the charity info.strategic place on the calendar (after the Super Bowl, before the NBA All-Star weekend and just as the Hot Stove is heating up) gives th.Thurman a great chance to continue to make the charity and the award dinner a source of buzz, interest and coverage. Adding in a local media personality as emcee will also bring added coverage. So, the “Thurman” has covered all the bases and should be setting the table for a bright future for the charity.
