If you’re looking for good public relations case studies, just open a history book. Recently, Gary McKechnie, author of USA 101: A Guide to America’s Iconic Places, Events and Festivals, spoke at an event for one of our clients. He gave an excellent historical example of a phenomenal fund-raising effort.
Most people know that the French built and funded the Statue of Liberty. However, many forget that America was tasked with raising money for its pedestal. And it cost a lot – almost as much as the statue itself. Traditional fund-raising campaign strategies to erect the statue faltered. After all, it’s hard to get excited about this call to action:
Raise money for
The Statue of Liberty’s
pedestal fund
Enter Hungarian immigrant Joseph Pulitzer, successful journalist and owner of the New York World newspaper. In an editorial, he chastised the wealthy for not getting behind the project. He also challenged the middle class to raise money, because he proclaimed this was America’s statue – not just a rich man’s gift. In a clever PR move, he promised to publish the name of any contributor to the fund-raising campaign.
Regardless of whether you were an aristocrat who donated $500 to the cause, or a paperboy who donated five cents, your name was printed in the paper – in equal point size.
The result? 120,000 people contributed a little more than $100,000. It brought the country together to show that Lady Liberty wasn’t a “New York statue,” but an American icon. As an ROI side note: It also increased Pulitzer’s newspaper circulation by 50,000.
The successful approach of bringing small and large donations together for a common cause rings true today. Just look at the Haiti text messaging effort, which has already raised more than $800,000, and the Obama fund-raising campaign model. History repeats itself.
Photo credit: Itinerant_wanderer