Traditional and new media approaches blend to raise awareness, money, and voluntarism

It was great publicity for the city of Denver and the local Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver to be chosen as one of only three cities participating in the 30th anniversary of the Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project with the construction of 11 new townhomes along with badly needed repairs to 15 homes.

GroundFloor Media—working with Habitat’s communications team—scheduled activities and events and coordinated publicity through multiple channels in order to meet specific objectives. This entry earned top honors in the Best Event PR category of PR Daily’s 2014 Nonprofit PR Awards because those objectives included basic organizational goals beyond clicks and impressions; the PR plan was designed not only to attract eyeballs, but to motivate cash donations and inspire some to donate their time and energy.

From including the Denver Broncos and Nuggets sports franchises to conducting media tours, the events maintained a focus that built awareness in the community resulting in more than $3 million in donations and participation in the event by 3,500 individuals. In terms of pure PR outputs, the impressions in both traditional and social media were impressive, especially given the paltry budget allocated to the effort.

We raise our virtual cup to GroundFloor Media’s Wendy Artman, Amanda Brannum, Kimmie Greene, and Carissa McCabe, and to Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver’s Robyn Burns and Heather Lafferty.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.ragan.com/Awards/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx.