As Rotarians began planning the service project for the Rotary International Zone 30 & 31 Fort Wayne Summit, new RI Director, Floyd Lancia, recommended Backpacks of Hope. He had heard about the tragic death of a young homeless advocate in Fort Wayne and wanted to connect the hundreds of service-minded Rotarians with the need of a local organization addressing the needs of the hungry and homeless of Fort Wayne. Month after month, the organizing committee began the enormous task of planning a training summit for hundreds of Rotarians around the world. But, Backpacks of Hope was little more than a great idea with the lofty goal of filling 500 Backpacks of Hope on a designated day and time at the Rotary Summit in Fort Wayne.
The call came from the Chair of the Summit, concerned that time was passing with little progress toward making it all happen. I agreed to dive into Fort Wayne and make connections with the city’s mayor and the family who started Backpacks of Hope, memorializing their fallen son and brother.
The Basham Group sprang into action. Farmhouse Creative, a print and digital marketing company in Muncie, Indiana, designed a digital poster detailing the basic information for donating to Backpacks of Hope to pay for products for the backpacks. We flooded the digital poster on social media platforms visited by Rotarians from around the world. Money began to pour in. The Basham Group, Farmhouse Creative, and video creator Three Media scheduled a day in Fort Wayne to video and photograph the mayor and the Backpacks of Hope organizers on location at The Rescue Mission of Fort Wayne. We created a photo and video marketing strategy to raise awareness and funding for the service project.
Backpacks of Hope in memory of John Zachery Septer, was so very blessed to have “The Basham Group” promote, organize and manage our service project with the Rotary Club. The members of “The Basham Group” were kind, enthusiastic, professional, creative, and made our experience one we will never forget. Dale, Matt and the Basham team were empathetic to our cause and believed in my son’s legacy, to pay it forward and give people in need hope. Dale and his amazingly talented team will forever be part of our Backpacks of Hope family. We would highly recommend this dynamic group to anyone looking to promote or inspire their cause or business.
Blessings,
Shelley, Allie and Jacob Septer
Backpacks of Hope
in Memory of John Zachery Septer
The media campaign became wildly successful and a template for future multi-media campaigns for service organizations that need to raise money for service projects. The Basham Group is a dynamic group of talented media professionals who will do for you what we did for Backpacks of Hope in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Don’t miss a minute! Contact us at Dale@TheBashamGroup.com, to customize your social & multimedia strategy to turn those great ideas into successful service projects for your club or organization.
