Fenton Intelligence Report


September 2009

Fenton client, YAI, launches integrated Web site to support people with disabilities

September 28, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas--(Business Wire)

The YAI Network (YAI), one of America`s foremost non-profit organizations
devoted to creating hope and opportunity for people with developmental and
learning disabilities and their families, announced today the introduction of a
new Web site at www.yai.org. The new site provides visitors with a crisp and
clear presentation of the organization`s mission and opportunities to engage
with the network to support people with disabilities as well as access services
and information. The site is integrated with the organization`s online
marketing, advocacy and fundraising system to provide visitors, volunteers,
advocates and donors with a more personal and engaging experience. It also
enables the organization to communicate more effectively with audiences based on
their interest and level of involvement.

Read full article here.

Fenton's Eric Antebi quoted in Grist on a greener White House

September 28, 2009

A recent, tongue-in-cheek story in Grist reported on the White House's commitment to LEED certification. This is big news, especially if you consider a study released lat week that found workers in green buildings are more productive and less sickly than their peers in non-green buildings. Grist's senior editor Katharine Wroth asked a handful of people, including Fenton VP Eric Antebi, whether the thought a greener White House will translate to President Obama finally getting some work done.

Read full article here.

Fenton, COO, Lisa Witter quoted in Nancy Lublin's Do Something Column in Fast Company

September 17, 2009

Stinking It Up: Lessons From a PR Failure By: Nancy Lublin
We had a big party, but got no buzz. Lessons from a PR failure.
Fast Company, October 1, 2009

I've been thinking a lot about poop lately, and not just because I have two young kids. In particular, I've been pondering that clichéd philosophical question: If a bear poops in the woods and nobody's around, does it still stink?

Recently, DoSomething.org hosted what I'd normally consider a successful party. The event raised half a million dollars. We honored five amazing youths for doing amazing things, from building an orphanage in Nepal to registering thousands of new voters. (Read their stories at FastCompany.com.) Our red carpet at Harlem's Apollo Theater was packed with celebs, and performers including Boys Like Girls and Akon -- who crowdsurfed -- rocked the place. The 1,600 people there were floored. But did anybody else smell what we were cooking? Nope.

Our event PR, it turns out, was crappy. We generated almost no buzz. For the time, energy, and money that go into an event, it ought to reach well beyond the room. You want that poop in the woods to stink far and wide.

....And Lisa Witter, COO of Fenton Communications, told me to think beyond "official" bloggers: "You've got a zillion Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Don't forget to recruit them. You never know who has what friend." Had our 18 staffers and 12 interns utilized their Facebook networks, we would have reached 12,781 people.

Read the full article.

Fenton is assisting Planned Parenthood Federation of American find an assistant to their president, Cecile Richards

September 15, 2009

PLANNED PARENTHOOD FEDERATION OF AMERICA
ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT, NEW YORK CITY

Position Summary

The Assistant to the President manages all daily operations for the President, Cecile Richards, including scheduling, travel, meeting preparation and attendance and all phone, email and written communications. The Assistant will be responsible for prioritizing all internal and external scheduling requests and oversees the President's long-term schedule priorities ultimately assuring around the clock communication access to the Office of the President.

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Fenton client, Julie Zeilinger, featured in the Guardian for her new blog, "The F-Bomb"

September 9, 2009

Excerpt from The Guardian
by John Crace

The teen bloggers who took over the internet
Some of the web's most influential voices now belong to bloggers as young as 13. John Crace investigates the rise of the super young e-scene and profiles its biggest names.

It's a teenage rite of passage to invent new worlds: worlds of the imagination, gangs, cliques and clubs, worlds apart from adults. And then came the internet, where anyone can be anything, a meta-persona of your own choosing. There are hundreds of millions of blogs; a new one is created each second - many by teenagers.

Most are probably adolescent doodlings, some may be undiscovered gems. And then there are the blogs which - usually with a fair bit of luck - suddenly set the blogosphere abuzz. Usually, these are sites that look and read more like the next generation of "e-zine" than something knocked up in a 15-year-old's bedroom.

Read full article...

Calling all NYC Non-Profits: The 2010 New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards

September 8, 2009

Our friends at the NPCC are delighted to announce the 2010 Nonprofit Excellence Awards, presented by The New York Times Community Affairs Department, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, and Philanthropy New York.

The Awards illuminate the difficult and complex elements of successful management that enable nonprofits to excel at their missions.  By doing so, it also recognizes the enormously important roles played by thousands of New York nonprofits in improving our lives and communities.

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