January 29, 2010
Leadership
changes were announced today by Fenton, the nation’s largest public interest
communications firm. Parker
Blackman was named Chief Operating Officer, and Lisa Witter became Chief
Strategy Officer.
Witter
has been serving as COO, while Blackman has been Managing Director of Fenton’s
San Francisco office. Witter will now lead innovation, strategy and marketing
for the firm, while Blackman will be responsible for the day to day management
of staff and client services at Fenton’s three offices in New York, Washington,
D.C. and San Francisco.
“With
breathtaking changes underway in the communications and media landscape,
leading innovation and strategy at the firm has become an essential Executive
Position,” explained CEO and founder David Fenton. “We are so fortunate to have
the ‘dream team’ of Witter and Blackman to take us into the new era. Witter
will lead the transformation of our products and services, while Blackman takes
on operating management and staff development.”
Fenton
has been expanding rapidly into digital marketing, social media, advertising,
branding, campaign management and organizational development to provide
integrated services to philanthropic, corporate and nonprofit clients.
Lisa
Witter has been with the firm for ten years. Co-author of “The She Spot,” she
is much in demand as a speaker and trainer on issues including marketing to
women, social media campaigning, communications strategy, politics and
philanthropy. She co-founded the award-winning SheSource.org, and was recently
honored as an activist on women’s issues by Oxygen.com. She leads Fenton’s work in corporate
social responsibility, women’s issues and global affairs for clients including
Women for Woman International, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation,
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , the International Criminal Court and
Stonyfield Farms.
Parker
Blackman joined Fenton in 2001 at its San Francisco office, where he has served
as Managing Director since 2003. Blackman, a California native, has also been
helping to lead Fenton’s expansion into digital marketing, client services to
large foundations, and the professional development of Fenton staff nationwide.
Blackman has been in charge of branding, positioning, communications planning
and media-relations strategy for clients including The Wikimedia Foundation,
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Human Rights Watch, The Nature
Conservancy and Environmental Defense Fund.
Since
1982, Fenton has pioneered public interest communications for nonprofit and
corporate clients working to advance public health, protect the environment and
promote international development and human rights.
January 21, 2010
Lisa Witter, co-author of 'The She Spot: Why Women Are the Market for Changing the World - And How to Reach Them,' will be featured at a special event on January 28th at Rutgers School of Social Work in New Brunswick, NJ. The book signing and lecture, sponsored by the Center for Nonprofit Management and Governance, will focus on the increasingly prominent role of women in the giving sector, and how nonprofit and advocacy organizations can target and effectively reach this growing population through outreach and marketing efforts.
The message of 'The She Spot' is useful to all nonprofit and advocacy organizations as women vote more, volunteer more and there is every indication that they will be giving more than men since they control over half of the total wealth in America. Women aren't a niche-- they're the primary change-makers. 'The She Spot' offers a practical -- and provocative -- primer on how nonprofit and advocacy organizations can strengthen their outreach to this highly motivated and engaged segment of the population.
Lisa Witter is the C.O.O. of Fenton Communications and heads its work in innovation and the practices in women's issues and global affairs for clients. Additionally, she is the co-founder of the award-winning SheSource.org, an online brain trust of women experts to help close the gender gap among commentators in the news media.
For more information and to register for this special event.
January 13, 2010
Fenton Communications and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide's joint campaign, Half the Sky Movement: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, has been selected as a finalist in PR News'
Corporate Social Responsibility Awards program in the category of Community Affairs.
The
Half the Sky campaign lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major
abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence
including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which
needlessly claims one woman a minute. The campaign and book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide," purports to start a social movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women's power as economic catalysts.
The award ceremony will be held February 24, 2010 in Washington, DC and will salute the year's most outstanding communications initiatives and
programs in the highly competitive and dynamic Corporate Social Responsibility arena.
January 11, 2010
When it comes to health and well being --from childhood obesity to violence -- alarming disparities persist between boys and young men of color and other Californians.
To address the problem, The California Endowment has retained Fenton, led by SVP Robert Perez, to develop a communications strategy for its Boy and Young Men of Color Network as a part of its Building Healthy Communities initiative.
Over the next 18 months, we'll be working with The Endowment to provide strategic counsel and build the communications capacity of their grantees in the East Bay Area, Los Angeles and Central Valley to ensure that the issues impacting boy and men of color, their families and their communities are a significant policy priority for California. Stay tuned!
