Campaigns

The Polly Klaas Foundation wanted to do more to prevent child abductions and recover abducted children across the country.

AMBER Alert: Recovering Abducted Children Across 50 States

The Challenge: Ten years after the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, the Polly Klaas Foundation was well known in California for supporting families and police in thousands of individual missing children cases. But it wanted to deepen its impact at the national and policy levels.

Our Approach: Fenton recommended that the Foundation adopt a signature advocacy campaign: the establishment of a national AMBER Alert system. We waged a multi-tiered effort that included rapid response media to high-profile abductions, legislative briefings and a grassroots letter-writing campaign targeting key policymakers.

Progress, Accelerated: Coverage of the issue and of the Foundation on ABC World News Tonight, “Nightline” with Ted Koppel, CNN Headline News and in USA Today built momentum behind the legislation. Just eight months into the campaign, Congress established a national AMBER Alert system. The Foundation was on hand when President Bush signed the bill at a Rose Garden ceremony. The campaign also helped swell the Foundation’s activist and donor base to more than 50,000 and to secure corporate partnerships. Today, all 50 states have the AMBER Alert system in place — allowing law enforcement to quickly reunite kidnapped children with their families.