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Box 3.12: Secrets of their success — tips for non-profits from competition winners
• use humorous style in videos
• canvas at popular student locations and get them to vote on their smart phones
• get a local university (or other large body) to back the initiative, in particular through staff and students
voting
• use friends with lots of Facebook contacts to promote the cause
• get public relations experts to do pro bono promotion on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• send a postcard to donors asking them to vote
• get coverage in local blogs and press
• use charismatic individuals to tell the stories
• sign up voters; the danger being you otherwise mainly see “clicktivism” not genuine new support
• remember that all is not lost by being a runner-up; failure to win may have energized people and created
new capacity
Nationally KaBOOM! has helped galvanize local corporate giving to playgrounds
KaBOOM!, founded in the mid-1990s, is a national non-profit organization focused on giving every child in the
United States a high quality place to play within walking distance. Since 1996, it has brought together business and
community interests to construct more than 1,700 new playgrounds, skateboard parks, sports fields, and ice rinks
across North America. 95 The model, outlined more fully in Box 3.13, relies on securing the resources up-front and
then doing the work in one day, creating a sense of co-operation that is analogous to barn-raising. In some areas,
the model is a top-up to strong city government provision (partnership) whereas in others, notably areas of high
disadvantage, it may be the only game in town (the residualism/privatism model referred to earlier).
Box 3.13: The KaBOOM! model of brokering corporate support for free playgrounds
Corporations, and sometimes other foundations, give a combination of money and volunteers to help realize
the playgrounds. Communities have to also contribute. A local non-profit pays a fee to KaBOOM! and has to
organize a play-scape design committee to work with the KaBOOM! team on the design. The designs are often
informed by local children’s drawings of their ideal playgrounds, which is done during a special design day
preceding the playground construction. Projects are typically in schools and city parks.
One example of such partnership is the playground at German Park in the inner-city Baltimore neighborhood
of Reservoir Hill. This has been supported by the All Community Team Foundation, the outreach non-profit of
the Baltimore Ravens. The foundation gave a grant and 125 Ravens staff volunteered with the building (players
could not be present owing to a strike throughout their league). For their part, corporates are likely to get press
coverage, team bonding, and the satisfaction that they have supported the cities from which their employees
and customers are drawn. In the case of Ravens, this means fans, employees, and players who would almost
certainly have benefited from such facilities when they were young.
95
The organization also offers a variety of resources, including an online community, free online training, grants, publications, and the National Campaign for Play, which
includes a national network of individual advocates for play. Another useful resource here is http://www.play-scapes.com.
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