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Council on Foundations

  /    /  Council on Foundations

The Council on Foundations (www.cof.org), is a nonprofit membership association of more than 1,700 independent, operating, community, public, and company-sponsored foundations, and corporate giving programs in the United States and abroad. The Council’s vision is to serve as a hub for research and thought leadership to support philanthropic organizations in expanding, enhancing, and sustaining their ability to advance the common good.

ACTIVITIES & RESULTS
The Council on Foundations (COF) holds an annual conference to connect leaders with opportunities and best practices to fulfill the instrumental role of philanthropy in meeting profound societal needs of communities across the country. Through Davidoff Communications, COF engaged Thinkinc. to assist the organization in obtaining media coverage for its 2013 annual conference in Chicago.

Thinkinc. developed a strategic concept to draw media interest and create coverage opportunities that included a daily media alert strategy during the conference to highlight specific issues for each day. Thinkinc. compiled media lists and drafted media materials catered toward philanthropic and nonprofit media, as well as media covering violence prevention, community safety, and environmental issues to draw attention for specific sessions held during the conference. Thinkinc. conducted media outreach, assisted with onsite media relations, facilitated interviews and assisted in a press conference working with the Illinois Governor’s office, and carried out follow-up media relations for story placement.

Through Thinkinc.’s strategic efforts, we worked with COF staff and the Governor’s office to create two major media opportunities that garnered significant media coverage during the COF annual conference:

  • Thinkinc. pulled together all of the conference sessions which focused on strengthening communities and through a series of media alerts presented multiple coverage and story angle opportunities. Thinkinc. drew numerous story placements for the conference’s opening plenary panel discussion on building safe communities featuring mayors from three major urban cities including City of Chicago Mayor Emanuel, City of Philadelphia Mayor Nutter and City of New Orleans Mayor Landrieu. Significant coverage was obtained as a result of Thinkinc.’s positioning of the opportunity for the media to flip the angle on the incessant news of violence and gun control policy and instead, report on the steps these mayors are taking to fortify and build safer, healthier communities.
  • As many of the COF sessions focused on innovative solutions to strengthen communities, Thinkinc. worked with COF and the Illinois Governor Quinn’s Office to assist in facilitating a press conference that would leverage the timely opportunity and relevance of the COF annual meeting to make an announcement that Illinois is introducing a new, Social Impact Bond program, only the second such initiative in the nation, to encourage innovative solutions for social problems through public-private partnership.

(View Program Page | Download Media Kit)