Answering an SOS

Challenge

The Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (NAMA) is an advocacy group for fishermen in New England, an industry devastated by the “tsunami” of depleted fish stocks and federal restrictions. Just hours after a real tsunami hit south Asia in 2004, Robinson PR received an e-mail from NAMA. Its director, Craig Pendleton, was angry that it cost $50 to wire money to Sri Lanka, where NAMA has many colleagues. A board member at a credit union, he was informing his personal circle of contacts that he was arranging for the wire fee to be waived, and that NAMA was setting up a relief fund.

Strategy & Tactics

Robinson PR recognized right away that this was “bigger” than NAMA realized. We knew the media would be looking to show how New Englanders were connected to the tragedy. Robinson PR immediately forwarded Pendleton's e-mail to its network of reporters, along with several pages of frantic e-mails to NAMA from Sri Lanka. In follow-up calls to major media throughout New England, we emphasized a talking point that is central to all NAMA communications: “On the water, fishermen have an unwritten code to drop everything when a fellow fisherman is in trouble and rush to provide aid.” Inspired by the NAMA effort, children in Saco, Maine, collected coins and raised over $10,000 in just three weeks. Robinson PR arranged a media event to document the check presentation, and NAMA’s fundraising success mushroomed from there. In June of 2005, NAMA’s friends in Sri Lanka invited communications director Mike Crocker to visit and oversee the progress. Robinson PR arranged for news coverage of the trip, allowing New Englanders to see that their money had been well spent.

These thankful villagers were photographed by Mike Crocker and shown on TV back in New England. The Sri Lankans reported that the NAMA donations, distributed in many smaller amounts to hundreds of people, were the first direct aid to reach their small fishing communities.

Results

Total media coverage was extensive, including a segment on National Public Radio, and the NAMA effort raised more than $150,000. During his trip, Mike Crocker learned that the NAMA money was the first direct financial aid that his colleagues in Sri Lanka had seen or heard about. (The billions being raised by relief agencies were still tied up in red tape.)