How social media buttresses the Fresh Air Fund

Editor’s note: I grew up in New Jer­sey and, even as a kid, was blown away by the allure and utter cool­ness of the Fresh Air Fund. Here’s a first-hand account of how social media has taken the pro­gram to a new level of engage­ment. Abra­ham Har­ri­son has cre­ated some of the most effec­tive social media news releases found any­where. — JD Lasica

Guest post by Daniel Krueger
Abra­ham Harrison

With the year com­ing to a close, it’s always ful­fill­ing to approach the hol­i­day sea­son by giv­ing to those in need. The Fresh Air Fund takes a dis­tinc­tive approach to giv­ing back to New York City kids, not by giv­ing food or toys but the expe­ri­ence of sum­mer vaca­tions in the coun­try­side rather than the con­crete jungle.

The Fund is also tak­ing a fresh look at mar­ket­ing. Work­ing for the past two and half years with Abra­ham Har­ri­son, a pub­lic rela­tions firm that’s part of the Socialmedia.biz net­work, the Fresh Air Fund uses social net­works like Face­book and Twit­ter along with tar­geted blog­ger out­reach to help inspire more peo­ple to con­tribute time or money.

Each year The Fresh Air Fund recruits fam­i­lies to host young­sters from NYC who would oth­er­wise not have the oppor­tu­nity to spend their vaca­tion in the coun­try. The major­ity of chil­dren are asked to come back year after year, as deep rela­tion­ships develop between hosts and kids. Thou­sands of kids are also sent to one of five Fresh Air Fund sum­mer camps because of gen­er­ous dona­tions col­lected all year long.

Word of mouth is gen­er­ally the best method to inspire friends and fam­i­lies to par­tic­i­pate in pro­grams such as the Fresh Air Fund, which has been in oper­a­tion since 1877. Using social media expands the reach of word of mouth, allow­ing the Fresh Air Fund pro­grams to con­tinue and grow. The Fresh Air Fund’s Face­book page has a robust fan base — cross­ing the 10,000 fol­low­ers thresh­old yes­ter­day — with 194 pho­tos uploaded by friends and fam­ily, plus a Twit­ter fol­low­ing of more than 11,000 followers.

Other social media efforts on Fresh Air Fund’s behalf over the years include:

• freshairfundseason.com: a social media news release that cap­tures high­lights of this year’s activ­i­ties, includ­ing camp news, tes­ti­mo­ni­als from chil­dren and par­tic­i­pat­ing fam­i­lies, sum­mer high­lights, per­sonal sto­ry­telling and embed codes that let sup­port­ers spread the word through bannners, wid­gets and embed­ded videos.

• weneedfreshairfundhosts.com: a series of ban­ners and wid­gets solic­it­ing hosts for the 2010 program.

• freshairholiday.org: a social media news release that offers sum­maries of 2009 activ­i­ties, cov­er­age of Fresh Air fund-raisers at the NYC Half-Marathon, video sto­ries of kids tak­ing part in the pro­gram, details about the 2009 hol­i­day drive and embed codes.

And more social media releases:

• freshair-news.com

• freshair-press.com

• freshairfundhost.com

• freshairfundhosts.com

• freshairfundcounselors.smnr.us

• freshairvision.org

• freshairfund-newsrelease.com

• freshair-newsrelease.com

This year nearly 8,000 chil­dren enjoyed their best sum­mers yet, 370 stu­dents par­tic­i­pated in the Career Aware­ness Pro­gram, 11 counselors-in-training spent three days on the Appalachian Trail, and 168 young peo­ple were Leaders-in-training. Sum­mer 2010 fea­tured the Pre­cious Cen­ter for Teen Lead­er­ship at Camp Anita Bliss Coler and a sur­prise visit from Shape mag­a­zine edi­tors who trav­eled up to camp to share their exper­tise and ded­i­ca­tion to fit­ness, edu­ca­tion and career devel­op­ment with the ABC lead­er­ship campers. Todrick Hall also paid a visit to Fresh Air Camps this sum­mer, shar­ing dance and per­for­mance tips, as well as swim­ming and work­ing on the Model Farm.

School is still in ses­sion, but NYC chil­dren are cur­rently par­tic­i­pat­ing in Fresh Air pro­grams, from weekly tutor­ing ses­sions to job shad­ow­ings to week­end retreats at Fund camps in upstate New York.

No mat­ter the sea­son, Fresh Air chil­dren remain involved, excited and forward-thinking. We need loyal friends like you to con­tinue serv­ing thou­sands of New York City chil­dren through­out the year. Visit freshair.org to make a dona­tion or inquire about becom­ing a host family.

“Many peo­ple will never under­stand how truly remark­able and crit­i­cal this oppor­tu­nity is for a child’s devel­op­ment. By expe­ri­enc­ing new things and dif­fer­ent lifestyles and cul­tures, it broad­ened my capac­ity to deal with life in and out­side of NYC.” – Lee Cole­man (vis­ited Con­nie Beck and her daugh­ter Laura in Painted Post, NY)

Whether it’s a two-week trip to the coun­try to visit a vol­un­teer host fam­ily or a fun-filled and edu­ca­tional stay at one of the sum­mer camps, Fresh Air Fund pro­grams make for unfor­get­table mem­o­ries – and open a world of new friend­ships and fresh possibilities.

• The Fresh Air Fund: main page

freshairfundseason.com: social media press release for 2010 campaign

• freshairholiday.org: the 2009 campaign

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