© 2000 Benton Foundation
Of Special Interest: Model Campaigns Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Television Race Initiative Chapter 4: Positive: Life with HIV Perspectives Chapter 7: Strategic and
Contents
POV's High Impact TV
from Partners
For Nonprofits
Practical Advice
The American Red Cross
by Darlene Sparks Washington
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has presented a "call to action," and nonprofit organizations must respond by working with the entertainment industry and corporate America as well as private and public service organizations, combining our capabilities, talents and resources to provide effective prevention and risk-reduction information to our constituents.
Most nonprofit organizations with limited financial and human resources try to develop mutually beneficial collaborations with other organizations or agencies to maximize the impact of their outreach efforts. The American Red Cross has taken part in a number of exciting collaborative projects on matters that concern our mission and goals. Two such successful partnerships involved the P.O.V. broadcast of The Heart of the Matter and the ITVS series Positive: Life with HIV. In my position with the Red Cross, I worked closely on these two collaborations with public television.
Since the early days of the AIDS epidemic, one of the many goals of the American Red Cross has been to get factually accurate HIV/AIDS information out to the general public to help prevent the spread of HIV. In addition, research has shown that knowledge about HIV and AIDS not only heightens awareness of how to avert infection, but it also lowers fear of, and discrimination against, people with HIV or AIDS. The American Red Cross educates the public primarily through its network of over 1,400 chapters and stations nationwide. Our methods range from one-on-one education, large group sessions and role-playing to music, art, theater, video, radio and television.
Partnerships with television broadcasters are particularly effective because they allow us to bring HIV/AIDS programming to millions of people. One of the great advantages of television is that, in the privacy of their own homes, viewers can learn the facts about HIV/AIDS and can see the psychosocial impact on people affected by the disease. This opportunity, however, does carry responsibilities, including the duty to provide information that is factually accurate, nonjudgmental and culturally sensitive. These three criteria guide the American Red Cross’s participation in HIV/AIDS projects, including our projects with P.O.V. and ITVS.
GETTING STARTED
When the American Red Cross is approached by an organization or agency to support a particular project, we investigate it thoroughly, gathering as much information as possible. Where appropriate, we arrange for an intra-office screening that involves staff from our national headquarters office as well as from the field. These staff reviewers evaluate the relevancy of the project to our current work and its appeal to our constituent audiences. We also look at how a project fits into our current programs and the amount of staff time it will take to make the partnership a success.
Based on recommendations made by the review team, a project coordinator decides if the American Red Cross will participate and then negotiates the scope of involvement. We recognized that P.O.V.’s The Heart of the Matter and ITVS’s Positive: Life with HIV were quality projects that filled our constituents’ educational needs as well as those of the general public. Each film presents the facts about HIV/AIDS in an accurate, nonjudgmental, and culturally sensitive ways, while allowing viewers to see the positive and negative aspects of living with this disease.
KNOW HOW EACH PARTNER WILL BENEFIT
When any two agencies explore joint projects, each must enter knowing what they need and what they can offer. Working with producers and outreach campaign organizers is no different. In these instances, P.O.V. and ITVS had products for which they needed to generate interest both before and after the broadcast. We could offer them access to over 1,400 American Red Cross chapters and stations nationwide that reach nearly two million people, as well as 46 state contacts who are in constant communication with their constituents.
On our end, we needed help in raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and in keeping the topic "front and center" in the nation’s consciousness. To do so, we needed a tangible project that our chapters could use to initiate a dialogue with their local public television stations. With both programs, we saw a good fit for mutual support.
WHAT WE DID
Six American Red Cross chapters served as media contacts and regional coordinators for The Heart of the Matter. They hosted or co-hosted screenings at their local public television stations, which proved to be well worth the investment. For communities just beginning to deal with the impact of HIV and AIDS, they provided the needed catalyst for meaningful dialogue among community-based organizations, American Red Cross chapters, state and local government officials, health department representatives, AIDS service organizations and key community leaders.
Only one of the six American Red Cross chapters that served as media contacts ran into difficulties. In that market, the public television station chose not to broadcast The Heart of the Matter–a reminder that it is crucial to establish productive relationships between the regional coordinators and their local public television stations. Perhaps one strategy to address this problem would be to set up a forum in which the local organization presents factual information about an issue to station management and explains the scope of the problem among its viewing audience.
An important benefit of working with P.O.V. and ITVS was having the video versions of the broadcasts available for use in community sessions after they aired on public television. After investing considerable staff time and organiza-tional resources in creating outreach programs, it was important for the American Red Cross to be able to use the videos in ongoing educational efforts. The American Red Cross did purchase copies of The Heart of the Matter, and we received free copies of Positive from ITVS. Unfortunately, for many nonprofits, the cost of purchasing videocassettes is prohibitive–a fact that might discourage participation in otherwise worthy projects.
WORKING WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Another way to strengthen the appeal of an outreach campaign and to encourage participation would be to contact the agencies during the production phase. Once a film or series is completed, producers take a chance on whether it will meet all the unwritten rules of the people closest to the issues. An agency actively involved in front-line issues may be able to further enhance the impact and usability of the end product while providing input on format, campaign strategies and possible distribution outlets.
One way for producers and broadcasters to generate strong support from their community partners is to schedule the broadcast to coincide with planned events or ongoing activities. For example, tying the broadcast of The Heart of the Matter to events that were related to HIV/AIDS and women helped garner more community support and interest in viewing. Similarly, connecting the airing of Positive: Life with HIV to events like World AIDS Day or AIDS Education Month provided a hook to get viewers interested in the broadcast. Most nonprofits appreciate almost anything that will help them capture the attention of their constituents and motivate others to learn about an issue.
IN THE END
Collaborations such as these can serve as important building blocks in encouraging community conversations regarding HIV/AIDS as well as related issues, including sexually transmitted diseases, drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancy and the communities’ ability to respond effectively. In retrospect, we at the American Red Cross feel that our involvement with The Heart of the Matter and Positive: Life with HIV was very successful. We appreciated the flexibility and responsiveness of both P.O.V. and ITVS. The materials they provided allowed us to customize our involvement to our specific structure and hierarchy. Above all, they made us feel appreciated as a partner.
These projects and similar partnerships have opened the doors for joint projects with other media. There is much to do and, with the media as our partners in education and outreach, we will all get there a lot faster.
Darlene Sparks Washington, D.P.M., is the manager of the Health and Safety Services Field Support Unit for the American Red Cross.
The Greater Hartford AIDS Fund
by Beverly Boyle
During my tenure as the Coordinator of the Greater Hartford AIDS fund, I was involved in two fruitful partnerships with public television. The Greater Hartford AIDS Fund is a community partnership of the National AIDS Fund (NAF). We raise funds locally that are then leveraged to attract national funds through NAF. The local and national funds are combined into a pooled fund from which we award grants to local AIDS service organizations. Collaboration is central to our mission: we bring corporations, foundations, public funders and people with AIDS together at the same table to make grant decisions. One of the fund’s goals is to increase the community’s awareness and understanding of the impact that HIV/AIDS has had in Hartford and the needs it has created. We saw public television as a great resource for meeting that goal.
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
The fund saw P.O.V.’s 1994 outreach campaign for The Heart of the Matter as an exciting opportunity to increase our community’s understanding of HIV/AIDS, as well as dispel the myths and stereotypes of the disease. We also saw the project as a chance to increase the fund’s visibility. Our contribution to the partnership with P.O.V. was to provide a network of key players in our community, those involved with HIV and those not yet engaged.
The fund decided to participate in P.O.V.’s campaign for The Heart of the Matter because the program eloquently addressed a pressing problem in the Hartford area. Twenty-five percent of the HIV/AIDS cases reported in Connecticut at that time were women, which was twice the national average. The Heart of the Matter gave attention to the unique needs and obstacles facing women with HIV/AIDS.
We had never before worked with a national television broadcast, and the project was an important learning experience for us. Because of the short lead time, our participation was limited to publicizing the broadcast to other HIV/AIDS-related groups. We initially considered organizing viewing parties in people’s homes, but that would have required considerably more time. Instead, we decided to focus on working with our network of organizational contacts to help alert the community to the broadcast.
The fund does not really have a media plan. In fact, accessing the media is done so infrequently that good contacts have not been established. For the most part, the success we achieved was through this targeted community outreach and by word-of-mouth. However, it was helpful to have press materials in the Resource Kit to assist with media outreach, and as a result of our efforts, we were able to identify a local reporter who occasionally covers the issue and now uses us as an information resource.
POSITIVE: LIFE WITH HIV
Because of our successful experience with The Heart of the Matter, I was excited about working with ITVS when Positive: Life with HIV came our way. In addition, the lessons learned from the first project enabled us to make changes to our strategy to make the Positive: Life with HIV project even more effective.
The series, Positive: Life with HIV, gave me a sense of hope and optimism, and a belief that, in many ways, the issues people with HIV face are similar to those each of us face as we struggle through life. As a funder, I sometimes become removed from the day-to-day realities, and the series gave me a new appreciation of how people actually cope with HIV.
Through my experience with The Heart of the Matter, I learned about the need for community involvement in both planning and implementation of outreach projects. With Positive: Life with HIV, ITVS provided more lead time and, because of our experience with The Heart of the Matter, the fund was better connected with the community. Consequently, the fund was able to put together a planning committee made up of other groups in the community–such as The Greater Hartford HIV Action Initiative and the Connecticut Positive Action Coalition–to share the responsibilities as well as use their networks to reach more people.
This planning committee decided to hold sneak-preview screenings at The New Living Center, a community drop-in center for people with HIV. The viewing parties were scheduled at noon (in Spanish) and at 6 p.m. (in English) on four consecutive Tuesdays, and a meal was provided at each screening. Afterwards, we moderated a group discussion. This strategy provided socialization, support and networking, awareness of the Center and its resources, and a mechanism for bringing the community together. The viewers guide that ITVS provided was extremely helpful in providing a framework for discussions about the choices we make, as well as the strategies and options that are available to help us cope with the consequences of those decisions.
The planning committee also had hoped to work with CPTV in Hartford, our local public television station, on producing a panel discussion, either pre-taped or live, with an opportunity to take call-in questions immediately following the broadcast. The panels were to have been moderated and have had diverse representation from the community. Unfortunately, this component was not possible because the station’s program schedule was not set until the last minute. In addition, the technical demands and the cost to do this type of program were insurmountable obstacles at that time.
Even though our original plan for the post-broadcast panel discussion never came to fruition, Positive provided an important first step in forging an ongoing relationship with our local public television station. The station was sufficiently interested in our work that they suggested we present a proposal for a future collaboration. Through this experience, I have learned the importance of developing an ongoing relationship with the station, rather than waiting for a specific program. Such a relationship can provide access to the station for the fund, and in turn, the fund can be an information resource for the station.
REFLECTIONS
In hindsight, what I really could have used–in addition to the materials and expertise provided by P.O.V. and ITVS– was funding to cover the cost of the marketing and community outreach associated with these broadcasts. Because the additional staff time required was not always available and additional help couldn’t be hired, the projects were pushed further down the priority list. Some things were done belatedly, or not at all.
I would also recommend that campaign organizers convene and facilitate an initial meeting between the public television station and the coordinating organization. This would provide an opportunity to introduce the players, help design a plan for working together and set expectations, roles and responsibilities. If the campaign organizers can bridge that relationship in the beginning, it can help the process unfold more smoothly. If that is impossible, one of the key local players should take responsibility for putting such a meeting together at the outset.
Both The Heart of the Matter and Positive: Life with
HIV were wonderful opportunities to bring people together in a
nonthreatening way, to begin the conversation, and to develop
relationships with one another. These projects provided the catalyst for
collaboration between the fund and other organizations both within and
beyond the AIDS community. Now that we have a history together, I have no
problem picking up the phone and calling any of the groups we worked
with–and that makes all the difference.
Beverly Boyle is the former coordinator of the
Greater Hartford AIDS Fund.