Sports Philanthropy Forum
Can't tell you how happy I was to see the USA TODAY/Gannett Sports Philanthropy Forum happen today. I wrote the agenda back in August ("Brain dump for a sports-philanthropy summit agenda"), and it came to life today. Friend Katie was primarily responsible, the cause leader at USAT and most vital force in philanthropy at Gannett. The summit was her fourth in the space. We teamed up on developing it heading into the winter, and she, friend Alison and a host of event marketing staff drove a freight train in the last month to make it happen today.
On stage during the day: Dikembe Mutombo and Bob Lanier from the NBA, Pat LaFontaine from the NHL, cause marketing leader Carol Cone, the United Way, City of Hope, ALS Association, Special Olympics, NBA corporate, NHL corporate, the Redskins representing NFL, PGA, Fishbait (repping college coaches), a number of colleagues including fellow NU-Medill-Daily alum Christine Brennan, and digital cause evangelist Brian Reich. I have to say Brian made my morning by starting his panel with a "what's not working" question. I'd aimed the agenda at this harder edge, and we hit on real discussions throughout the day. Not bad for our first conversation on a broad, complicated topic. My hat's way off for Katie, Alison, and everyone who created and participated today.
We had more than a hundred cause/corporate leaders on hand (Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, Nike, good2gether, Network for Good, National Breast Cancer Foundation, Komen, pro soccer leagues, American Legacy Foundation, Diabetes Association, PETA, Share Our Strength, the Corporation for National and Community Service, and so many others). You can find hundreds of tweets published at #usatspf.
This last part, I don't exactly know how to put… and didn't put when I first hit the publish button. I hate to use the words shy or introverted here because I still haven't figured how to speak to them. After close to 4,000 posts in the blog, that's too bad. But it was a good INFP day. Worked rooms, made introductions, impossible years ago, am beat.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:52 PM
[...] I noted the day last week, but more links: USA TODAY Kindness leader Christie Garton writing on the panel of Mutombo, Bob Lanier and Pat LaFontaine and Page 3.0 chief Mike Bambach with a take on the same. Word is videos of the athlete, cause and league panels are coming. [...]
June 2nd, 2010 at 8:03 PM
[...] you may or may not know, USA TODAY and Gannett have been diving into the philanthropy space for a couple years now. Wrote a version of this text for a [...]