Earlier this month, I attended The National Breast Cancer Coalition’s (NBCC) Annual Advocate Summit, where more than 600 breast cancer advocates came together to share their Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^® work. As NBCC.org puts it, “Not content to just talk about it, advocates gave rousing presentations that included videos, photographs and stories of incredible actions they have taken at the state and national levels during the first year of the [Breast Cancer Deadline 2020^®] campaign.”

The American Film Institute (AFI) made its historic return to the White House in April, where President Obama hosted a 50^th anniversary screening of the classic film To Kill a Mockingbird. AFI was actually founded in the White House Rose Garden in 1965, and what better way to honor AFI than with To Kill a Mockingbird, which AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale called “…An American treasure – a film of family and fatherhood, justice and equality – all so richly embodied in the character of Atticus Finch." See more on this special anniversary here.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts just announced its new season – and as always, there’s something for everyone: a thrilling mix of opera, dance, classical music, contemporary performances, and Broadway shows, including the Tony® Award-winning musical The Book of Mormon and the blockbuster play War Horse. For more details about the upcoming season, and a brief video featuring one of the incredibly lifelike seven-foot-tall horse puppets from War Horse, click here.

We’re always excited to hear that Avalon clients are making news. Some recent press items:

 

• To lighten up this election year a bit, Senator Frank Lautenberg’s campaign recently held a photo caption contest spoofing GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. More than 800 people submitted captions, and the emails about the photo caption contest have some of the highest open rates ever, making it a terrific engagement piece for the Senator's campaign. Check out some of the hilarious captions at www.mittromneyphoto.com and some of the media coverage of the contest here.

In January, Margaret Romig, Bill Tucker, and I attended Creating Change 2012, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 24^thannual conference on LGBT equality, where nearly 3,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights advocates met to celebrate recent successes, and strategize about the challenges ahead.

 

One of the highlights of the conference was Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey’s State of the LGBT Movement address (read the address or watch the video here). She highlighted the major steps toward full equality that transpired in 2011 – from the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” to marriage equality becoming law in even more states, to the elevated national conversation prompted by the bullying of gay kids and the subsequent new anti-bullying laws. And, the extensive changes made at the federal level urged by the New Beginnings Initiative.

We love the Smithsonian Institution’s new tag line: “Seriously Amazing” – launching this year. With 19 museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian (an Avalon client), a cable channel, and an extensive online presence, the Smithsonian “…wants the public to get the message that it is both a hefty and hip place,” writes Jacqueline Trescott in the Washington Post. Friends of the Smithsonian, the membership program which enables the Smithsonian Institution to maintain its tradition of excellence, is also an Avalon client.

Some Avalon clients have some great holiday giving opportunities available that you won't want to miss! Check them out...

Farm Sanctuary Conference

Amy Padre, Jeff Mello, and I recently attended Farm Sanctuary’s first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming, which brought together 300 experts and advocates from the health, environmental, and animal cruelty arenas.

The presentations were moving and inspirational, but also sobering, for example: Inside the Industry: The Treatment of Animals; Animal Sentience: Intelligence, Social Nature, Emotionality; Natural Resources Depletion: Inefficiency and Overuse; and The Inefficiency of Factory Farming in Feeding the World.

Our take-aways include many thought-provoking statistics, and the conference also reinforced the important work that Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization, performs every day.

To create a successful control package, advocacy/political groups need to balance two competing needs.  First, the package must be pertinent to the ever-changing political climate. Second, it needs to maintain enough of an institutional focus for prospective long-term donors.  The League of Women Voters’ current control is a great example of achieving that balance.

Another Avalon client in the news … this time a well-worded response to Representative Michele Bachmann’s recent HPV vaccine claims in The New York Times.