This week Ketchum celebrates its 90th anniversary as a communications firm. Anniversary celebrations often include a time of retrospection on the great achievements and milestones. As one of the longest-tenured agencies in the business, there have certainly been opportunities for us to reflect, but as we do, we also plan to honor and support the future of the communities where we live and work.
Ketchum and its employees have a long history of providing pro bono support to nonprofit organizations so, as we look at the road ahead, we believe it is important for us to support local organizations and do what we can to help ensure their success in the years to come.
The 90for90 program will mobilize our global network by holding 90 brainstorms to benefit 90 organizations around the world. Each Ketchum office, business unit and affiliate has been asked to select a local nonprofit partner of their choice and hold a brainstorm to assist the organization with a current communications challenge they are facing. The goal is to match Ketchum’s expertise in break through communications with each nonprofit’s needs and interests.
Since announcing the program internally, we have received dozens of emails from employees expressing their excitement to get involved. We already have every region in the world represented and more commitments are being made every day.
Offices and affiliates from Los Angeles to London, Johannesburg to Dubai, Beijing to Sao Paolo, Serbia to Pakistan are just a few examples of the various locations that have already signed up and are currently developing the focus of the brainstorm with their nonprofit beneficiaries.
We are also excited to see our employees selecting a breadth of issues that are important to them. Through this initiative, we will address the environment, education, healthcare, hunger, homelessness and more. When our program is completed, we are confident we will have touched very far corners of the word and addressed a wide range of societal issues.
As global director of our KSR program, I am proud of the agency’s history as a good corporate citizen and its commitment to the future of our communities. Our employees around the world are showing us what is possible when we commit to an effort that honors our culture and inspires us to get involved.
