In keeping with its mission to advance social change, The Hatcher Group organizes volunteer staff projects and encourages staff members to provide pro bono communications assistance to non-profit causes and organizations of their choice.

Founded in 1989, the Posse Foundation recruits and trains outstanding young people from urban high schools across the country and sends them to partner colleges and universities as part of supportive, multicultural teams or “posses” of 10 students. These students—many of whom might have been overlooked by traditional college selection processes—receive four-year, full-tuition leadership scholarships from Posse’s partner institutions. In 2011 Posse students will attend Bucknell University, Grinnell College, Lafayette College, Pepperdine University, Sewanee: The University of the South and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

 

In addition to the scholarship, students receive support from the Posse Foundation throughout their time at college. To help students make the transition to college, Posse scholars undergo intensive preparation to ensure they arrive on campus well prepared for academic work and student life. Such preparation has contributed to a 90 percent college graduation rate for Posse scholars.

 

The Hatcher Group’s Amy Saltzman provided communication outreach support for the 2011 Posse DC Awards Ceremony, which named 62 Washington, D.C-area high school seniors as recipients of more than $8 million in full tuition scholarships to attend top colleges and universities beginning in fall 2011.   The award’s ceremony received extensive media coverage, including reports on WAMU-Radio and Channel 4 News and write-ups in the Gazette Newspapers and the Northwest Current.

 

Smart Activities for Fitness and Education

Smart Activities for Fitness and Education (SAFE) was established in 1993 by Carroll “Spyke” Henry. As a life-long resident of the District of Columbia and Commissioner for High School Tennis for DC Public Schools, Henry recognized the need to provide youth with supervised, productive and engaging activities. He founded SAFE to provide organized tennis and academic mentoring programs for youth as a means to promote college readiness and community engagement. Since then, SAFE’s programs have positively impacted the lives of hundreds of youth in the District.

 

The Hatcher Group’s Chloe Louvouezo helped SAFE rebuild its website and create a new logo to rebrand the organization with a fresh look.  She worked closely with SAFE’s team to edit and rewrite text and determine the tone of the new website. Given the reins to create the layout and design of the website, Chloe created a new website that reflects the organization’s unique programs in youth development.

 

Running for a Better Life

The Girls Gotta Run Foundation was born after founder Patricia E. Ortman read a Washington Post article on the plight of girls in Ethiopia and decided she had to act. Running, the article said, was one of the few ways Ethiopian girls as young as 12 could avoid being sold into marriage.  Girls Gotta Run is a tiny nonprofit committed to keeping girls on the track, in school, and on their way to better lives.

 

Initially, the organization raised funds for running shoes, uniforms, food (“calorie money”), and coaches’ salaries by organizing art shows with proceeds going to support girls’ teams in Ethiopia. Unfortunately the recession killed art sales. Undeterred, the Foundation tapped into the running community for support, and the alliance has paid dividends. In 2010, runners in more than a dozen marathons nationwide have pledged support for Girls Gotta Run.

 

Today, Girls Gotta Run assists more than 40 young women on three different teams, and the results have been tremendous. Not only did one runner win a marathon in Scotland, but she also broke the course record. Two others are starting their own foundation to give other girls the same advantage they had.

 

A team from The Hatcher Group has worked with Girls Gotta Run to raise its profile through traditional and new media strategies such as utilizing social networking sites to tie into the online advocacy community and gaining high-profile coverage in the Washington Post and on WTOP Radio.

 

The Women’s Microfinance Initiative

The Women's Microfinance Initiative (WMI) is a non-profit organization providing micro-credit loans to impoverished women living in rural villages in Uganda and Kenya. These small loans help women raise their standard of living and provide their families a better life. Founded by women in Bethesda, Maryland, WMI is a hands-on international outreach effort. WMI has helped build a community center in Buyobo, Uganda for educational trainings, group meetings and tutoring programs. The center also includes a children’s library.

Although WMI is a small organization they have had significant accomplishments, changing the lives of African families.  Through WMI's micro-finance loans, women have started their own businesses, growing and selling produce, tailoring clothes, running small shops or carpentry businesses. Their profits then allow them to improve their homes, pay for healthcare and school fees for their children and further grow their businesses.

 

All U.S.-based Women's Microfinance Initiative staff serve on a 100 percent volunteer basis. Operations are run with the help of dedicated volunteers and operations are supported through private donations.  The Hatcher Group’s Laura Hayes became aware of this local organization last year and wanted to help them spread the word about their critical work. We're providing them with various media assistance, including designing collateral pieces, creating media lists and providing website layout advice.

 

Chesapeake Bay Action Plan

The Chesapeake Bay is a national treasure. It is the largest estuary in North America with a watershed that encompasses parts of six states. The Bay encompasses 11,600 miles of tidal shoreline, including tidal wetlands and islands, and supports 3,600 species of plant and animal life.

 

Despite a generation’s worth of public funding and official commitments, The Chesapeake Bay remains in decline. Though perhaps well-intentioned, measures to clean the Bay adopted in the years since 1983 that led to the first Bay Agreement and the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program have not been successful.

 

The leading threat to the health of the Chesapeake Bay is excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that destroys habitat and causes fish kills. Top sources of these pollutants include agriculture, sewage treatment plants, runoff from urban and suburban areas, and air pollution from automobiles, factories, and power plants. Other threats to the Bay's health include sprawl, toxic pollution, and poor fishery management.

 

The Hatcher Group’s Jeanne McCann is working with more than 75 senior policymakers and scientists to urge Bay states to transition from the voluntary collaborative approach, in place for more than two decades, to a more comprehensive regulatory program that would establish mandatory, enforceable measures for meeting the nutrient, sediment and toxic chemical reductions needed to remove the Bay and its tributaries from the Clean Water Act impaired waters list.

 

Through a new website and blog, The Hatcher Group – and its internet partner Drexler – are working to promote the group’s 25-point action plan.

 

Peace Through Basketball

PeacePlayers International (PPI) is an innovative global organization that uses the game of basketball to unite and educate children in divided communities. PPI was founded in Washington in 2001 on the premise that “children who play together can learn to live together.”

 

Today, it operates programs in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Cyprus, and the Middle East that bring together children to form positive relationships, develop leadership skills, and improve their futures. Led by a global network of youth leaders who serve as coaches, mentors and facilitators, PPI has worked with more than 45,000 children over the past six years – often in difficult circumstances.

 

In August 2010, for example, amid a rise in sectarian tension, PPI hosted a successful half-day summer program in Lurgan, Northern Ireland, that brought together 23 Protestant and Catholic children from the area.

 

Combining his passion for international affairs and basketball, Hatcher Group Vice President Rob Doherty began working with PPI Executive Director Brendan Tuohey in late 2009, connecting PPI with reporters at national news outlets and providing advice on social media outreach.