Another example of Bellevue’s work with community success and engagement is Citizens Bank. Philadelphia has one of the highest child poverty rates in the US with 36.4% living at or below the federal poverty line. There are nearly 600,000 food insecure children in Pennsylvania (20 percent of the state’s children are food insecure).
In 2011, Citizens Bank through the Citizens Bank Foundation was looking for a community program that would tackle this important issue and make an impact throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The initiative also needed to involve community partners, employees who would volunteer, engage in events and draw media attention.
In April of 2011, Citizens Bank launched the “Hunger Initiative” and donated $180,000 throughout three states to food banks, food suppliers, shelters and others to help ease one of the biggest epidemics in the region. Citizens also created “Phans Feeding Families,” a unique partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies designed to raise awareness about the issue, get fans involved, engage employees, and garner positive media attention for the Bank.
Between April and October of that year, Bellevue was involved in creating several events, holding a press conference, handling press announcements, setting up interviews in the Philadelphia region, and developing press opportunities in other parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. We were charged with sustaining the press coverage for months so that the outreach and success would increase for Philabundance, the Food Bank and other important partners. In the end, Bellevue logged more than 25 news articles and stories, reaching 1.2 million people (not including social media) and earning more than $82,000 in free media for the client. Employees from the Philadelphia Phillies and Citizens Bank were engaged in the initiative with the Phillies using the team’s Web site and social media to spread and sustain the message and coverage.
The “Phans Feeding Families” initiative continues to be an annual summer event, generating tens of thousands of unique media impressions in the Philadelphia market.