Mission Assist | Lovescott

Posts Tagged ‘Mission Assist’

My Thanks…

Tags: "Love Scott & Associates", Advertising, advertising agency, blog, Des Moines, Inspiration, Iowa, marketing, Mission Assist, motivation, non-profit, West Des Moines
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments 11/26/2010

In honor of the holiday, this post will simply be one of thanks. While we give employees the Friday after Thanksgiving off, I like to take advantage of the quiet office to get things done…like write a blog post. When I was brainstorming what to write, I just kept reflecting back to a comment made by a member of the staff last week about being thankful for working with truly good people. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did, and I’ve thought a lot about it since. I’m not shy about proclaiming how much I love my job, but I don’t often say why. So here are the reasons I’m thankful for where I’ve landed:

1) I’m thankful for truly talented staff. There is not one person in here that I don’t trust to do their job, and do it well. I’ve experienced the opposite before, and it’s not fun. It’s incredibly comforting to know that I can do my job without worrying about what everyone else is doing.

2) I’m thankful for the good people working around me. Not only do I trust everyone in here to do their work…I trust everyone in here. Period. We’ve surrounded ourselves with great people. Honest. Genuine. Caring. Committed. I’m proud of our team, not for who they claim to be, but for who they really are (and trust me…we’re small enough to have seen the good, bad and ugly from all!)

3) I’m thankful for a shared vision. With the addition of Mission Assist to our service offerings, which took a year to develop and required an incredible amount of patience, I feel blessed that everyone understands the purpose and feels the passion. I believe it was divinely inspired and could only have happened with the support and conviction of the whole team. It was literally a leap of faith…and each time someone from an organization actually gives me a heartfelt thanks for what we’re offering, I am grateful for a team that believes in a mission bigger than ourselves.

4) I am thankful to be working in Des Moines, Iowa. This town is a great place to live and work. I’ve worked in Phoenix and St. Louis, and there’s no comparison. The connections, the loyalty and the enthusiasm of Des Moines businesses and their employees cannot be matched. It creates such a sense of community and goodwill. I’m willing to overlook the blustery winters for this fact. And coming from someone who hates cold…that says a lot.

It’s a short list of thanks, but these are at the very core of why I love my job and the people with whom I spend 50% of my life. What are some things about your job you’re thankful for? Hopefully there’s a list…or you better be moving on

We’re up to Something Good!

Tags: "Love Scott & Associates", advice, Bill Love, blog, expectations, good marketing, Inspiration, Meals from the Heartland, Mission Assist, motivation, non-profit, Public Relations
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments 10/12/2010

I just returned from a mission trip to the Navajo Indian reservation just outside Gallup, New Mexico. It was not my first trip there. In fact, I have been there 12 times in the last four years and intend to continue going as often as I can in the future.

During these weeklong mission trips, we work to improve, however slightly and temporarily, the lives of Native Americans living on the Navajo reservation. The area where we do our work in New Mexico is situated in the second or third poorest county in the United States, depending on who’s doing the talking. So we do what we can… fixing holes in roofs; replacing broken windows; building handicapped accessible entrances to homes; chopping wood for winter warmth; running electricity to replace a single extension cord powering an entire house… the needs are endless and the effect eye-opening and life-changing. Each time I go, I come back with a crystal clear understanding of how blessed my life has been and how uplifting it can be to serve others.

But another thing the mission trips have taught me is that you don’t have to travel to Gallup, New Mexico, to find need. There is no shortage of opportunities to serve right here at home. Many of these needs are currently being addressed by non-profit organizations that are unselfishly making a very real and significant difference in the lives of others.

It was this realization, and our experience as the pro-bono marketing arm for the past two years for Meals from the Heartland, that prompted us to start an effort at Love Scott we call “Mission Assist.” Simply put, Mission Assist is an effort to help non-profit organizations better tell their stories, enhance their missions, and increase their funding. Mission Assist provides complete, coordinated marketing and development assistance to non-profit organizations at a substantially reduced charge.

It is headed by an individual who has spent 30 years in the non-profit sector, many of them at the top level of various non-profit organizations. He completely understands the problems and opportunities common to non-profits. This level of knowledge and experience, combined with Love Scott’s 40 years in marketing, results in Mission Assist having a lot to offer non-profit organizations seeking to rise to the next level of effectiveness.

But the most rewarding aspect of Mission Assist for me has been the excitement it has generated among our staff. It turns out they have generous hearts for helping advance the work of non-profits. They have embraced Mission Assist with enthusiasm and seem to get an energy boost when their talents are turned toward helping a non-profit be even more effective.

Last March, we brought a couple dozen Navajo youth from New Mexico, who had been identified as having leadership potential, to Des Moines for a week of intense leadership training. On the last day, after they had worked several afternoons for non-profit organizations serving various needs around the city, we asked them if they were surprised at the level of need in our city. They answered that they weren’t particularly surprised by the level of need, but they were surprised by the number of local organizations actively involved in addressing those needs.

I think that says something really good about the caring nature of the people of Greater Des Moines and the great work being done by so many area non-profits. It’s a pleasure for us to be able to partner, through Mission Assist, with the important work they’re doing.

At The Heart Of Giving

Tags: "Love Scott & Associates", Advertising, advertising agency, Andrea James, branding, communication, Des Moines, Inspiration, Iowa, marketing, Meals from the Heartland, Mission Assist, motivation, non-profit, Public Relations, strategy
Posted in Advertising, Interactive, Media, Public Relations | 4 Comments 9/15/2010

Phew! Another successful Meals from the Heartland event under our belts, and it never fails to inspire and energize us all over again. It’s our second year of helping to promote Meals from the Heartland (MftH), a mass food-packaging effort that brings together more than 14,000 Iowans to package and transport more than 4 million meals around the world. When we took on MftH two years ago as our pro bono client, we never imagined the impact working with this group of people would make on our own business. The kindness, the genuine hearts, the “don’t expect ‘no’ as an answer” attitude, and the fearlessness…I am consistently blown away by what this group of volunteers produces. Every year I think they’ve topped the last, but I’m now convinced more than ever, this is still just the beginning

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a lot of work. I’m fairly certain our agency has never put this amount of time toward any other non-paying client. But when we made the commitment, we all agreed we were making a commitment. And trust me, we’ve reminded ourselves and each other many times that we are fulfilling a commitment that we made. Inevitably, it all comes around to remembering the end goal…a starving person receiving a nutritional meal. That’s what it’s all about.

My favorite moment of the last two years working with MftH is standing in the middle of Hy-Vee Hall during the event with literally hundreds of cheerful Iowans buzzing around me – young, old, every race and religion, working together to feed people they will likely never see or hear a “thanks” from, and I get chills as my throat tightens and eyes fill. I get teary just writing about it. It is SO WORTH the time and effort. It restores my faith in humanity, and even in myself.

This year made me especially proud of everyone involved. The special vignettes constructed by MftH volunteers who visited Haiti served as a life-size visual of how people are living there. “Tent City”, as we called it, brought reality closer to home for most of us who have only seen the images on TV. I watched as adults cried their way through the maze of tents, and children asked their parents “but where are the bathrooms? What about bedrooms?” and their eyes grow wide as they were told the truth. When the idea of building the vignettes was first discussed in a committee meeting, I remember thinking it’d be a miracle if it really came together…so much effort, so much work. But it did. And it was my favorite place to be while volunteering that weekend.

I’ve taken lessons from the Meals group on how to make things happen, even if the rest of the world (literally) deems it impossible. It is this experience that has led our agency to a new venture in our business. While we can’t offer this same free service to all non-profits and still keep our doors open, we can offer our expertise and hearts to these organizations through an affordable and practical program that provides fundraising and marketing expertise. We’ve spent a good portion of the last year brainstorming, developing, refining and polishing our Mission Assist program, and I’m proud to say my heart is wrapped up in the offer.

As I ushered people into Tent City last week, a little girl who couldn’t have been more than 6-years old, walked by me and said in a shy, sweet voice, “Thank you for helping people who need it.” THAT, my friends, was my payment in full.

Keeping the Faith

Tags: "Love Scott & Associates", ad agency, Adam Jensen, Advertising, advertising agency, Andrea James, brand, branding, client, communication, faith, good marketing, marketing, Mission Assist, research
Posted in Public Relations | No Comments 6/09/2010

Last week I found myself reflecting a lot about the paths we take in life – both personally and professionally – and what outside influences affect and change them. I interviewed with the Des Moines Business Record for a story on branding/rebranding last week which had me thinking a lot about why businesses do, or don’t, make decisions that can affect their futures (ours, obviously, being the decision to rebrand) .

Additionally, and totally unrelated, our creative director, Adam Jensen, signed himself up for a 10-week intense group fitness challenge that one year ago, he wouldn’t have dreamed of taking on. In a sense, he’s been pursuing some personal rebranding, focusing on his health and fitness for the last year. After watching how hard he’s worked to lose 75 pounds and get into better shape, it was inspiring to see him take on something he’d once thought impossible. Both Love Scott’s rebranding efforts, and Adam’s new undertaking, had me thinking about the one thing they have in common. Making the decision to act on fear or faith.

Decisions aren’t always simple. For some companies, decision-making processes, like whether and how to brand/ rebrand, are daunting. Spending the time and inviting internal and possibly external criticism are not always pleasant thoughts. Likewise, personal decisions such as Adam’s, which require self reflection, motivation and determination, are filled with unknowns around every corner. Think about every decision you’ve ever made in your life. Each and every one was driven by the stronger influence of those two things: fear or faith.

Fear of failure. Fear of change. Fear of the unknown. Everything (non-life-threatening) I’ve ever not tried, I can attribute to overwhelming fear. Now, fear can also be a blessing, and it’s actually required for faith to even exist. But for many (and too many companies I care to mention), focusing on fear can be tragically prohibitive when it comes to making effective marketing decisions. What if a campaign doesn’t work? What if it’s too radical for their public? There’s no proof an effort WILL work, so why take the chance?

And then there’s my favorite word – faith. Faith in what’s possible. Faith in doing things right. Faith in discovery through effort. Every time I’ve succeeded at anything, I’ve counted on faith. Faith in myself, faith in God, faith in others. And there have definitely been times when I’ve leaned on faith only to fail. But those are also the times I learned the most about what was needed to later succeed. What if I’d listened to the fear and never tried? I wouldn’t have learned how to do it right, better, the next time.

Faith doesn’t mean entering blindly into a situation, counting on a miracle for something great to happen. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary offers this as a definition:

Main Entry: ¹faith

Pronunciation: \ˈfāth\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English feith, from Anglo-French feid, fei, from Latin fides; akin to Latin fidere to trust — more at bide

Date: 13th century

1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one’s promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>

Sincerity of intentions. Firm belief in something for which there is no proof. Complete trust. With a strong belief in any of these, good things will eventually happen. If your intentions are to market your company right, have faith in yourself and your convictions that it will happen. If you hire a company to do it for you, have faith in yourself to choose the right company, then have faith in them to do what needs to be done…right!

With our rebranding effort, it took faith in the time we’d spend and the system itself that got us through the process. We could have feared what we’d discover from surveying our past and current clients, or that extra time we had to invest might be wasted, but we didn’t. We kept the faith that it would all lead to something great. And it did.

Likewise, Adam let fear rule his decision a year ago and didn’t step up to the challenge he now has faith he can complete. He took some convincing, and had to dabble a little here and there to find his faith-footing, but he found it and is now charging forward.

What drives you and makes your decisions – both personally and professionally? Fear or faith? Which do you want to drive your decisions?

Become the Biggest Loser

Tags: Advertising, biggest loser, bob harper, branding, fund-raising, Inspiration, jillian michaels, marketing, Mission Assist, motivation, non-profit, reality tv, shed weight, strategy, support, television
Posted in Advertising | No Comments 5/27/2010

I am a die-hard Biggest Loser fan, never miss an episode. It usually gets a little dusty in the living room when the show starts following a story line of someone working out and changing their Biggest Loser Finale Michael Ventrella life all set to contemporary music. As I watched in awe of the people on the finale Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but compare it to my own experience. I can identify with the people on the show and their struggles to improve their lives. I watched each contestant step on the scale to reveal how much weight they’d lost in 4 months and just revel in the joy that it brought them to see their “change.” It’s not just a physical change, for many it’s a complete mental conversion with a new outlook on life. However, these contestants were at one point wondering what to do about improving themselves, and how they had let themselves get to whatever point they were at in life. Someone, something had to spark change in them.

There are two trainers on the show – Jillian and Bob. Bob is the gentle supporter. Jillian the tough love challenger. No matter who you prefer, both of them inspire dramatic change. Sometimes all of us need that coach or trainer to believe in, push us and walk with us as we try to improve. When something is weighing you down, its hard to make yourself or your company actually DO something. We all get caught up in our daily routines and tasks at hand and lose sight of the bigger picture. Sometimes we just don’t have the resources or time to do more than what we already do. Sometimes a gentle helping hand can make a change. Sometimes its a tough love “shove” in the right direction. Someone you trust can tell you your faults and what you need to do to see results. They can even give you plans of action and be right by your side as they help you grow.

At LoveScott, we’ve found something that inspires us to do what we do. Its a program we started called Mission Assist. It’s a unique program that combines the skills of marketing and development professionals to help non-profit associations better tell their story, share their mission and increase funding. In other words, we see a lot of non-profit organizations that aren’t “fit” in their marketing departments or developmental goals. Scott Brunscheen leads the Mission Assist program at Love Scott. As a long-time non-profit director, he is uniquely in tune with the challenges and opportunities a non-profit organization faces. Combine that with Love Scott’s forty years of marketing experience, and you have some knowledgeable coaches willing to help a non-profit get into shape. We’d like to be the “coach” that gives you a shove in the right direction. We’ve had some experience watching non-profits wondering what to Jillian & Bob Biggest Loser do next, and weighed down by limitations. We’ve been able to work with non-profits as a partner to not only improve their marketing strategy and brand, but increase funding and create new funding streams. Its been some of the most rewarding work we’ve done. Through helping them shed the weight of “what to do”, we’ve seen them revel in the joy of accomplishing their missions.

If you’d like to learn more about the Mission Assist program, please head to our home page and click on the Mission Assist logo at the bottom of the page. If its something you could benefit from, give anyone at Love Scott a call and we will make sure you are taken care of. We’ll get you on a program to shed the weight of “what to do.”

-Adam Jensen, Vice President / Creative Director

Love Scott / Meals from the Heartland Win Awards

Tags: "Love Scott & Associates", Andrea James, Award, Centeral Iowa Public Relations Society of America, charity, honor, Meals from the Heartland, Merit Award, Mission Assist, news, non-profit, Prime Awards, pro bono, PRSA, PSA, Public Relations, Public Service Announcement, Video
Posted in Public Relations | 4 Comments 5/06/2010

Meals from the Heartland Collateral We are proud to share the news that Love Scott was awarded two prestigious honors at the Central Iowa Public Relations Society of America Prime Awards last week. We were recognized with a Merit Award for copy used in brochures for the Meals from the Heartland fundraising packet. The packets included a large general brochure and four targeted brochures (for schools, individuals, businesses and churches.) All brochures were produced to encourage donations and volunteerism to help package food for 4 million of the world’s hungry.

We were also presented with a Prime Award, the highest honor in the audiovisual category, for the Meals from the Heartland Public Service Announcement.

Both of these projects were completed by Love Scott on a pro-bono basis. We offered our services to the Meals from the Heartland team based on the outstanding work they do to feed the world’s hungry. We have been so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to work with this group of people who volunteer their time (LOTS of it), their hearts and their genuine love for people all over the world who need help. We submitted our work to be considered because we are proud of it. But had we not won the PRSA awards, the experience would still have ranked as the highest reward we could ever receive.

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Posts Tagged ‘Mission Assist’

My Thanks…

We’re up to Something Good!

At The Heart Of Giving

Keeping the Faith

Become the Biggest Loser

Love Scott / Meals from the Heartland Win Awards

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Posts Tagged ‘Mission Assist’

My Thanks…

We’re up to Something Good!

At The Heart Of Giving

Keeping the Faith

Become the Biggest Loser

Love Scott / Meals from the Heartland Win Awards

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