GFM|CenterTable

Our grant cycle is now OPEN! Since its inception in 2015, the Get Grounded Foundation has awarded over $450,000 through 112 microgrants to support programs dedicated to preventing child abuse and neglect, addressing childhood food insecurity and promoting youth mental health in the Denver and Boulder metro areas. For more details, including how to apply, visit: https://lnkd.in/gbHcKErX

We’re honored to share social impact learnings from our Get Grounded Foundation alongside other B:CIVIC investors, including COPIC Medical Foundation and IMA Foundation. Learn more by reading below!

RIP, Twitter. Crisis Communications Professionals Miss You.    A new survey from Muck Rake shows that public relations professionals are increasingly turning away from X (née Twitter) in favor of more stable social media platforms such as LinkedIn. That is no surprise given that X has been a dumpster fire of misinformation for years and has recently seen exponentially more ... what's the right euphemism ... "adult" content? At this rate, it will only be a year or two before Elon Musk rebrands the social media platform again as XXX.    Watching X’s demise has been challenging for those of us who work with clients experiencing crises. There was no better barometer of how a crisis situation was trending than on X when it was Twitter. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, it was inherently open and easy to monitor. And the metrics it provided helped us make better decisions about how and when to respond.    It was not uncommon to have CEOs involved in an ongoing crisis eventually become frustrated and demand to increase the level of response. In some cases, X data showing that conversation about the situation was actually trending down quickly was instrumental to calming the CEOS down and keeping them from making rash decisions that would have only escalated the situations.    I’ve learned over my years in-house and at GFM|CenterTable that I lose 100% of the time when it is my gut against the CEO’s gut. But my data against a CEO’s gut … I prevail about 75% of the time. That’s lower than it should be, but it’s still better than 0%. RIP, Twitter.    - Jeremy Story is a partner at GFM|CenterTable who leads the firm's Crisis & Issues Management practice.  

As a socially conscious marketing communications agency, giving back is embedded in our culture and our values. Since 2007, our Get Grounded Volunteer Program has provided team members with up to four hours per month of paid time for volunteering for nonprofits, schools or other 501(c)(3) organizations. In addition, GFM|CenterTable matches all volunteer hours by donating $10 per hour, up to $400 for each team member per calendar year, to the charities for which team members volunteer their time. Learn how we're working to better our community: https://lnkd.in/gzeNp67h

We are thrilled to announce the recent promotions of Sarah Wool to Senior Director and Kathleen Deal and Lauren Noser to Associate Vice President! From insightful brand and digital strategy to advocacy expertise and a shared, unwavering commitment to living our agency values, their hard work and performance has helped make us a better agency. We’re so happy to have these dynamos on our team!

We were inspired to attend and participate in the Summit for Outdoor Industry Leaders & Innovators at the Outside Festival in Denver over the weekend. Cheers to Outside, Conor Hall and the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, Luis Guillermo Benitez and the Trust for Public Land as well as the entire team who made this year's festival a success!

As we close out Mental Health Awareness Month, we also marked the one-year anniversary of the loss of our founder’s son, Sam Aden, to suicide. The Sam Love & Kindness Fund was created in his honor to support youth mental health awareness and provide critical mental health support for children. Thanks to the generosity of our community, we have successfully raised more than $360,000. The Get Grounded Foundation, a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (Tax ID# 46-5125610), proudly oversees Sam’s Fund and 100% of donations raised go directly toward supporting youth mental health programs. In the past year, we honored Sam and all other children struggling with their own mental health by: • Granting funds to seven organizations that dedicate their time to work with amazing kids and families like Sam who struggle to find peace. • Launching the annual “Random Acts of Sam-ness Day” – where more than 75 friends and family participated in spreading kindness in Colorado, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, California, Texas, Egypt, Copenhagen, Brazil and beyond! • Hitting the slopes at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and raising over $10,000 during the inaugural “Sam's Day of Stoke." Those funds were gifted as a special grant to Mountain in My Mind, a film series about mental health in the mountain communities. • Distributing hundreds of hand-painted “Love & Kindness” garden sticks, designed by the talented Tiffany Lester, placed all over the world to remind people to choose kindness. Always. To learn more about The Sam Love & Kindness fund or to donate, please visit: https://lnkd.in/gMrrbSaY. If you know of someone struggling with their own mental health, reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 988 or text "START" to 741-741 where a trained specialist will respond. Together we can make a difference. #MentalHealthAwareness #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #MentalHealth

As an organization, we've been guided by our values and committed to our community from the very beginning. One of the most important being Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility. We're proud to be part of local efforts with other organizations including Colorado Companies Uniting Against Racism, B:CIVIC, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Denver Partnership and Philanthropy Colorado. To us, DEIA is not a trend and Senior Director Sarah Wool put it best. Check it out.

Join us in cheering on our very own Jack Barsch and Evie W. as they compete in the PROI Worldwide Ignite pitch competition! Over the summer, they'll be honing their skills alongside like-minded peers from agencies across the Americas region. From virtual trainings to crafting a cross-disciplinary integrated communication plan, they're gearing up to pitch their ideas to judges. The winning team not only takes home a cash prize but also gets to present at the PROI Americas Summit in Miami this November! 🏆 This is just one way our team collaborates and learns from 90 entrepreneurial communications firms in more than 65 countries. #ProfessionalDevelopment

The WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) is at an inflection point right now. Attention on the nascent league has never been higher thanks to a confluence of good news – skyrocketing TV ratings, increased ticket sales, new franchises, and growing merchandise sales. Those have all been trends over the past few years, and when you add the “Caitlin Clark” effect to the mix this season, the league is on the precipice of even greater heights. Unfortunately for the WNBA, revenues tend to lag attention and WNBA financials are rounding errors compared to those of the NBA. The NBA receives $2.6 billion from its TV contract that also expires this year, and it is negotiating a new agreement that is estimated to average close to $7 billion per year. Given that disparity, it should be no surprise that NBA players average nearly $11 million in annual salary, while WNBA players average $117,000. WNBA players make 1% of what NBA players make, and rookie stars like Caitlin Clark only make two-thirds of 1% of the average NBA salary. The optics of that aren’t terrific, but it reflects real-world economics. Next year’s WNBA TV contract will be approximately 1.5% of the NBA contract, so it is understandable that WNBA salaries would be proportional. The real threat to the WNBA is the risk to the game that the remarkably low salaries create. Two months ago, the NBA gave Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter a lifetime ban for betting on NBA games and his own performance. Porter’s salary was just $415,000, and it seems logical that he bet on games to supplement his income that wasn’t as high as he thought it should be. That should be a frightening concept to WNBA leaders considering their players average $117,000 annually. Revenues from sports betting in the U.S. grew 44% last year alone to $11 billion. How susceptible are WNBA players to shady gamblers who want them to throw games given how many make less than $100,000 per year? You can’t even buy an average starter home in Denver if you don’t earn $128,000 per year. Right now, the WNBA has more attention than revenues. It needs to capitalize financially on that attention, and quickly, or its media coverage is going to include a focus on gambling scandals. - Jeremy Story is a partner at GFM|CenterTable who leads the firm's Crisis & Issues Management practice.