Trees for Troops Final Numbers

More Military Families Have a Real Christmas Tree this Year Thanks to Trees for Troops

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – Dec. 22, 2010 – FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) and the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation joined together this holiday season, for the sixth year, to deliver Real Christmas Trees to thousands of military members and their families through the popular Trees for Troops program.

More than 17,200 Real Christmas Trees were delivered to 59 U.S. military bases this year, as well as seven overseas locations. This is a 4 percent increase of Real Christmas Trees over last year. “This was an outstanding year for donations and support from our Real Christmas Tree growers throughout the U.S.,” says Nigel Manley, chairman of the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation. “Tree growers really stepped up to the plate to give something back to the military men and women who give so much throughout the year to serve our country.”

A final delivery is taking place this week, delivering table top trees to wounded soldiers and their families in the Washington, D.C. area.

Since its first year in 2005, the Trees for Troops program has quadrupled in size and donations. Program highlights include:

• In the program's first year, 4,300 trees were delivered to troops and military families at five bases in the U.S. and overseas.
• To date, almost 84,000 Real Christmas Trees have been distributed to families in every branch of the military at more than 59 bases in 17 countries.
• Overseas deliveries increased from 280 Real Christmas Trees in 2009 to almost 400 in 2010.
• Throughout November and early December, National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) members around the country donated thousands of trees to Trees for Troops through the Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, the NCTA's philanthropic branch, and FedEx Freight provided the shipping and logistics.

As in previous years, the public could also participate in Trees for Troops by purchasing trees and attaching a personal message for troops at more than 30 retail locations nationally during Trees for Troops weekend, which was held at the beginning of December.

To help keep this going for next year, Text TREE to 50555 or click on the donation button on http://www.treesfortroops.org/.
Follow Trees for Troops on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/trees4troops
Become a Fan on Facebook: Trees for Troops has a Facebook page and can also be found under the Causes: http://www.causes.com/causes/122937

About FedEx

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $36 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world's most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 285,000 team members to remain "absolutely, positively" focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities. For more information, visit news.fedex.com.

About Christmas SPIRIT Foundation
The Christmas SPIRIT Foundation, based in Chesterfield, Mo., is 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation that advances the Christmas Spirit for kids, families and the environment. Trees for Troops is just one of its projects. For more details or to donate, visit www.ChristmasSpiritFoundation.org.

About the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA)
NCTA is the professional organization representing nearly 5,000 farms and retailers engaged in growing and selling Real Christmas Trees to nearly 30 million consumers. Based in Chesterfield, Mo., NCTA's mission is to promote the use of Real Christmas Trees and support the industry that provides them. For more information, go to www.realchristmastrees.org/.

Media Contact: 

Amy Mills

Christmas SPIRIT Foundation
(636) 449-5060

And the Good News Keeps Coming ...

After last week's announcement that Drake & Company will be providing association management services to the newly formed U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance, we really couldn't ask for anything else under the Christmas Tree.

But Santa has been very kind to us this year. Yesterday, we received word that one of our client publications has been recognized in the Association Trends All-Media Contest. The American Christmas Tree Journal, the official magazine of the National Christmas Tree Association, received the Bronze Award in the "Quarterly Magazine - Under $1 Million Budget" division.

View the Complete List of Award Winners

In the world of association publishing, where you're frequently working with small budgets and even smaller staffs, it can be difficult to measure your success. Awards and accolades are certainly nice, if only to show that your work stands up against professional standards in the industry.

However, the true measure of success is the impact and reach that your publication has on its audience. Each year, the American Christmas Tree Journal conducts a survey of its readers. One of the questions we ask is how long they keep an average issue of the magazine. In 2009, more than 75% of readers reported keeping their issues for 6 months or more. As a subscriber to numerous magazines myself, I know how quickly they can pile up and most of mine end up in the trash within a year or so.

Yet every year, numerous NCTA members skip over our multiple choice options and write in their answer ... "Forever." As an editor, that simple one-word answer means more to me than any award or recognition. A cynic could argue that they're simply pack rats or collectors, but the fact that they're willing to set aside valuable space in their home or business for our magazine, referring to it for years to come, tells us that we're doing something right.

So a huge thanks to the NCTA Board and Professional Committee, our members, readers, advertisers, contributors, staff (and collectors) who truly make the Journal "award-winning"!

U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance retains General Contractor

CHESTERFIELD, Mo. – The newly formed U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), currently composed of 23 of the nation’s foremost farmer- and rancher-led agricultural organizations, has selected Drake & Company (DrakeCo) to provide association management services.

“USFRA established a transparent process to select a general contractor to guide us towards the enactment of our vision and the accomplishment of our goals,” said Bob Stallman, USFRA Board chairman and American Farm Bureau Federation president. “Of our three highly qualified finalists, Drake & Company was selected for their innate knowledge of our business focus, their staff experience and their record of helping volunteer-driven organizations achieve measurable results.”

DrakeCo, an AMC Institute-accredited association management firm, had been providing start-up and interim general contractor assistance to the group since August.

“We are passionate about the Alliance’s cause and strongly believe in its vision and goals,” said Steve Drake, DrakeCo president. “We will continue to apply our experience working within the agricultural community, checkoff organizations and customer-facing communications to achieve USFRA’s goals. We are exited about working with USFRA, a client which joins a growing number of agriculture-oriented associations in our management portfolio.”

During the first quarter of 2011, USFRA will continue to develop and plan a national trust and image campaign to strengthen the image of agriculture to be launched in 2011. The Alliance’s projects a $20 million annual budget during the next three to five years. Veteran agricultural association executive Hugh Whaley will serve as general manager.

About USFRA
U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance currently represents 23 of the leading farmer- and rancher-led agricultural organizations. These organizations have joined together to fund programs that strengthen the image of agriculture and enhance public trust in today’s agricultural best production practices. For more information about USFRA, go to: www.usfraonline.org.

About DrakeCo
Drake & Company makes dreams fly by passionately giving of ourselves and our talents to provide vision, leadership and professional services to trade associations, membership organizations, foundations and companies. Since its establishment in 1992, DrakeCo has made a name for itself by growing its clients’ membership, incubating new associations and developing award-winning cause-related marketing initiatives such as the Trees for Troops campaign. For more information about DrakeCo, go to: www.drakeco.com or blog.drakeco.com.

Media Contact
Hugh Whaley
(636) 449-5050
whaley@drakeco.com

Coming To You Live From ... The Internet?

In today's world of "citizen journalism" and real-time reporting on Twitter, does traditional PR still have a place? This is a question that comes up frequently among our association clients -- both as we shape their association marketing and promotions strategy and as they look at their own business strategies. In workshops, discussions and webinars on the topic, our usual party line is that traditional PR and media relations methods still have a place. But today I'm going to go one step further and say that it's not an either/or proposition - if we're willing to open our eyes, we'll quickly find that traditional PR can actually be enhanced, not replaced, by new media strategies.

I'll give you an example from this weekend.

Each year, the National Christmas Tree Association media hotline is bombarded by journalists and producers around the world. As a staff, our goal has always been to make it as easy as possible for news media to get the information they need, in the format they need and on deadline. Sure, it sounds basic enough, but it's less common than you would think. Ask any journalist and they'll tell you there are plenty of organizations who make reporters jump through arbitrary hoops ... and yet those organizations are surprised they don't get the coverage or "spin" they wanted. This basic tenet is the reason we have a phone line dedicated to the media, it's the reason we added a digital newsroom, it's the reason we provide suggested story ideas on our media page, it's the reason our PR manager works around the clock during our busy season.

But what if we didn't always have to rely on the media to pick up our stories? What if we could make (and distribute) our own news? And that's where social media and technology comes in. This year, to highlight the options available to consumers, we filmed and posted video to our YouTube channel showing how easy it is to order a tree online. Working with a grower halfway across the country, PR Manager Rick Dungey blogged about the process from field to family room, combining reporting, photos and video. Even if not a single reporter picked up on the story, we were still sharing the message we wanted with consumers.

In doing so, we also made it easy for journalists to see the story possibilities, and it wasn't long before they came calling. The Boston Globe picked up on what we were doing and called to do a story on online tree purchases ... which led to a very nice article ... which led to a call from ABC's Good Morning America. In putting together their story package, they were able to use the videos that had already been created by the grower and our staff. To top it off, they conducted the interviews via Skype, leading to a piece created entirely from "virtual" elements. In the past, this might have been a story news media would have skipped over, not wanting to invest the time to send out a camera crew.

Technology alone didn't make this happen -- it was technology combined with good solid PR and media relations strategies. In this day and age, I would argue that if you have one without the other, you're going to be missing out. For our team, the key has been to stop worrying about when/if social media will replace traditional PR and to start looking for ways that it can enhance what we are already doing. It may be a little more work on our end, but the results are worth it.