SOME (So Others Might Eat) is a nonprofit that provides wraparound services, including affordable housing, health care, counseling, substance use disorder treatment, and job training to support DC residents to find pathways out of poverty and homelessness and achieve long-term stability and success. Each Thanksgiving, SOME hosts a Trot for Hunger 5K to fundraise for their vital services.
In 2023, Storytelling for Good was brought in with the goal of achieving wall-to-wall media coverage in local broadcast and society media outlets in order to bolster SOME’s fundraising total for the event. We knew that a Thanksgiving 5K on its surface had news potential, but that the more important story to tell was about the critical, life-saving work of SOME and its mission. Greater participation in this race would result in increased investment in critical health and wellness services for DC’s residents.
In October, we developed a pitch strategy that included securing a multi-pronged story with DC’s FOX station over the course of several weeks. Our outreach ultimately resulted in more than 40 unique print/online and broadcast stories in outlets including Yahoo! Finance, Arlington Magazine, Axios, DCist, Secret DC, Washingtonian, NBC4, FOX5, WUSA9 and WTOP, among others. The 2023 Trot for Hunger achieved wall-to-wall broadcast coverage throughout the month of November, with at least 18 individual broadcast media segments before, during, and following Thanksgiving Day across DC television stations. Our coverage reached a potential audience of 87.3 million people, generating more than 14,000 likes, comments and shares on social media platforms. Ultimately, the coverage helped SOME exceed its goals for the race, leading to three-quarters of a million dollars in fundraising to support the great work of this community pillar.