Sustaining a non-profit in crisis

CHALLENGE
Healing Hands for Haiti International is a non-profit organization specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation in Haiti. The foundation was 12 years old but had few regular revenue streams when the earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010. Demand on its services exploded and all of its resources were stretched beyond capacity.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
HHHI needed to quickly and economically ramp up its marketing communications to raise awareness and donations to help meet the crisis and ensuing growth phases.

OUTCOME
The technical and creative team at Communication Associates had been working with HHHI on a volunteer and probono basis for a number of years. Due to the urgency, CA was contracted to complete fund raising development of the web site we had recently launched. Within weeks of the catastrophe, donations were streaming in. In the first three months, the site raised more than $250,000. Communication Associates continues to handle all aspects of HHHI marketing as the organization begins replacing its destroyed facilities with Haiti’s first Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Institute.v