Through a one-of-a-kind “philanthropy” curriculum created in partnership with Make-A-Wish, preschool children at The Learning Experience centers across the country are constantly learning about the importance of kindness, inclusion, and giving back. As part of this unique curriculum, The Learning Experience began hosting a nationwide fundraiser to grant wishes for Make-A-Wish children and teach preschoolers about the positive difference they can make in the world when they work together.
Leading into this month-long fundraiser, The Learning Experience was looking to achieve multiple goals for the brand, including positioning the brand as an innovative early childhood education leader, demonstrating the nationwide preschool’s positive impact in communities it serves, generating meaningful stories in markets across the country, and ultimately raising donations to help make life-changing wishes come true for children battling a life-threatening medical condition.
Breakout Strategy / Programming
At The Learning Experience, they believe in delivering more than just primary education by emphasizing essential life values through their philanthropy curriculum, featuring lovable characters Grace Greyhound and Charity Chihuahua. Through a meaningful partnership with Make-A-Wish, young learners can apply the kindness and giving principles they've acquired, showcasing the transformative effects of altruism. As articulated by Grace and Charity, the emphasis lies not in size but in the size of one's heart, echoing the fundamental philosophy of their educational program.
Situation / Overview
The Learning Experience - Corporate Philanthropy
Case Study
STiR developed an aggressive and widespread media relation program focusing on The Learning Experience’s franchise-wide fundraising campaign and philanthropy curriculum. To start, we strategically created media pitches that went beyond the fundraiser while purposefully highlighting the ongoing philanthropy curriculum and preschoolers learning lifelong lessons on the importance of kindness, inclusion, and giving back. Then, we proactively pitched relevant reporters identified in over 50 DMA regions and offered onsite visuals and interviews at "media pre-approved" centers.
As our nationwide media relations campaign kicked off, we had an overwhelming number of media requests to coordinate, incredibly positive feature stories running across the country, and donation support for centers that continued throughout the month of The Learning Experience's fundraiser to grant wishes for Make-A-Wish children.
Services Provided
Intelligence & Strategy
Creative Services
F'ing Results
Corporate Communications
More Services
Digital PR & Marketing
Media Relations
Results
320
Media placements earned over one-month period
1.1 Billion
One-month period of the annual fundraiser in 2023 and 2022
All media placements were incredibly positive in tonality, a significant portion go into greater context about The Learning Experience’s unique philanthropy curriculum, and many feature stories include links to fundraising pages while directing viewers on how to donate.
Media placements and feature stories aired on TV news outlets in over 40 DMA regions where The Learning Experience has locations, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, and Phoenix
Earned media placements during the fundraiser are contributing to long-term results for The Learning Experience, including greater brand visibility, attracting new parents to enroll their children at centers, and enhancing franchise owner engagement and satisfaction.
The widespread and massive amount of positive media coverage secured for the brand during its fundraising campaign has contributed to nearly $4 million in donations raised for Make-A-Wish over a two-year period.
Sampling of Top Media Placements