Home > Clients > The Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation

The Joyce Foundation Works to Restore a National Treasure
The Great Lakes are home to Earth’s largest supply of fresh water, a thriving tourist and shipping economy, and home to countless species of fish and wildlife. The Great Lakes also supply drinking water to more than 40 million people. But to most Midwesterners, the Great Lakes are just home.

For all of these reasons, The Joyce Foundation hired Valerie Denney Communications to raise public awareness about the need for a comprehensive clean-up of the Great Lakes, where health problems from raw sewage, industrial waste and other pollutants has reached a crisis point. For the past four years, VDC has provided campaign strategy and media coordination for a coalition of 40 groups in 10 states—led by theNational Wildlife Federation—seeking to pass the Great Lakes Restoration Bill in Congress.

To date, VDC has helped generate more than 1,500 news stories about the about restoration effort, while also assisting in campaign management, message development, production of collateral materials and creation of a website.

Making Great Lakes Connections on Twitter
Twitter is one of the newest ways people communicate on the Internet. Through 140-character bursts (“tweets”), people post links to photos and news stories, report on their lunch, or provide running commentary on events like the Oscars or political speeches.

VDC tapped into this community by starting a Twitter feed for the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, a group advocating for the protection and restoration for the Great Lakes. VDC tweets links and news throughout the day about efforts to restore the Lakes and the love people share for them.

While advocates gathered in Washington, DC for Great Lakes Day to meet with Members of Congress and Administration officials about restoration funding and regulation, VDC reported on the speeches and meetings in real time through Twitter in addition to the Healthy Lakes, Healthy Lives blog and YouTube page.

@healthylakes is now sharing thoughts and links with over 900 followers, including activists, public officials, journalists, and other lake-lovers from all over the country.

Sign up and give us a tweet!

$5 Million Grant Will Help Restore Important Maumee River
The Joyce Foundation has invested a lot to build support for Great Lakes restoration. An important step in restoring the Lakes is restoring the rivers that flow into them. When Joyce invested $5 million in Lake Erie’s Maumee River, the largest watershed flowing into the Great Lakes, VDC went to work letting media in the area know about it.

VDC produced maps , fact sheets , and press releases explaining the projects and their lasting effects. Using these in a strategic media outreach effort, news appeared in newspapers, radio, television, and blogs throughout the area, including front page features in the two largest newspapers in the watershed, Journal Sentinel in Fort Wayne and The Blade in Toledo.