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Show New fund-raising concept-let concept-let charities market goods .'. - "" I ' f if ' V s f f '-K it J 1 I t 1 : ...... J y 4s I . I i: x w ' I ! i- iyiir-' . - . :- - ? ' ' . : ,. by JANICE PERRY Record editor The 1985 International Special Winter Olympics Games brought together two men who have forged an innovative concept for charitable fund raising and decided to launch the campaign from the town where it all began Park City. They are M. David Cohen of Los Angeles known to Special Olympics Olym-pics supporters as "Dr. Hug" and James Bailey, a former clergyman who also raised money for the international event for handicapped athletes. The men, whose goal is to encourage corporate giving, underscored under-scored their presence in and commitment to Park City by immediately establishing a high school scholarship fund and writing a $1,000 check to start it off last school year. "My intention is to become a resident," said Cohen, whose first two initials, M.D., led to the "Dr." in "Dr. Hug." Nearly 20 years ago he organized the hundreds of people who greet handicapped athletes with outstretched arms as they push to complete their events. "If given a choice between raising kids in L A . and Park City, F d choose Park City," he said noting he plans to make the move in about a year. Although both men had been deeply involved in the Special Olympics for years, they had never met. Their introduction in the lobby of the Silver King Hotel spawned a relationship and a business that the two hope can revolutionize the concept of corporate giving. Surrounded by the enthusiasm of the Special Olympics Winter Games and captivated by their brainstorm, the men decided to found International Interna-tional Marketing Network and base it in Park City. "We said, 'Let's do it initially in the Silver King, where it all began," Cohen said in a long-distance telephone interview from Los Angeles, Ange-les, oi eilubs lie fisamun The firm was founded in May and is headquartered in a condominium at the Silver King. The next step, Cohen said, was to get involved in the community. "So we got hold of (Park City School District Superintendent) Tony Mitchell and said we wanted to donate to a scholarship fund," Cohen recalled. "There wasn't one, so we started our own. We wrote a check for $1,000 and said, 'We're in.'" But that wasn't enough. Cohen and Bailey branched out into the community, seeking other sponsors for the funds, and formed a committee of supporters. Their goal for 1986 is to double this year's donations. Cohen said he and Bailey will not draw the line there on their community involvement. "We're going to be a part of it (Park City)," Cohen said. "If someone has a good idea, we'd gladly follow, but we're also willing to lead." The men also hope to make their mark on the world of corporate charitable giving but still have no solid clients. Bailey stated the concept simply. "We are trying to pull together the financial needs of the non-profit corporations and the financial needs of for-profit corporations," which provide financial support for charitable charit-able groups. Currently, he said, charities and the non-profit groups raise funds either by hiring someone to seek corporate donations or get the firms to donate in-kind types of services, such as ice cream for a fund-raising social or food from a grocery chain to help feed poor people. "What generally happens (in the latter case) is that a chain of stores will put the bite on its supplier to actually donate the product." And, in the end, the charity ends up with money and the donor gets a thank-you note, but little else of substance. "Most corporations are not overly satisfied with the exposure they get in return," Bailey said. As an example, he cited the Special Olympics Games held in Utah this year, heavily underwritten by many firms. "If you ask the average person on the street in Park City or Salt Lake City who sponsored the 1985 Special International Olympic Games, I doubt if one of five could tell you. "And it's not because we didn't want people to know," he said. And so, he said, Bailey and Cohen struck on an idea to help corporations' corpora-tions' promote their products; -while the charities can pocket the cash. A practical example would be a firm that spends millions of dollars to put a sample-size box of detergent or toothpaste in a person's mailbox, or is preparing a major marketing campaign for a new candy bar. "What we have proposed is they would donate X number of candy bars or whatever product it is to the organization," Bailey said. "We organize the volunteers, train them and they then take the product and go out and sell it." The movement, he said, can be Janice Perry James Bailey and assistant Claudia Ward run International Internation-al Marketing Network out of the Silver King in Park City. nationwide, or in a specific geographic geogra-phic test market. The volunteers sell the product to friends, relatives at the office or at church, stressing the purchase is a charitable donation. "Whatever dollars are generated 'J from sales, the organization keeps,"-Bailey keeps,"-Bailey said. "Some companies are big into couponing," "he said,noting: that if coupons for the product are distributed with the item donated then the corporation could agree to pay a nickel or 10 cents to the organization for every coupon redeemed, he said. One of the real bugaboos surrounding standard fund raising is the small percentage of donated dollars that actually are received by the charitable group. "Professional fund raisers are criticized cri-ticized for taking so much of the amount of dollars raised," Bailey , commented, saying the fund-raiser's "take" can range from a low of 50 : percent to 60 percent to perhaps a high of 85 percent to 90 percent. But under their scheme, International Interna-tional Marketing Network would be paid by the corporation out of existing money set aside for 'marketing and promotion, he said. -"In that situation, everyone comes out a winner," he said. Charitable groups they represent include the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center founded by the father of a child who was kidnapped and later found dead the U.S. Ski Team, the 1987 International Summer Sum-mer Special Olympics Games, the Regional Cancer Foundation of San 'Francisco and Let's Play to Grow, an organization that helps handicapped youngsters through play therapy. The firm also represents the Dominican sisters, which operate the v Sacred Heart hospitals. |