Every year, the American Advertising Federation Nebraska invites area nonprofit organizations to submit applications for assistance with the development of their advertising, public relations and marketing efforts.
AAF Nebraska is the local chapter of the American Advertising Federation and exists as advocates and educators of all-things advertising. We are the only professional association that brings together mutual interests of corporate advertisers, agencies, marketing and media services, suppliers, academia, and other advertising and public relations professionals. Our club is made up of more than 250 professionals ranging from designers and copywriters to strategists, web developers and students.
As a group, we know we have a duty to give back. That is why we have a long-standing commitment to public service with the goal of improving the quality of life in our community. Over the years, we have partnered with dozens of nonprofits to assist with their advertising and marketing needs including the Hope Center, Youth Emergency Services, Shaken Baby Task Force, the Coalition on Human Trafficking, Ronald McDonald House Charities Omaha, the League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha, and the Refugee Empowerment Center.
This invitation is extended to more than 200 nonprofit organizations in the Omaha, Lincoln and throughout the state of Nebraska. AAF Nebraska’s Public Service committee, along with the executive team, reviews all applications. All applicants must be available for a one-hour interview set-up by our Public Service committee.
For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Teri Hamburger via email at aafomaha.teri@gmail.com.
If your organization has applied in the past and not been selected, we encourage you to apply again. Applications do not transfer from year to year – and this could be your year!
AAF Nebraska members put your professional talents to work for your community. Contact Chris LaCroix, John Shea or Ginny Allumbaugh today to get involved in AAF Nebraska’s public service opportunities.
Chris LaCroix, chris@shapesociety.com
John Shea, sheajp2@gmail.com
Ginny Allumbaugh, ginny.allumbaugh@coxmedia.com
2023-2024 Public Service Application Open through July 31, 2023
Campaigns by Year
2021-2022 Public Service Campaign
Partnership 4 Hope
Partnership 4 Hope is a community-based initiative designed to address the unique challenges that YAFFYs (Young Adult Former Foster Youth) face. The community and population it serves are young adults in the greater Omaha metropolitan area, nineteen years of age and older, who have “aged out” of the foster care system.
It strives to meet these challenges by recruiting and providing this population with mentors who will establish a meaningful mentoring relationship, as well as a community support system that will partner with and help both mentor and mentee to succeed as they travel together on the journey toward independent living. It will also seek to provide material, emotional, and relational assistance to meet the challenges they face in that process.
2020-2021 Public Service Campaign
Refugee Empowerment Center
The Refugee Empowerment Center assists refugees who are transitioning from their own culture to American life. They focus on helping refugees live and work productively, further their education, and achieve a better life for themselves and their children.
Their goal is to empower refugees to integrate into their new homes and obtain the skills necessary for economic self-sufficiency. REC is grateful to the Omaha community for uniting with us in solidarity to support refugees in becoming healthy and successful members of the community we share.
In 2020-2021, the AAF Omaha Public Services Committee partnered with the Refugee Empowerment Center (REC). The REC assists in resettling refugees as they transition from vastly different backgrounds to American life. Through numerous programs, REC helps refugees obtain skills to become self-sufficient and successful members of the community.
AAF Omaha’s Public Service Committee’s partnership with REC focused on growing their Refuge Candle business. The Refuge Candles are hand-made by REC clients, and their sales directly support refugees in Omaha and REC’s mission. The PSA Committee also felt that the growth of this business would bring more awareness to REC’s efforts as they work to help clients achieve a better life for themselves and their children.
The PSA will be filming and producing a video project that specifically highlights the candle business and the Refugee who make the candles, as well as redesigning their e-commerce site. The production project will tell the Refuge Candle story and bring awareness to the business. The website redesign will create a better user experience and drive future and return traffic to the site.
To learn how you can further support the REC, visit their website at https://refugeeempowerment.org/
2019-2020 Public Service Campaign
The League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha
The League of Women Voters of Greater Omaha is a nonpartisan, political, membership organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
2018-2019 Public Service Campaign
Ronald McDonald House Charities Omaha
The mission of Ronald McDonald House Charities in Omaha (RMHC) is to create and operate programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children. We strive to do so by providing opportunities that strengthen children and families during their most difficult and challenging times. The specific purpose of the Ronald McDonald House Charities is to support access to care, reduce financial burden, provide psychosocial support keeping families together, enhance clinical experiences and outcomes and help families resume normalcy.
2017-2018 Public Service Campaign
TeamMates
AAF Omaha’s Public Service team partnered with TeamMates for their 2017-2018 project.
The TeamMates mission is to impact the world by inspiring youth to reach their full potential. For more than 25 years, mentors have made a difference in the lives of youth. Matches meet once a week at school during the academic year to play board grams, work on a craft, build robots, shoot baskets or just talk. It has been seen through multiple studies that mentees’ grades, attendance, and behavior improve over time in the program. Several former mentees are even paying their experience forward and being mentors after they graduate high school or college.
2016-2017 Public Service Campaign
Respect
In 2016, AAF Omaha created a multi-channel campaign for RESPECT to promote and build awareness for its mission of educating students through theater on how to build healthy relationships in their lives.
RESPECT was founded in 2000 by Dr. Patricia Newman, educator and child psychologist, and currently the executive director. She developed this community collaboration in an effort to educate youth on healthy relationships in order to prevent violence. Today, RESPECT has dozens of performances developed for various age groups that tackle topics like bullying, diversity, safety online, drugs and alcohol, teen dating, suicide and more. RESPECT’s team is comprised of actor-educators, who are some of the most sought-out theatre professionals in Omaha, and a small staff that manages the hundreds of programs that they provide each year.
2015-2016 Public Service Campaign
Coalition on Human Trafficking
In 2015, AAF Omaha committed to developing and initiating an extensive multi-channel campaign for the Coalition on Human Trafficking.
The coalition was created following a directive from the National Leadership Conference of Women Religious. It originally consisted of the Notre Dame Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy and the Servants of Mary. Other members now include representatives from social services agencies, law enforcement leadership from the entire Omaha metropolitan area, the Catholic Archdiocese, several healthcare organizations, the Omaha Women’s Fund, American Mothers, Inc., the Nebraska State Coordinator of Human Trafficking and a variety of other concerned individuals.
Work completed on behalf of the Coalition included: The Coalition’s new logo and color palette, stationery, including envelope, letterhead and business cards, email account set up, list upload and template development, a PowerPoint template for training presentations, plaques and window clings for hotels and motels to display to inform guests the establishment has been trained on how to recognize human trafficking, an informational brochure, social media account creation on Facebook and Twitter, a print ad, press conference materials including a press kit, a banner stand, bus bench advertising, a temporary landing page that served as a placeholder for the NoTrafficking.org, complete with an emergency “close page” button, until the full site (not active) was completed.
In addition, our AAF Omaha Holiday Party raised more than $600 to help pay for some of the production hard costs. A total of over $44,000 in time and in-kind items were donated to the effort.
AAF Omaha extends special thanks to:
Mary Ann O’Brien for the assistance OBI Creative provided with strategy and the press conference at the Mayor’s office; Dave Webster of Webster Design. Dave, thank you for lending us the amazing talents of Sean Heisler, Lisa Healy, Rob Heggen and all of the others at your firm who brought the campaign to life! We know this work will make a difference!
Kerry Heinrich at H&A Media Group for helping so much with our proofing and coordination; You are a Godsend; and last but not least, Mike Compton at Renze Display: Mike, you always step up to the plate and we deeply appreciate your willingness to help.
To everyone who assisted, thank you for all of your hard work. Together, AAF Omaha believes we can make a dent in human trafficking in our area.
2014-2015 Public Service Events
In 2014, AAF Omaha initiated a variety of events with the goal of making a difference for those in our community.
For the second year in a row, AAF Omaha partnered with the Greater Omaha Postal Customer Council to host a premier advertising conference the Omaha Advertising Expo (OAX!).
The mission of the OAX! conference is to educate attendees on the value of advertising, expose businesses to the best of traditional and new media promotions, and provide valuable networking opportunities within the great Omaha marketing community. AAF Omaha focused its efforts on populating the event with influential speakers for educational sessions and workshops. Through involvement with OAX!, AAF Omaha provides affordable advertising expertise to local business owners and non-profit professionals who have limited marketing resources.
In 2014, AAF Omaha selected Heartland Hope Mission as its public service campaign recipient. Heartland Hope Mission, the area’s largest food pantry, provides non-perishable and perishable food items to a growing number of Omaha’s working poor on a weekly basis. AAF Omaha held a coat drive and a food drive to help Heartland Hope Mission during the busy winter months. During 2014, Heartland Hope Mission served over 30,000 people with supplies of food, clothing and hygiene items in three separate buildings. An impending move into a new singular facility in May 2015 created a sense of unity to the services Heartland Hope Mission offers. As the organization has grown, so has the content on their website which has evolved. As Heartland Hope Mission relies heavily on volunteers and a small staff to achieve its goals of serving the working poor, they relied on the AAF Omaha’s Public Service Committee to bring clarity to the ways its website communicated its mission and processes.
The committee developed a creative strategy brief to guide all communications for Heartland Hope Mission and an in-depth analysis of the current site’s structure and content, then design and programming took place. Our work with Heartland Hope Mission helped bring to light new and more efficient ways of communicating with their targets and better served all of the Mission’s important constituents by delivering a better user experience.
2010-2011 Public Service Campaign
Midwest Heart Connection
AAF Omaha partnered with advertising students from Creighton University who, with guidance from other AAF Omaha members, functioned as the public service committee. The students, who operated under the name of Soup Line, conducted themselves like a student-run agency, with account services, media and creative departments. Students were responsible for conceiving and directing the entire campaign. The students’ involvement was the focal point of the advertising campaigns class offered by the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Creighton University.
Midwest Heart Connection (MHC) was selected to receive AAF Omaha’s 2010-11 Public Service integrated campaign. MHC’s mission is to provide information, resources, and support to individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) and their families. While they primarily serve Nebraska and the surrounding areas, they are the only such group in the region that offers such services. They are passionate about raising awareness of CHD and believe that awareness will encourage communities to be more understanding of the needs of those with CHD and will facilitate fundraising for pediatric cardiology research so that more children with heart disease will survive, live longer, and live higher quality lives.
2009-2010 Public Service Campaign
Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
AAF Omaha received top honors from the American Advertising Federation for its public service advertising campaign developed for the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (DVCC) Family Justice Center of the Midlands. The DVCC is an Omaha-based non-profit providing prevention, intervention, and treatment techniques for assisting individuals, area organizations and agencies dedicated to serving those effected by and at greatest risk of domestic violence. Members of Omaha’s advertising and marketing community donated time and resources to complete the public awareness campaign.
AAF Omaha Public Service Campaign Contributors:
Kathleen Overholt, Thought District
Jeff Maciejewski, Creighton University
Jennifer Kros-Dorfmeyer, Bailey Lauerman
Marty Amsler, Bailey Lauerman
Rainbow Rowell, Bailey Lauerman
Dave Markes, Bailey Lauerman
Jim Buhrman, Bailey Lauerman
Meghan Kifer, Bailey Lauerman
Michelle Sukup, Bailey Lauerman
Patrick Stibbs, On the Spot Radio
Erin Takeuchi, Creighton University
Karen Hadley, Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
Jane Shinn, Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
Ashley Hadley, Domestic Violence Coordinating Council
2007-2008 Public Service Campaign
AAF Omaha teamed up with Children’s Respite Care Center to provide an advertising campaign. The campaign concept is: Together we can do anything. This means, regardless of abilities or challenges, a child is innately imaginative, creative, and full of wonder. A smile or a laugh is a universally enjoyed experience, and for a child to smile or laugh brings a real sense of satisfaction.
Parents, caregivers, teachers and coaches all share a responsibility to provide the proper environment and encouragement that allows children to reach their highest goals. For one child, that’s reaching the Olympic podium or graduating at the top of their class. For another, it’s completing the simple daily tasks we often take for granted. The sense of accomplishment for either child is genuine and meaningful.
Children see their goals much differently than adults. They’re called wishes. They imagine things in much grander fashions. They don’t yet think about “Plan B,” or prioritizing their action item lists. That’s for grownups. For children, the world is a fantastic place, and if asked to choose between handwriting exercises or taking a balloon ride — the choice is clear.
Achieving that sense of accomplishment, reaching the goals that will put a smile on a child’s face, and filling them with a sense of value and contribution is Children’s Respite Care Center’s mission. “Together we can do anything” applies to the relationship between child and parent, child and caregiver, caregiver and parent. It is the support we give each other and the bond we build within the group that ultimately benefits our children.
A garage sale was held on March 28 and 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Children’s Respite Care Center received a lot of media coverage prior to the event on various news stations (TV). The spots were also aired on NRG Media radio stations. CRCC raised a little over $10,000!
Watch the commercial here.
Please enjoy the following print materials created for Children’s Respite Care Center.
AAF Omaha Public Service Campaign Contributors:
Turnpost Creative Group
Visual Utility
OnTrack
EmJay
Clear Channel Radio
Robert Ervin Photography
Albers Communications
Barnhart Press
Regal Printing
PrintCo
Lamar Outdoor
Waitt Outdoor
One Magazine
Omaha Family
Today’s Omaha Woman
The Reader
Her
Omaha Magazine
Encounter
B2B Quarterly
Omaha World-Herald
Metro Monthly
Women’s Addition
WOWT
KETV
KMTV
Journal Broadcast Group
Cox Media
KPTM/KXVO
NRG Media
2006-2007 Public Service Campaign
AAF Omaha’s 2006-2007 Public Service Project for Youth Emergency Services (YES) launched May 16, 2007.
Help take homeless kids off the streets before something else does.
2005-2006 Public Service Campaign
Visit the 2025-2006 AAF Omaha Public Service work for the Partners For Methamphetamine Prevention at www.endmeth.info.
Methamphetamine Prevention
Public Service Campaign Contributors:
Kathleen Durkin, Swanson Russell
Chairperson Jill Butler, Journal Broadcast Group
Dave Christiansen, Swanson Russell
Teresa Dowling, West
Emily Epstein, Swanson Russell
Cort Irish, Bozell
Catherine Monahan, Ervin & Smith Advertising and Public Relations
Wes Neuhaus, Swanson Russell
Kristin Petrick, Ervin & Smith Advertising and Public Relations
Ed Salem, Swanson Russell
Dan Walker, Swanson Russell
Jennifer Windrum, Swanson Russell
2005-2006 Public Service Committee Members:
Greg Ahrens, SKAR Advertising – Writer/Producer
Sheila Kuehn, Lamar Outdoor – Account Executive
Scott Bargenquast, Zaiss & Co. – Art Director
Amanda Petersen, DRM Arby’s – Media Buyer
Kristin Petrick, Ervin & Smith – Public Relations
Mike Duman, SKAR Advertising – Art Director
Zachary Stanko, Bozell
David Markes, Bailey Lauerman
AAF Omaha could not have created this campaign without generous support from the following donors:
Regal Printing
Great Plains Motion Picture Company
SKAR Advertising
ProComm Studios
Field Paper
Graphic Technologies
Renze Display
Lamar Outdoor Advertising
OnTrack Music
Rachel Lowery, TV Talent
Erin Cooper, Radio Talent
Anne Luchsinger
Douglas Theatres
