Corporate engagement in our community takes many forms, and one of the simplest is providing support for leading LGBT advocacy organizations. Earlier this month, we asked Jody Huckaby, the executive director of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), to answer a few questions about his organization’s increasingly active engagement with corporations and other leading marketers. Jody’s answers provide valuable insight into the ways in which our community works with corporate leaders and useful information about the power of messaging in reaching multiple audiences.
Full disclosure: The DC and NY chapters of PFLAG were the first clients of FH Out Front. We helped the chapter leaders develop and launch the communications effort in support of the Stay Close campaign they created five years ago. Stay Close is a first-of-its-kind PSA campaign that features straight celebrities and their LGBT relatives, and it’s a powerful example of effective communications with a simple message. While we didn’t have the pleasure of working with Jody and his national team on this effort (Jody wasn’t yet at the helm of PFLAG), we were and are big fans of PFLAG.
As usual, we’ve broken this post into two parts: today, Jody talks about corporate engagement messages and expectations. Tomorrow, Jody will talk about PFLAG’s role during Pride Month and the lessons they’ve learned about the power of their message. If you want more information about Jody or PFLAG, visit their Web site at www.pflag.org.
Ben Finzel: PFLAG’s list of corporate sponsors and your position as the first organization for LGBT families to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange indicate that you’ve been successful at engaging corporations as sponsors. What is your message to corporate sponsors and what do you offer them in terms of partnerships and activities?
Jody Huckaby: PFLAG proudly rang the Closing Bell of the NYSE in June of last year. The message to corporate sponsors that we sent that day is the same right now: PFLAG represents the enormous combined buying power of parents, family members, friends and straight allies who making purchasing decisions based in part on how those corporations treat their GLBT employees. So as the GLBT buying power approaches $700 billion, PFLAG multiplies that number exponentially. That’s a business proposition they just can’t ignore.
We hear time and again from corporations that PFLAG is an organization that is easier for them to partner with because our brand and membership is so unique. We are a family organization uniting the voices of straight allies together with GLBT people. This gives us a highly distinctive position in the equality movement. PFLAG offers our corporate sponsors great exposure to this enormous group of potential consumers who are clearly paying attention to how they treat their loved ones in the workplace and the political arena.
Ben Finzel: What expectations do you find marketers have about the LGBT market when you initially engage them on partnerships or sponsorships? Do you find you have to do a lot of basic education about the market or are they pretty savvy? What examples can you provide us?
Jody Huckaby: In the last two years in particular, we have found corporations to be extremely savvy in understanding the business case for GLBT diversity and inclusion. They understand that to remain competitive in their markets, they must do everything within their power to recruit and retain the best employees. This means GLBT-friendly policies as well as creating an atmosphere where people can be themselves at home and at work.
But even with those companies with all of the right policies and practices in place, many still face steep challenges. Many employees (and employers) find, for example, that the further away one gets from corporate headquarters, the more challenging it can be for GLBT employees to experience the values of inclusion and affirmation that exists in the home office climate. This is where we still have work to do, and because PFLAG is in communities around the country, this is where we can help.
One of the great ways that PFLAG is doing this is through our Straight for Equality program. We’ve started to talk about it with our corporate partners and the response has been overwhelming.
Straight for Equality will create a forum for straight people who don’t have a family or personal connection to GLBT individuals to learn more about the issues and how they can – and should – become involved in advancing equality. The program is about small but significant everyday actions that collectively constitute big shifts in understanding.
Within the context of the workplace, Straight for Equality will help corporations more effectively leverage the voice of straight allies by identifying barriers that exist within the workplace to being an “out” ally and addressing them so that those barriers can be eliminated.
Ben Finzel: Thanks Jody. We look forward to hearing more about Straight for Equality and all of the work you’re doing nationally and with your individual chapters.
Come back tomorrow for part two of our Q&A with Jody Huckaby of PFLAG.
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