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THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Special Project

Special Project

Bobbie’s LA Wildfire Rapid Response

Entered in Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign

Objective

The Bobbie LA Fire Relief Fund was born out of a simple but urgent idea: no parent should have to worry about how to feed their baby in the wake of disaster. When wildfires devastated communities across Los Angeles in January 2025, we saw families grappling with unimaginable loss and knew we had to act. The campaign was launched within 24 hours of the fires with a goal to ensure formula access for every impacted parent, regardless of whether they were Bobbie customers.


Our objectives were threefold: (1) remove the financial burden of formula feeding for families who had lost their homes, (2) mobilize immediate on-the-ground support via donations to trusted nonprofit and grassroots partners, and (3) foster a sense of community solidarity by giving people an easy way to help through our "Give a Can" donation site. We also recognized that many breastfeeding families lost not just their homes but their milk supply. To meet their needs, we expanded our efforts to include lactation support where applicable and access to formula for those suddenly navigating a shift in feeding plans. The campaign exemplified our belief that advocacy doesn’t wait for policy, it shows up when families need it most.

Strategy

The Bobbie LA Fire Relief Fund was a real-time response to a real crisis. Our team mobilized within hours of the wildfires breaking out, prioritizing action over perfection to meet the urgent needs of displaced families. We launched with four core strategies:

  1. Feeding Scholarships – Any parent affected by the fires, Bobbie customer or not, could apply to have the rest of their baby’s feeding journey covered at no cost. We issued over 200 full-formula scholarships in the first wave alone.
     
  2. Community Distribution – We donated 5,000 cans of formula to more than 15 local nonprofit and grassroots organizations  already embedded in the community and capable of rapid response. These initiatives included some existing rapid response organizations and some pop up initiatives that were borne out of the necessity of the moment. These partners ensured that donations reached shelters, hospitals, and aid centers without delay.
     
  3. Direct Outreach – Our team conducted individual outreach to every Bobbie subscriber in the impacted zip codes, asking what they needed—whether it was formula or just emotional support during such an excruciating time. Personalized, proactive communication underscored our commitment to not just serve customers, but care for them.
     
  4. Crowdsourced Giving – We activated our “Give a Can” platform to allow members of our national community to support LA families. This peer-driven effort not only raised additional resources but also strengthened bonds across our broader network of parents.

One of the greatest challenges we faced was executing a multi-pronged relief campaign while maintaining sensitivity around a traumatic event. We worked closely with community partners and our customer care team to ensure messaging was empathetic and our support tangible. Coordinating logistics during an ongoing natural disaster—especially around donation distribution and identifying qualified applicants—required continuous adaptation and trust in our partners on the ground.

What makes this work unique is that it wasn't just a brand response, it was a mom-founded company putting its values into action. This was not a campaign for customers; it was for parents. We didn’t wait to be asked. We just showed up.

Results

While we went into The Bobbie LA Fire Relief Fund with the sole purpose of helping families in need, we met our original objectives that we promised we would. We provided over 200 full-formula feeding scholarships to families who had lost everything. We donated 5,000 cans of formula to grassroots organizations across Los Angeles, enabling immediate distribution to those in need.

Beyond tangible donations, we reached every impacted subscriber directly to assess their specific needs, ensuring no one fell through the cracks. Our "Give a Can" platform activated support from thousands of parents across the country, converting empathy into action and reinforcing a sense of national community.

Most importantly, the campaign reinforced our belief that brand responsibility doesn’t end with product. It includes policy, community, and presence. For Bobbie, success was defined not just by metrics, but by showing up for parents in their most vulnerable moments. That’s what we did. And it’s what we’ll continue to do.

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Bobbie

Link

Entry Credits