Newman's Own Foundation exists to carry on legendary actor Paul Newman’s Radically Good legacy, giving away 100% of profits from the sale of Newman's Own food and beverage products to good causes. Leading into 2022, we explored how best to maximize the impact of our giving while remaining true to the vision of our founder.
In 2022, we refocused our giving mission to concentrate on partnering with organizations that help children facing adversity. We also hit two major milestones: celebrating 40 years of Newman’s Own "Giving It All Away" and surpassing $600 million in giving since 1982.
Our goals:
Generate broad awareness of our new mission and help Newman’s Own consumers better understand the impact of their purchases.
Celebrate 40 years of Newman’s Own “Giving It All Away” and $600 million donated to good causes since 1982.
Increase our impact by reaching, connecting with, and supporting more organizations and social entrepreneurs that help kids, including those previously unknown to us.
We used a multi-pronged marketing and communications approach to reach our goals.
Newman’s Own food and beverage packaging was redesigned, prominently displaying the faces and personal stories of the children we support through grantee partners. This ensures consumers can better connect with the impact of their purchases, understanding that 100% of profits help kids. QR codes on packaging led consumers to more information about the kids and their stories, and offered guidance on how consumers could get involved.
We launched a traditional Public Relations campaign, which included press releases and direct outreach to media throughout the year. We communicated the new mission and giving strategy in May 2022, new packaging in September 2022, and surpassing the $600M giving milestone in our 40th anniversary year December 2022. Additionally, we secured significant media attention.
We ran a digital marketing campaign, including an infographic showcasing our mission and impact, which was distributed nationwide; social media posts; and content creation for web, PR, and social media to tell the stories of children who benefit from the sale of Newman’s Own food and beverage products.
We issued two requests for grant proposals (RFP) to seek out and fund organizations doing impactful work for children.
We pursued participation in forward-thinking, socially innovative conferences to reach thought leaders, policymakers, and advocates.
CHALLENGES: The challenges we faced were primarily those of timing. We had to identify the best times to issue each of our press releases and the RFPs for optimal effect. This was complicated by a delay in the new packaging (starting with Newman’s Own pizza boxes) hitting shelves, due to many of the same pandemic-related challenges faced by other Consumer Packaged Goods brands. Then, our RFPs needed to launch earlier than desired because of the need to pay grants during the 2022 calendar year. Ultimately, the small size of our organization enables us to be nimble enough to respond quickly to changes in timing. With additional support from our agencies, we provided a seamless-looking rollout of our new brand.
In 2022, we honed our philanthropic approach and mission to focus on improving the lives of children facing adversity. We successfully communicated this new giving focus to innovative, child-focused nonprofits and to the public — through storytelling and outreach via increased investment in social media, digital marketing, PR, and participation in forward-thinking, socially innovative conferences.
Our PR efforts detailing our new mission garnered hundreds of millions of impressions, as well as coverage on ABC’s Good Morning America and in Forbes magazine.
We produced 30+ videos and thousands of photos highlighting the organizations and children we support. Many of these were used on our website and across our social channels. They were also picked up by media outlets and shared by our grantee partners.
Our CEO led a panel at the SXSW EDU conference in March 2022 to highlight the importance of free and nutritious school meals— an area of need for kids facing adversity.
Our two RFPs generated 257 proposals from organizations focused on helping children in innovative ways, enabling us to connect with and support a new generation of social entrepreneurs previously unknown to us.
We are confident that our efforts have grown awareness for Newman’s Own Foundation and its mission to give 100% of profits to help children who face adversity.
