CORE, formerly known as J/P HRO, has spent the last decade responding to disasters as they come. This has included everything from the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, to life-threatening storms in the Hurricane Belt, to COVID-19. While the organization is incredibly nimble in meeting the needs of communities in need, the changing fund development requirements are difficult to meet in the same moment of an emergency.

Strategy 

Given that their co-founder, Sean Penn, is a house-hold name, WCPG’s strategy has always been to connect the charity to already existing events on the pop-culture calendar where we knew brands would be activating with dollars to spend and where there would be an interest from the general public. This strategy has allowed us to draw on diverse funding streams to maximize dollars and exposure for the organization’s work for the last decade. 

Result 

• WCPG helped the organization launch Help Haiti Home on the one year anniversary of the deadly earthquake, which aligned with the Saturday night before the Golden Globes. It was a rare opening on the awards calendar that has allowed the event to become an annual stop associated with Awards Seasons and has raised over $40 million in the last 10 years. Shortly after, in 2012, WCPG worked with the J/P HRO team to bring them to the Cannes Film Festival to host Carnival in Cannes.

• In 2013, drawing on WCPG’s experiences in the endurance world, WCPG arranged for J/P HRO to be a charity partner of the New York City Marathon. In that first year, the charity had 10 charity runner spots, which were filled by 5 elite Haitian runners, 4 every day runners who wanted to support the effort, and Pamela Anderson. In future years, we grew the campaign to raise over $1 million for the organization.

• In 2016, as J/P HRO expanded its reach to support preparedness and recovery efforts for the US and Carribean Hurricane belt, WCPG expanded the endurance campaign to have a parallel virtual run that we referred to as the Long Run for Recovery. WCPG secured Royal Carribean as the team sponsor and celebrities Rainn Wilson and Soleil Moon Frye joined as virtual runners.

• WCPG supported the organization, by now referred to as CORE, to expand into the art world with a NYC event and a benefit for victims of Hurricane Dorian at Miami’s Art Basel in partnership with Lenny Kravitz’s charity Let Love Rule.

• With the organization’s COVID-19 testing and vaccine work, WCPG has supported the organization in hosting high-profile events in a virtual way, such as the Fast Times at Ridgemont High table read, and securing more institutional donors to support its work.