Public Relations Efforts of the Barbara McDowell Foundation
The Barbara McDowell Foundations has engaged Allen Ripp, president of a well-respected public relations firm, to help the Foundation receive publicity for our 2020 grant making efforts. His outreach will go to hundreds of media outlets across the country.
His press release is as follows:
Subject: Foundation named for late appellate advocate Barbara McDowell issues new grants to fund social justice litigation
We’re sharing news about $200K in fresh grants issued by the Barbara McDowell Foundation – a unique philanthropy that exclusively funds social justice litigation.
The Washington-based organization is named for noted appellate lawyer Barbara McDowell, who served as assistant solicitor general during the Clinton and Bush presidencies and later directed the appellate advocacy program for the Legal Aid Society of Washington. Ms. McDowell died in 2009 of brain cancer but her legacy endures through her foundation, headed by her husband Jerry Hartman, a retired employment lawyer at Drinker Biddle.
The foundation has just announced grants of $40,000 each to five advocacy organizations fighting their own good fights for social justice:
Fair Elections Center
National Center for Law and Economic Justice
National Veterans Legal Services Program
National Women’s Law Center
North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc.
The groups are respectively tackling a host of issues for which the McDowell Foundation provides much-needed funding to support their litigation efforts in such areas as: restoring voting rights to ex-felons; challenging unlawful police stops impacting minority communities; ending unreasonable delays to veterans’ medical appeals; challenging federal policy changes to sex discrimination claims; and limiting solitary confinement in state prisons.
Mr. Hartman can discuss the selection process that helped winnow down this year’s list from 72 submissions to the five groups ultimately awarded McDowell Foundation grants. There is no other philanthropy that exclusively devotes itself to supporting social justice litigation.
Let us know if you’d like to connect with Mr. Hartman about the foundation honoring his late wife and the grants just announced for 2020.
Allan Ripp 212-262-7477 arippnyc@aol.com
James Bourne 212-262-7470 jbourne@rippmedia.com