LG expands programming targeting teen mental health

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30660
• Published date: 01 October 2019
• Date: 01 October 2019

OCTOBER 2019 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR

3

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company • All rights reserved

DOI: 10.1002/nba

satised with their salary and benets. While individu-

als are always concerned about salaries, what tends

to really make people move jobs is management and

leadership—or the lack of it, toxic managers and

work cultures, etc. So while we hear about fundrais-

ers changing jobs a lot, and it’s certainly an issue, the

reality is that a majority of fundraisers are increas-

ingly satised with their positions. That said, there

are challenges—such as opportunity for promotions

internally, stress and pressure of the jobs, lack of

understanding and appreciation of fundraising, etc.

Lots of things for us to address as an association and

a community.

Q: Speaking of opportunities for advancement, this

is cited as one of the biggest areas of concern, followed

by compensation and benets. There’s been talk in re-

cent years about demographic changes looming where

older staff members “age out” of their positions, lead-

ing to more opportunities for others to advance. Is this

not playing out as expected?

A: We’re not seeing it yet, judging by the responses

from our job satisfaction survey above, where 51%

of respondents were dissatised by their opportuni-

ties for promotion. Part of it is that the issue is more

complicated than just baby boomers retiring—that’s

happening, but likely not as quickly as expected. In

addition, the size of a development department often

plays a role here. In a large majority of charities, there

aren’t huge fundraising departments, so often the only

option is to move from, for example, a director of

development to either a VP for development or the

executive director. That’s a big jump to make in a lot

of cases, so fundraisers are, in general, often looking

elsewhere for opportunities. ■

For more information

Michael Nilsen is vice president of marketing, com-

munications and public policy at the Association of

Fundraising Professionals, an association of individuals

and organizations that generate philanthropic support

for a wide variety of charitable institutions. Founded in

1960, the AFP has some 31,000 members in more than

240 chapters throughout the world. The association fos-

ters development and growth of fundraising professionals

and promotes high ethical standards in the fundraising

profession. For more information, Nilsen can be reached

at Michael.nilsen@afpglobal.org.

LG expands programming targeting teen mental health

Just in time for the start of the 2019–10 school

year, Korean electronics maker LG has dramati-

cally expanded its agship charitable initiative,

Life’s Good: Experience Happiness, to reach an

additional 500,000 teens in the United States. The

initiative, launched in the spring of 2018, seeks to

spread the word that happiness is a skill that can be

taught, learned and practiced to combat increasing

levels of stress.

The company cites some compelling research guid-

ing the Experience Happiness initiative: According

to the American Psychological Association, when

school is in session, schoolkids are the most stressed-

out group in the country—teenagers especially—and

it’s most stressful during the rst days back at school,

when anxiety and excitement both are running high.

To address this stress overload, LG worked with

nonprots such as Project Happiness and Inner

Explorer, scientic researchers, educators and other

stakeholders to develop a program that teaches

teens the skills that lead to sustainable happiness—

namely, mindfulness, human connection, positive

outlook, purpose, generosity and gratitude.

LG is expanding the program this year through a

partnership with media and entertainment company

SoulPancake, which will develop web and social media

content that will explore these concepts and incorpo-

rate user-generated material to reach and engage more

people, both inside and outside of the classroom.

The campaign’s social media component will fea-

ture a hashtag t to mark the occasion—#Day1—

which the company and its partners are encouraging

parents and students to use as they share their ex-

periences of the rst day back at school and express

what they’re grateful for as the school year starts.

This year, LG also added a fundraising compo-

nent to the initiative, offering to donate $1 for each

social media post made using the hashtags. The

funding will go to its nonprot partners to support

their programming focused on spreading awareness

of the science of happiness.

By increasing the number of schools the initiative

will reach, and going beyond the classroom to reach

teens and parents through the social media channels

they utilize, the company hopes to roughly double

the number of students reached.

For more information on the initiative, visit https://

lgexperiencehappiness.com. ■