June 22, 2009

TV Programming To Spotlight Volunteering And Service

Celebrity star power will be on hand today at the nation’s largest conference on volunteerism to detail plans for a new multi-year campaign to help make public service a national priority.

As reported exclusively on www.nptimes.com this past Tuesday (June 16), the centerpiece of the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s (EIF) push will be to include national service into programming by the major television networks this fall. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox have all agreed to write service into the fall programs, multiple sources told The NonProfit Times.

“It’s about how to amplify the president’s call to service, to get more Americans involved in service,” one source told The NonProfit Times.

This afternoon’s opening session of the National Conference for Service and Volunteering in San Francisco, where more than 4,000 service leaders are expected to attend, will include First Lady Michelle Obama, musician Jon Bon Jovi, actor Matthew McConaughey and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, among others. The first lady’s appearance will launch United We Serve, a summer initiative to encourage citizens to engage in meaningful, sustained community service. The initiative will conclude on Sept. 11, which officially was designated a national day of service in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act passed in the spring.

The television programming effort will be similar to the EIF’s push this past September for Stand Up To Cancer, an event to raise money for cancer research that involved network programming. In this case, instead of one show simulcast on the broadcast outlets, national service will be written into shows on all of the outlets. There will also be public service spots and online outreach.