Harvey Arts Recovery Fund

The launch of the fund was overwhelmingly successful, securing media coverage across every relevant outlet in the region, garnering several hundred thousand dollars in contributions, and paving the way for those dollars to be granted back out for the recovery and rebuilding of Houston’s arts and cultural community.

Harvey Arts Recovery Fund

The Challenge

Hurricane Harvey was one of the greatest natural disasters in Houston’s history, inflicting billions of dollars in damage across the region and Southeast Texas. Like other self-employed workers and small businesses, the arts and cultural community is particularly vulnerable during times of crisis and was heavily impacted by the storm. In response, the Harvey Arts Recovery Fund (HARF) was created to support the recovery needs of the greater Houston creative community.

To ensure success, there were three primary communications imperatives in launching HARF:

Create awareness of HARF among target audiences as quickly as possible
Amid post-Harvey chaos and information overload, ensure the details were clearly and succinctly communicated
Encourage eligible arts community members to apply for relief and arts patrons to contribute to the fund

Marketing Communications Strategy + Implementation

M. Hensley Consulting was engaged to launch HARF via regional media coverage and create a messaging framework to apply across all communications channels. This included providing counsel on community outreach; creating a messaging platform, press release, and target media list; and conducting media outreach. And because HARF was a collaborative effort of Houston’s arts services sector, we worked diligently to ensure all voices were heard and incorporated into the campaign.

Results

The launch was overwhelmingly successful, securing media coverage across all relevant outlets in the region, garnering several hundred thousand dollars in contributions, and granting them back out for the recovery and rebuilding of Houston’s arts and cultural community. And while the initiative was initially created for post-Harvey recovery, the successful launch allowed HARF to effectively transition to what is now a general disaster preparedness and recovery program for artists and related nonprofits (facilitated by Houston Arts Alliance). This program supports the community today as it endures and recovers from the pandemic-related crisis.