I’m not aware of a single public relations firm, advertising agency or digital shop whose value proposition is perfectly aligned with its charitable fundraising.
The sole exception would be my all-time favorite firm: Peppercomm (named in honor of my late Black Lab and NOT some vegetable…hot, ice-cold or otherwise).
Peppercomm pioneered the use of stand-up and improvisational comedy to improve our employees’ presentation and listening skills, their ability to deal with objections or, worse, complete silence AND learn to leverage humor to deepen rapport with clients, prospects and recruits.
Our humor-based culture has won multiple awards, including two from Crain’s New York Business (number one in 2011 and number 77 this past year) and another one from PR Week (best workplace culture in the peak pandemic year of 2020).
We’ve also delivered countless pre and post-pandemic humor-based training programs for many Fortune 500 companies.
In fact, our humor offerings are in more demand than ever as organizations of all types do their best to cope with everything from The Big Resignation and employee burnout to leadership development and connecting five generations of employees.
The extra cool additive to the above is our connection to charitable fundraising.
Every year (save 2020), Peppercomm employees have performed stand-up and improvisational comedy to raise money for charities such as Autism Speaks, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, winnnyc.org and the ASPCA.
This year is no different.
On Tuesday night, December 7th, I have the honor to MC a stand-up fundraiser on behalf of The Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation. 
The event will be held at Manhattan’s Westside Comedy Club and, in addition to yours truly, will feature no fewer than six Peppercomm performers, the executive director of the charity, as well as Michael Somerville (CBS Late Show) and Wali Collins (Netflix “Difficult People”). Our featured act will be Kyle Kratkze, a brain tumor survivor and volunteer representing CBTF.
Our headliner with be Clayton Fletcher, a very successful stand-up comedian and, hold for it, Peppercomm’s chief comedy officer (Note: Clayton is one of two chief comedy officers in the world. The other works at the Kremlin and does his best to put a smile on the otherwise dour mug of Vladimir Putin).
The show will be open to one and all. And the more people who attend, the more money we can raise for the charity.
Here’s the link to reserve a seat (or two, or three or four).
As the legendary Ethel Merman’s exhorted, “There’s no business like show business.”
And as the little-known Steve Cody has said, ‘Is there anything more rewarding than raising money for organizations that are helping those in need?”