After 20-year battle, Intesa helps Hillel of San Diego commemorate its new Jewish Center at UC San Diego groundbreaking event and reframe public narrative

September 2021, Hillel of San Diego (Hillel) commemorated a milestone more than two decades in the making and broke ground on the Beverly and Joseph Glickman Hillel Center adjacent to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). After experiencing years of legal battles and community opposition, Hillel needed a partner to help them reframe the public narrative of this project and demonstrate broad support for a new Hillel center in San Diego and UCSD.

Hillel engaged Intesa’s “Seas the Day”streamlined media relations package for nonprofit organizations to provide media relations support for their groundbreaking celebration. The groundbreaking would mark the end of any controversy and lawsuits and would signal the soon-coming safe space for Jewish students to learn and engage with their history, culture, and religion. We wanted to craft a positive, forward-looking story on the start of construction and fundraising to open its new community center for Jewish students attending UCSD.

From September 13-27, 2022, Intesa and Hillel completed a two-week dash to success for the ground- breaking press conference including an event run-of-show, visuals, speaking points, and media pitching for the press conference. The team showcased the widespread support of federal and local elected officials, high-profile community leaders, UCSD leadership, and Jewish community luminaries for a construction-site press conference that was widely covered and communicated a story of hope, perseverance, and inclusivity.

Intesa’s “Seas the Day” package resulted in significant earned media coverage and community exposure of more than 15 stories and several social media posts shared across broadcast as well as Jewish, business and community media outlets. We also secured a special feature in La Jolla Light which had been following the story for more than 20 years. Most importantly, the press conference and related media coverage helped give a significant boost to Hillel’s fundraising campaign, which sought to raise an additional $3.9 million in the months following. With the support of this effort, and as of August 2022, Hillel has raised approximately $17.3 million of its $18.8 million capital campaign goal.

Media Coverage Highlights include:

Television

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