Founded in 2008, The Sheckler Foundation was created as an avenue for Ryan Sheckler, a high-profile professional skateboarder, to give back to the community and action sports industry. With Sheckler’s strong connections with the leading professional skateboarders, The Sheckler Foundation created a skateboard contest: Skate For A Cause featuring the world’s top professional skateboarders to raise funds for charity. The first two annual events successfully brought out the biggest professional skateboarders in the world and drew a large number of fans to the event.

The Sheckler Foundation reached out to Master Plan Communications, and challenged the agency to build awareness of the Third Annual Skate for a Cause in Greater Orange County and the action sports industry.

The public relations campaign to build awareness of the Sheckler Foundation’s Skate For A Cause event served as the perfect vehicle to create awareness among Greater Orange County and the action sports industry. By interfacing one-on-one with top-tier local, trade, consumer skateboarding and broadcast media, Master Plan Communications was able to build awareness with a core set of media, as well as further establish the non-profit foundation as a leading organization that is making a significant impact in the lives of needy children and injured action sports athletes.

The Master Plan Communications team provided The Sheckler Foundation’s executive team with a detailed plan identifying all of the elements needed for the total public relations campaign surrounding the Skate For A Cause event including a goal, objectives, strategies, tactics, a timeline and a budget.

During the course of implementing the campaign the Sheckler Foundation made changes to their event plan, and the Master Plan Communications team quickly adapted to the changes.

The first change they made was eliminating the event’s e-Waste recycling drive. The second change that the Sheckler Foundation made was adding an additional contest to the event, called the Fred Water Bowl contest. In order to adapt to these changes, the Master Plan Communications team eliminated the planned press release on the e-Waste drive, and added a news release on the Fred Water bowl contest to the plan.

The public relations campaign served as a springboard for exposure in top-tier publications and increased the Sheckler Foundation’s image in Greater Orange County and the action sports industry with more than 50 media placements for the event. Paramount to media exposure, the Sheckler Foundation exceeded its fundraising goal, raising more than $86,000 to benefit children on the Autism Spectrum.