Current & Recent Projects

National Tribal Environmental Council

The Tribal Road to Environmental Protection - Fundraiser

The National Tribal Environmental Council hired KRC to provide strategic guidance and manage a fundraiser and silent auction Oct. 26, 2004 in downtown San Francisco.

Nearly 100 people from across the country attended the event, which marked the one-year anniversary of NTEC's fundraising campaign to support "The Tribal Road to Environmental Protection" initiative. This was the first ever fundraiser for NTEC, a nonprofit based in Albuquerque, N.M. that dedicates itself to working with and assisting its 181 member tribes in the protection and preservation of tribal environments.

KRC assisted in developing a host committee to draw additional people to the fundraiser. Members of the committee included Robert Redford and Jackie Johnson, Executive Director of the National Congress of the American Indians.

We handled Internet outreach to get the word out about the event and developed all materials, including an Evite which was sent to 4,000 people. KRC also oversaw the production and           design of the event invitation. (See cover at left)

We solicited and received donations from numerous businesses, tribes and organizations in the country for the silent auction. KRC managed all event logistics, including site selection, catering, guest speaker selection, entertainment and auction set-up.

Alaska Federation of Natives

Leadership Forum: Building Knowledge-Based Economies

The Alaska Federation of Natives hired KRC to co-produce this two-day Forum June 28 and 29, 2004 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Over 300 people from around the world participated in the event, including indigenous leaders, elected officials, cabinet members, CEO's and international development experts. The Leadership Forum was the first of its kind in North America and was organized at the request of Alaska Native peoples to discuss new approaches to fighting rural poverty.

KRC partnered with Eugene-based Nomad Films to produce a 10-minute video which opened the Forum (see Video Production below). KRC also designed and maintained an event website that included a password-protected online registration system, extensive seminar and agenda information, sponsor recognition, a live streaming webcast, streaming video and other critical conference resources.

KRC organized a three-continent, two-hour video conference between the U.S., Peru and the Philippines. KRC also coordinated all media outreach for the event, which included a press briefing that generated stories on the AP wire, Alaska public radio, Alaska public television, local broadcast television and the state's largest newspaper, the Anchorage Daily News. To see the ADN story, click here. Stories were also published on the websites of participating organizations and in trade publications.

KRC managed all event logistics and produced all materials, including a comprehensive participant binder, event tickets, a cultural program guide, a brochure, regular E-newsletters and all signage. KRC also managed all of the production elements which included simultaneous web and public television broadcasting.

Sacred Land Film Project (A Project of the Earth Island Institute)

Sacred Land Film Project - Promotion

The Sacred Land Film Project hired KRC in February 2005 to do media outreach for a series of panel and film screenings in the Bay Area and Sacramento intended to raise awareness about the Winnemem Wintu Tribe's efforts to stop the raising of the Shasta Dam.

The March screenings featured the film, In the Light of Reverence, which highlights the Wintu's efforts to save their sacred sites. Winnemem Wintu Tribal Leader Caleen Sisk-Franco, Hopi leader Vernon Masayesva and environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill participated in the panel discussions. The Shasta Dam raising is proposed in Sen. Diane Feinstein's Cal-Fed legislation, which aims to address the state's water crisis. Raising the dam would destroy the Wintu's remaining sacred sites.

KRC was succeeded in obtaining radio interviews on KQED's The Forum and KPFA's The Morning Show featuring Caleen Sisk-Franco, Julia Butterfly Hill and In the Light of Reverence Filmmaker Toby McLeod. Radio station KCBS also featured regular one-minute stories with interview clips from Toby McLeod on EcoTalk the week of the events.

KRC helped spread the word by getting on-air listings on KQED radio's community calendar seven days a week and 30 second PSAs for two and a half weeks prior to the event. The panel and film were listed in nearly two dozen newspapers, websites and listservs throughout the Bay Area and Sacramento. Kathleen Russell also collaborated on an Op-Ed piece that ran in The Davis Enterprise.

Innovation, Culture & Rural Economies: Mapping the Future

KRC produced a 10-minute video in partnership with the Denali Commission and the Alaska Federation of Natives as part of an international event titled, "Leadership Forum: Building Knowledge-Based Economies." The event took place June 28 and 29, 2004 in Anchorage, AK.

Click here to view the Leadership Forum video.

Alaska Federation of Natives

Leadership Forum: Building Knowledge-Based Economies
As part of this conference in Anchorage, AK, KRC produced a comprehensive participant binder served as a guide during the two-day event held June 28 and 29, 2004. The booklet contained a detailed event agenda, speaker profiles, seminar and plenary information, background briefs on the concept of knowledge-based economies and other materials to help the 300+ attendees navigate the events.

Winnemem Wintu Tribe

Winnemem Wintu Tribe - Fundraising

KRC helped raise nearly $1,000 for the Winnemem Wintu tribe in November 2004 during a benefit screening of In the Light of Reverence at the Lark Theater in Larkspur, CA. The film, produced by the Sacred Land Film Project, features the Wintu as one of three tribes trying to protect its sacred sites.

After the film, we helped organize a panel discussion with Winnemem Wintu Tribal and Spiritual Leader Caleen Sisk-Franco, activist Julia Butterfly Hill and filmmaker Toby McLeod.

In November 2003, Kathleen Russell provided extensive pro bono media outreach on the passing of Florence Curl Jones, traditional healer and spiritual leader of the Winnemem band of the Wintu in Mt. Shasta, CA. Mrs. Jones was known as a top doctor by Native people throughout the Western United States and was also the most fluent speaker of the Winnemem Wintu language. The passing of Mrs. Jones, 96, on Nov. 22, 2003 marked a major turning point for the tribe.

Kathleen was able to secure published obituaries in The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press wire.

The tribe continues its struggle to have its federal recognition reinstated.

Lark Theater Auction

In the spring of 2004, Kathleen Russell coordinated a committee to begin a six week, all-volunteer effort to raise funds to restore the Lark Theater in Larkspur, CA. The run-down theater closed its doors in 2000 due to low attendance. Kathleen Russell coordinated a committee of dedicated volunteers that produced a Hard Hat Tour and Auction, which raised close to $26,000 from nearly 400 supporters who attended the event.

In July, the theater reopened its doors as a nonprofit neighborhood theater featuring independent films.

Marin United Democratic Campaign

Kathleen Russell helped launch the communications committee for the Marin United Democratic Campaign, a local grassroots effort to enlist Democrats to defeat President George Bush in the November 2004 election. Kathleen created a committee infrastructure that produces regular E-Newsletters to the 600-person membership, sends press releases about MUDC events and handles all communications efforts for the campaign.

For a sample of a MUDC E-Newsletter, click here.

Marin Democrats Website

Kathleen Russell also worked with a small team of volunteers to develop the Marin Democrats' current website at http://www.marindemocrats.org.