A Guy named Russ

“Once you lose your enthusiasm, you lose your integrity. And once you lose your integrity, you’re a con man.”    —Russ Reid

Yes Virginia, there is a Russ Reid.

Originally he had trained for the ministry, but finally realized that he was more of a marketing guy than a pastor. In the late 1950s he went to work for Word Publishing down in Waco, Texas. There he learned all about direct response through book-of-the-month clubs and by marketing books through direct mail. Along the way, he noticed some wonderful organizations doing great work to help others, but they didn’t know how to tell their own stories. Or how to raise money.

Russ had a vision—to start a company that would help nonprofit organizations make a bigger difference in the world.

He founded the Russ Reid Company in 1964, and Word Publishing became his first client. Later he moved the company to Park Ridge, Illinois, and worked with small ministries as he got up and running. In 1966, Russ was able to get a project from World Vision. At that time, World Vision was managing at around $5 million in revenue yearly. It’s amazing to think that we’ve worked with World Vision continuously since 1966, and today they’re approaching $2 billion in annual revenue.

As our work with them increased over the next few years, Russ decided to move from Chicago to Arcadia, California, near World Vision’s headquarters. So in 1972, he came west.

At that time, the way World Vision acquired sponsors was by speaking at churches and showing a film about the plight of children in the developing world.

Russ had an idea, which is how Russ is.

He approached World Vision and told client Ted Engstrom that he thought we could film Art Linkletter traveling around the world and meeting these children in need. We could then bring that film back, and instead of going from church to church we could put it on television.

Thus was born the concept of television specials for World Vision.

Ted Engstrom got approval from the board for this expensive, risky project, and reportedly said to Russ afterwards, “What will we do if this doesn’t work?” Russ laughed and said, “Ted, we’ll have the most expensive church film in history.”

Russ took off around the world with Art Linkletter and, cut to the end, it worked. That was the beginning of television fundraising for World Vision and for many of our other clients.

In fact, shortly after that in 1977, World Vision Canada approached us and asked if we could help them grow their fundraising program in the same way in Canada. We’ve been helping them ever since.

Then one day in 1981, Russ and Cathie Reid were reading People magazine and saw a story about a woman named Candy Lightner whose daughter had been tragically killed by a drunk driver.

Now Candy was working to stop drunk driving.

Russ called her, only to find out that she had given up her dream and was going to go back to selling real estate in the Sacramento area because she couldn’t find any backers for her idea, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Russ asked to meet her anyway. He flew up to Sacramento and convinced her that we could use direct mail to build a program to fund her Mothers Against Drunk Driving idea.

Over the next five years, Russ Reid Company acquired over 450,000 donors for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and played a real role in changing the way Americans think about drinking and driving.

In 1982, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital did a telethon featuring their founder, Danny Thomas. But the phones didn’t ring. One of the cameramen at the studio commented to Danny that he should work with Russ Reid, because when Russ Reid did a telethon, the phones always rang. Danny called. Soon we began to do all the television fundraising for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And the phones rang.

Habitat for Humanity was founded when Millard Fuller decided to sell everything he owned and commit the rest of his life to providing low-cost, decent housing to needy families. Mr. Fuller approached Russ Reid in 1982 with a base of just 4,000 donors.

Realizing that former President, activist and renowned humanitarian Jimmy Carter was on the Habitat board, Russ and company developed a series of letters from Carter—and the rest is fundraising history. In the first five years, we acquired 619,000 new donors and launched Habitat for Humanity, which has become one of the most respected nonprofit brands in the world.

Another breakthrough moment for Russ Reid was in 1986, when we began working for the Los Angeles Mission.

Los Angeles Mission had a yearly budget of $125,000. That wasn’t its marketing budget. That was its entire budget to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, provide clothing, showers and a new chance in life for the poor.

The plan was to take out an ad in the LA Times for $1,000, inviting people to help feed the homeless at Thanksgiving. Would 50 people respond at $20 each? And thereby pay for the $1,000 ad in the Times? Not exactly.

Instead, 150 people responded with $3,000. But the most exciting part of the story is that Mark Holsinger, the head of the Los Angeles Mission, didn’t take the $3,000 to pay his bills. Instead he said, “Let it ride.” So $3,000 worth of ads were placed. They generated another $10,000 in response. Then $10,000 worth of ads got $20,000 worth of response. $20,000 got $50,000 worth of response. We launched a direct mail program. We began a public relations program that would ultimately make the Los Angeles Mission the best-known and most well-respected charity in Los Angeles.

This last year, we helped the Los Angeles Mission raise $15 million.

As a result of our success for Los Angeles Mission we were approached by missions from around the country, and before we knew it we were helping missions in Northern California, in Phoenix, in New York, in Atlanta, Denver and Miami. Now we work for missions all over the country, helping them acquire tens of thousands of new donors and dramatically expanding the services they offer the poor.

There are many, many other stories. And over the last 40 years, Russ Reid’s little company has grown from one guy with an idea about helping people who help people, to what is now the largest agency in the world exclusively devoted to helping nonprofit organizations grow.

Russ retired a few years ago. But his heart and soul will always be here.

And as always, he says it best: “Hopefully every person feels their work is significant, whether it’s in the automobile, textile, or computer industry. It is something that begins with you. But I want to make sure that we always work for organizations and people in which we believe.

“Giving life and health and hope to children in poverty, to the homeless, to people with cancer is significant work. It’s life-changing work. For me, it’s part of what gets me up in the morning, excited about coming to work.”