Nonprofit marketers take national prize.

Jay Aldous, from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and Kyle Zimmer, from First Book, were the co-recipients of the inaugural American Marketing Association/American Marketing Association Foundation Nonprofit Marketer of the Year award.

The now annual award was announced at the organization's recent Washington, D.C. conference. The NonProfit Times was the award's presenting sponsor.

Aldous, vice president of marketing, communications and corporate partnerships at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, works on strengthening the organization's brand and the use of analytic tools to maximize effectiveness. Aldous developed UNICEF's Tap Project that asked customers at more than 2,300 participating restaurants to donate $1 or more when drinking free tap water to raise money for safe drinking water in developing countries.

"It's changing how we conduct our business," said Aldous. He said UNICEF usually has a tight hand around branch properties and branding. But, the Tap Project allowed 13 national advertising agencies to work pro-bono to campaign creatively in their local markets. "It's showing us how we need to evolve and change as an organization to provide more inspiration and engagement to our donors," he said.

He called the award "a great honor, certainly for myself, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, but also all of us in the sector of nonprofit field of marketing."

The week-long Tap Project campaign generated one billion media impressions and more than $10 million in donated media. It translated into donations that helped provide clean water to more than 800,000 children for 40 days or 32 million children for one day. Zimmer, president of Washington, D.C.-based First Book, co-founded the organization in 1992 to distribute age-appropriate books to low-income children. First Book has distributed more than 60 million new books in more than 1,300 communities. Three years after founding First Book, Zimmer took on a full-time president position at the organization, and has since received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year in the U.S. by the Geneva-based Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship incorporating private sector strategies in First Book's campaigns.

"We cannot expect relationships with the private sector to be sustainable when all we bring is a winning smile when we stand next to one of those six-foot Styrofoam checks. On the private sector side there needs to be increasing understanding that the rules of economics are not suspended with the words 'non-profit'--we don't pay our staff with hugs," said Zimmer while accepting her award. "We are businesses---the only difference is what we do with our margins. No margins, no mission."

Publishers donate books in bulk to the First Book National Book Bank (FBNBB) which then sells the books via First Book Marketplace, at steeply discounted rates to nonprofits serving low-income families. More than 50 book publishers support FBNBB--with the single largest donation, 1.9 million books, from Random House in 2005.

Aldous and Zimmer were among more than 100 nominees. Nominees had to be employed at a 501(c) nonprofit and work within branding, marketing and communications. Nominees had to complete an acceptance form and detail experience in leadership, strategy and effective results and were chosen by a six-person judge panel.

Aldous and Zimmer will receive one year paid membership to the AMA and $1,000 donations to nonprofits of their choice.

Honorable mentions include: Carl E. Mitchell, of Virginia Economic Bridge, Inc.; David B. Waters, of Community Servings, Inc.; Douglas A. Staples, of March of Dimes Foundation; Linda Smith, of Opportunity Village; Mike Tringale, of Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America; and William (Bill) Robert Gombeski Jr., of UK HealthCare University of Kentucky.