Gallien helps nonprofit organizations get the word out
Kathleen Lavine | Business JournalHeather Gallien is the president of IdČe-Force and is the Outstanding Woman in Business for the Jean Yancey-Small Company award.
View Larger
Who says you can't make a profit working for nonprofits?
Heather Gallien, president and co-founder of IdČe-Force, thinks nonprofit clients have just as much need for marketing as the corporate ones.
"A lot of ad agencies aren't really willing to service nonprofits," Gallien said. "As a for-profit company, part of our mission is to help them out as much as possible."
Her mother exposed Gallien to the nonprofit world at an early age. She headed several nonprofit organizations, and taught her daughter that it's OK to work long hours for little pay if it furthers a mission you believe in.
Now Gallien runs a Denver marketing and advertising firm that earns 30 percent of its annual revenue from nonprofits and did $100,000 of pro bono work in 2006.
IdČe-Force is on track to donate another $100,000 of service this year, Gallien said.
"A lot of nonprofits have no marketing or really poor marketing," she said. "They weren't being approached by a lot of marketing firms out there. We wanted to make sure that we included them in the clients that we target and go after."
Gallien started IdČe-Force with former co-worker Eric Trujillo. They were working at GD&A, another Denver advertising agency. Eventually they decided it was time for something different.
"We decided if we were going to stay in advertising, it might as well be something we really enjoy," Trujillo said. "So we did what we wanted to do."
Gallien and Trujillo left GD&A to found IdČe-Force in 2002. The name means "powerful idea," which is what they wanted to offer their clients.
Even the ones that couldn't pay as much.
"We started basically at ground zero -- almost zero money and definitely zero clients," Gallien said. "We really had to scramble quickly to establish a client base, which we did, but it was a lot of hard work."
Gallien and her partner proved what they could do on a limited budget.
The economy was still in a downturn from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and Gallien and Trujillo had signed non-compete clauses with GD&A, leaving them with no prospective clients in an uninviting market.
Gallien managed the company's accounts. As the direct contact with their clients, Gallien became the face of the company, riding a delicate balance between being persistent and likable.
"We were making sure we were very visible in the community, and really just doing as much sales and marketing for our own company on a limited budget as we could," Gallien said.
Their efforts paid off, and proved what the agency could do with little money -- and what they could do for other clients with limited budgets.
"It's true that they have much smaller budgets, so we have to be more creative with the marketing campaigns," Gallien said of nonprofits.
And what an organization can't pay for, the agency often does for free.
Last year, it designed a campaign for the Youth Mentoring Collaborative, a program in the metro area that assigns mentors to at-risk and homeless youth.
The program's goal was to assign 317 mentors in 2006. After a vigorous marketing campaign to raise community awareness, they reached their goal.
Gallien moved to Denver in 1996, attracted by the outdoor lifestyle and the risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit of the city.
"It's a competitive environment for small-market firms, both because there are many of them and there is not a huge base of large companies here," she said.
But Gallien also said the competitive environment has challenged her to push herself further.
"I think I've benefited from that mentality," Gallien said. "Perhaps if I were still in Indiana, I may not have come so far."
Finalists
Kathryn Arbour
Title: Owner/operator
Company: Capabilities
Location: Westminster
Phone: 720-214-0339
Web site: www.capabilities.com
Kathryn Arbour's Capabilities retail store offers everything from wheelchairs and canes to fitness products and unique gifts. The store also has a community center that she offers to organizations, such as the Rocky Mountain Stroke Association, which provides physical therapy, speech assessments and support groups for stroke survivors and their families once a week.
Stacey Sepp
Title: Founder/COO
Company: Xstatic Public Relations
Location: Denver
Phone: 303-928-7144
Web site: www.xstaticpr.com
At 27, Stacey Sepp launched Xstatic Public Relations in an effort to integrate creative energy and big ideas with classic, proven PR strategies. Three years later, Xstatic has generated more than $500,000 in revenue, with a diverse client list that includes Northwestern Mutual, Colorado Trout Unlimited and Jewish Family Service of Colorado.