The Power of Story - Film Prize Brings Train of Donors to 'Smile' Charity
[Source: Chronicle of Philanthropy; July 13, 2009]
Smile Train, a nonprofit group that offers surgeries to fix mouth deformities for poor children, has gained tens of thousands of new donors since a film on its work won the Academy Award for best documentary short film in February, Bloomberg reports.
Weekly donations doubled in the wake of the Oscar win for Smile Pinki, which Brian Mullaney, president of Smile Train, commissioned after failing to find success on a fund-raising trip to Hollywood. The film follows a 6-year-old Indian girl with a cleft in her upper lip through her successful surgery.
The visibility from the award has helped the charity enlist 37,000 new donors, and the group will post a $1 million surplus this year, the news service says.
Smile Train, a nonprofit group that offers surgeries to fix mouth deformities for poor children, has gained tens of thousands of new donors since a film on its work won the Academy Award for best documentary short film in February, Bloomberg reports.
Weekly donations doubled in the wake of the Oscar win for Smile Pinki, which Brian Mullaney, president of Smile Train, commissioned after failing to find success on a fund-raising trip to Hollywood. The film follows a 6-year-old Indian girl with a cleft in her upper lip through her successful surgery.
The visibility from the award has helped the charity enlist 37,000 new donors, and the group will post a $1 million surplus this year, the news service says.
