After a fundraising and public relations disaster in 1993, the award-winning Marine Toys for Tots Foundation regrouped and came back stronger than ever.

By Melissa Busch

“Our biggest problem was that we entered into a very aggressive direct-marketing program where we raised $10 million — but it cost us $11 million to run the program,” Grein says. “We were unable to buy any toys with that much debt. It made us look very bad, very quickly.”

Other charities might not have been able to recover from such a financial and public relations disaster. But just like a good Marine, the organization kept its cool, regrouped and forged ahead.