On a Wing and a Prayer

The case statement created for the retrofit campaign featured instead a young mother, and while the response was positive, UGM staff sensed a “disconnect” that could erode the public trust it took the mission so long to build.

“That was one of the things we learned: While we would like people to think of us in a much broader view, we have to accept that this is how they think of us,” Carpenter says. “Changing that perception will take years. We could do it in a shorter amount of time, but then we would be spending all our funding trying to change perceptions.”