‘Cause of the Year’ Partnership Spreads Positive News About Nonprofit’s Mission

Earlier this year, Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, was named as Dallas-based positive media outlet InspireMore’s first-ever “Partner Cause of the Year.” This honor includes an integrated year-long partnership focused on aligning the entire InspireMore platform with Smile Train’s work. 

This first-of-its-kind fundraising activation allows readers to raise money with a click of a button. With the new Share to Give campaign, every time a reader shares an article, InspireMore donates to Smile Train to help us provide life-changing opportunities to children in need. Through April 16, our corporate partner GlaxoSmithKline is stepping up to quadruple all donations, helping us reach even more people around the world.

While this partnership is still new, it has been inspiring to see the stories of our programs in more than 70 countries highlighted in a way that shows the profound impact cleft treatment can have for individuals worldwide. While the current news cycle can stir feelings of despair and fear, InspireMore is using its model to expose readers to positive news, like stories of a child’s life changing due to cleft treatment that allows the child to eat, breathe, hear and speak — all of which can be challenging for children with untreated clefts.

“Since March 2014, InspireMore has reached more than 500 million people around the world with positive news and inspirational content, and we are so happy to partner with Smile Train to share their stories from the field,” said Hunter Stensrud, co-founder of InspireMore. 

While many people don’t see cleft-affected individuals in their day-to-day life, being born with a cleft is extremely common, affecting one in 700 babies born each year. Founded in 1999, Smile Train has reached over 1.5 million children with our unique model of supporting local medical professionals to provide cleft surgery and essential cleft care to children in their own communities. 

This partnership is an example of how two organizations with complementary missions can unite to both educate the public and benefit each other. InspireMore’s posts raise awareness and also offer readers the opportunity to support Smile Train’s work. We’re so happy that this partnership will help us continue to fund critical surgeries that change children’s lives. For InspireMore’s audience, the impactful stories of cleft-affected children and incredible before-and-after photos align perfectly with their mission of spreading positivity through the news. 

This is the first time we have partnered with a media outlet in this way, and we are looking forward to learning and evolving to grow this side of our fundraising arm going forward. We’re already seeing the synergies with how content like this can fuel increased philanthropy.