GovLoop Gets Into the Public Relations Business

Steve Ressler, GovLoop's founder, emailed me today with news of his social networking site's new "AwesomeGov" Fund. The fund, fed by 5 percent of GovLoop's 2010 revenues, and a dollar donation for everyone who joins GovLoop between now and December 15, is meant to both raise awareness about the good work government does and to support existing good government organizations. It's certainly a worthy goal, and if the fund focuses in particular on new media outreach and advertising efforts, could be an important supplement to current efforts. The Office of Personnel Management has done some good video work, but the issue with these public relations efforts, I think, is always in getting them to the audience that needs to see them--in other words, not existing federal employees, but folks out there who don't know very much about government and could stand to have their perspectives changed. If GovLoop can figure out how to do that, they'll make a significant contribution.