Literary Las Vegas: Mary B. Leon Vail

Summerlin-based public relations professional Mary B. Leon Vail shares her experiences giving time, money and talents in the book “What’s Your Philanthropic Footprint? A Guide to Establishing a Path of Positive Community Activism.” Vail started with preteen volunteer work, typing media releases on a manual typewriter for her father in Texas and never looked back. “As a Philanthropic Coach, I have guided family, friends, and business associates to analyze their skills and uncover their passions to become agents of change,” Vail wrote.

When she and her husband moved to Las Vegas in 1995, Vail’s philanthropic activities took off. Determined to embrace and encourage giving, she refused to represent clients who would not participate in community activism. Rather than repelling clients, her commitment attracted them. For more information, visit maryvailpublicist.com.

Excerpt:

In the ’80s and ’90s, broad business-based community activism was not considered the norm but rather the exception. I was a trailblazer, taking the lead in communicating the need for stewardship and community enrichment programs. Today, the public and consumers anticipate and expect organizations to have a social conscience.

Now that I established a mandate of community enrichment, I needed to ensure clients could fulfill their obligation. It was my responsibility to coach them in establishing the appropriate platform and programs to resonate with their company core values, mission, stakeholders, employees and their consumers for long-term success. This was achieved through an in-depth process of discovery sessions, interviews and research with business owners, internally within the company, in their community and with respect to their industry. I found that some companies actually had pre-existing philanthropic policies but lacked the action plan for follow through. Budgets, resources and manpower also come into play when establishing a program.