Honoring the Past, Acknowledging the Present and Looking to the Future with a Little Bit of Hope: Ben Finzel's Remarks at the RENEWPR Tenth Anniversary Celebration

As we continue our year-long celebration of ten years in business, we hosted a party in Washington, D.C. this week to bring together clients, colleagues and friends to mark our anniversary. In addition to celebrating RENEWPR and the work we've done over the past decade, we also honored a former client, Family Equality, to support their work advocating for the rights of LGBTQ+ families. I'm proud to say we have raised more than $12,000 for Family Equality as part of our anniversary celebration. Donate here if you'd like to add to our total.

At the party at the GeorgeTown Club this week, I delivered remarks on what the anniversary means and how we are celebrating it. Here's the transcript of those remarks along with a photo from the party (more photos to come soon, so watch this space).

Hello, welcome and thank you so much for being here. Not just tonight, but over the past 10 years. So many people in this room have been with me, with us, for a long time.  Many of you for more than the ten years of RENEWPR!

It’s hard for me to believe that it’s been ten years since that moment in my living room on Ashmead Place when I hit send on the email announcing RENEWPR. And then fast forward to standing here today in the GeorgeTown Club with all of you. Wow.  

What an amazing decade. So much has happened in our city, our country and our world. To give some perspective, Barack Obama was President when we launched. Doesn’t that seem like more than 10 years ago?

So much has happened for RENEWPR as well. And none of it would be possible without my husband, Mark Pimble, who has been a steadfast supporter since before Day One. I’m so grateful to him. Thanks Mark!

Over the past ten years, RENEWPR has grown from an idea to a reality that now includes 10 people and numerous partners and allies who have helped us support more than 40 clients in energy, environment and equity communications programs. Along the way, we’ve won awards, met many wonderful new clients (many of whom are now friends) and collaborated with many others to make a real impact.

I want to take just a few minutes to talk about some of those highlights.

1)     We have a team of smart, committed, creative and wonderful independent PR colleagues. There are eight of them now across the country and I’m so grateful every day that I get to work with them. Only one of them is actually in DC and she’s here with us tonight: Annette Larkin, thanks for everything you do! And thanks also to our seven other Team members: Lowen Baumgarten, Darren Goode and Jessica Lass in the Bay Area; Steve Kauffman and Sarah Prud’homme in the Midwest; Juliet Johnson in the South; and Jayne Brady in the Northeast.

2)     Winning the first-ever Cleanie Award for Public Affairs Campaign of the Year with the Carbon Capture Coalition in 2018 was an amazing validation of our work. Almost the entire Coalition team is here tonight. Thank you to Patrice, Jessie, Madelyn, Leo and Christian. It’s a real privilege to work with you.

3)     A FleishmanHillard colleague told me when I started that we wouldn’t be a real firm until we were hired by people who didn’t know us. And when that happened, I knew we were on to something. Some of those people – clients past and present – are here tonight. Thank you to Marcene Mitchell, Jaymes Black, Julie Kruse, Judi Greenwald, Taylor Gross, and Kelly Widelska.

4)     Collaborating with other PR firm leaders in the Counselors Academy has not only been fun, but it has given me so many new opportunities to make a real difference. It was an honor to be the first openly LGBTQ chair of the Spring Conference last year. I’m so thrilled that the woman who invited me to become a member of PRSA’s Counselors Academy is here tonight. Dana Phelps, thank you, my friend. And Abbie Fink, one of the many wonderful members of the Counselors Academy I’ve befriended over the years, is here too. Abbie gets the award for coming the longest distance tonight: she is from Phoenix! And new friends in Counselors are here too, like Morgan Dye and Dale Curtis! Thank you all for your friendship and collaboration. 

5)     And I have to mention my new friends in The Change Agencies. For those who don’t know, The Change Agencies is the nation’s inclusive communications agency network: 15 PR firms owned by people of color and/or LGBTQ people. I co-founded it in 2019 with my dear friend LaTricia Woods of Mahogany Xan Communications. And I’m so honored that two fellow TCA members are here tonight: Mike Utaegbulam and Zeke Stokes, thanks for your friendship and collaboration. I’m so lucky to get to call you friends and colleagues.

And then there is Family Equality. I’m so proud to honor them tonight and to introduce their new CEO, Darra Gordon to all of you. But first, a bit of back story…

So why are we honoring a former client at our anniversary party? There are a lot of reasons: the obvious one is that we wouldn’t be here without our clients and we’re so thankful for the trust they place in us.

To be honest, the entire impetus for this party was the idea of uplifting a former client doing something to help right now in America in 2025. We didn’t feel we could “just” have a party given all that is happening around us. This is NOT normal and I don’t want to pretend that it is. The institutions we rely on are crumbling around us: whether that’s a free press (and thank you to the many journalists who are here tonight), an open government (and thank you to the government employees and elected officials like Senator Adam Ebbin and Delegate Mark Sickels who are here tonight) or an unfettered advocacy community (and thank you to the NGO staff who are here tonight).

That’s why we’re here tonight: to honor the past, acknowledge the present and look to the future with a little bit of hope. It was Mark’s idea to make this party be about something positive related to the devastation being wrought around us. It was the right idea at the right time. Thanks again, Mark!

I’m so proud that we’re able to not just celebrate 10 years, by looking back at the work we’ve done and the people we’ve done it with as we look forward to a future that is uncertain, but also full of potential if we work together. That’s why I’m so excited to have this opportunity to showcase the work Annette and I did with Family Equality on behalf of the John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act and to give Family Equality a platform to talk about what they are doing now to ensure that LGBTQ families – and indeed all families – have the opportunity to grow and succeed now and into the future.

Thank you all for being here and for all you’ve done to make our success possible.

Now it is my pleasure to actually, finally introduce Darra Gordon to remind us of what’s at stake and what we can do about it. I hope you’ll support her and them in this work, and I encourage you to donate using the QR codes on the tables around you.

For over two decades, Darra has led LGBTQ+ nonprofit organizations – including as Deputy President and COO at GLAAD – through transformative growth that includes tripling the budgets of the last two organizations where she’s worked! She has brought innovative strategies, operational excellence, and a steadfast, personal commitment to social justice. Her career has been dedicated to advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people to live lives that are celebrated, respected, and deeply connected – something that can only be described as our tagine: restoring common sense to communications. It only makes sense that she would be here tonight to celebrate with us.   

Please join me in giving a huge, heartfelt welcome to Family Equality’s CEO, Darra Gordon!