The PR Bunker

Don Martelli

Bostonian | PR Guy | Podcaster | Strategic Communications & PR Consultant

  1. 2h ago

    From Corporate Strategy to Strong Fathers: Larry Smith on Fathers and Families Center

    Larry Smith is a fifth-generation Hoosier and President and CEO of Fathers and Families Center in Indianapolis. The nonprofit's mission is to equip fathers and empower families so that children thrive. In 33 years it has served about 28,000 fathers. Larry is only the second CEO in its history. His predecessor led the organization for 29 of those 33 years. Larry spent 11 years at Cummins. At 32 he became the youngest director of corporate strategy in the company's history. He says he hated the job anyway. He thought about his own epitaph: he made a lot of money, but he didn't make a difference. That pushed him to accept a call to the ministry and move to the nonprofit sector, where he has now worked for 23 years. The center serves any dad 16 and older, and most are 30 to 35. They arrive with an average income of about $10,000 a year. The programs are free, and the center pays the men to attend its three-week Strong Fathers class. The work is research-based and built on four Ps: becoming a better person, parent, partner and provider. The team also works with men who are fewer than 90 days from release. Half or more of the men served in a given year were formerly incarcerated. The center's recidivism rate is under 7 percent, compared with 45 to 50 percent across Indianapolis. Larry was a dad at 16 himself and grew up without his father. He and Don talk about what being present really means and why a father can be involved even when he isn't in the home. Larry describes the class section called "from maleness to manhood." He also tells the story of a graduate he met at a McDonald's drive-thru. Since Larry joined in August 2022, staff has grown from 13 to 24 and fundraising has more than doubled. Last year the center served a record 1,200 men. Its Vision for the Future campaign is about $4.6 million into a $5.5 million goal. The money will expand programming and move the center to a larger facility. Next comes more online programming, growth outside Indiana and P3, a new program for professional dads. Volunteers can get involved through the fatherhood panel and mock interviews. Larry closes on why mental health and therapy matter. Find Fathers and Families Center at https://ffcindiana.org CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:32 Welcome to the PR Bunker 00:53 A fifth-generation Hoosier and the mission 02:12 From Cummins to a calling 03:32 Who Fathers and Families Center serves 04:47 The four Ps, reentry and recidivism 05:31 What the work taught him as a dad 08:29 Why he keeps showing up 09:54 Growth and the Vision for the Future campaign 11:59 From maleness to manhood 12:53 Involved, in the home or not 15:10 Advice to his 16-year-old self 16:56 The McDonald's drive-thru story 19:33 Going online and beyond Indiana 20:18 P3 for professional dads 21:23 Ways to get involved 23:14 Where to find Fathers and Families Center 24:26 Mental health and therapy 25:11 Wrap

  2. 1d ago

    From Inside Joke to Community Arcade: Brittnay Mustard-Smith on Wizard's Cabinet Arcade

    It started as an inside joke from a fantasy book series. Now Brittnay Mustard-Smith and her husband are turning it into a nonprofit community space. The Wizard's Cabinet Arcade takes its name from a line in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. Brittnay saw her Ohio city losing its indoor community spaces, registered the idea as a 501(c)(3) and set out to build a place where kids, families and lifelong gamers can play together. In this conversation, Brittnay lays out the vision: flat screens running classic consoles from Atari and Dreamcast to the PlayStation One and Two, a nod to the esports scene growing in Ohio, and Super Mario Bros. as the easiest way to introduce a seven-year-old to gaming. She talks about Gaming 101 workshops, the possibility of getting certified to teach STEM, and using the arcade to show the history of video games across generations. A self-described numbers person with a background in finance, she walks through the plan to keep it affordable with a five-dollar entry fee, no alcohol and real food for people who stay a while. She also shares where things stand, with grant applications underway and the search for funding and a brick-and-mortar space, and how people can help, from volunteering and running workshops to college work-study and co-op students. Plus: why she's a Mercy main in Overwatch, and the PS2 games that still bring instant rage. Find the Wizard's Cabinet Arcade at https://wizardscabinetarcade.org CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:31 Welcome to the PR Bunker 01:14 An inside joke from the Sword of Truth 01:52 Losing community spaces, becoming a nonprofit 02:42 Why gaming brings people together 03:31 Classic consoles meet 2026 05:05 Esports in Ohio 06:33 Gaming is global and hyperlocal 07:49 Bridging old-school games and today 08:53 Super Mario Bros. as a first game 09:30 Gaming 101 workshops and STEM 10:36 Gaming across generations 11:27 The plan: a five-dollar entry fee 13:12 Grants and funding 13:51 How to get involved 16:11 Building community, not a product 16:55 Where to find the Wizard's Cabinet Arcade 17:41 Wrap

  3. 1d ago

    Donors Can Tell If There's Nothing Under the Arc: Anna Taylor, The Greater Sum Foundation

    Every year, The Greater Sum Foundation meets early-stage nonprofits with ideas that could change lives, many of them started at the kitchen table and running on passion. Anna Taylor, its executive director, helps them build what comes next. Anna has spent more than 20 years in nonprofits, including 17 in college readiness. The Greater Sum began when a friend wanted to do his philanthropy the way he did his investing: get in early, back innovation and stay involved. Today it's an operating foundation that runs a free six-week incubator, five cohorts a year, for nonprofits in roughly their first five years that already have their 501(c)(3) or a fiscal sponsor. In this conversation, Anna explains why nonprofits can scale their impact without opening new offices, why fundraising and building the right early team are the two hurdles she sees most, and the heart of the incubator: building the financial strategy under your storytelling. Donors can tell when there's nothing under the narrative arc. Show them what $100 does, what the work costs and how you'll track that it works. She also talks about Plane Wellness, a 2026 pitch competition participant using woodworking to support mental health, how the foundation brings in more funders through partnerships and a matching fundraising accelerator for its alumni, and her honest advice before you file for a 501(c)(3): take a hard look at whether a nonprofit is the right structure at all. Her advice for anyone drawn to mission-driven work: whatever your skill set, there's a way to plug it in. Nonprofits need finance, marketing and IT people too. Find The Greater Sum Foundation at https://thegreatersum.org CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:32 Welcome to the PR Bunker 00:59 How The Greater Sum began: philanthropy like investing 02:19 Inside the free six-week incubator 03:13 Who gets in: early stage, innovative, scalable 04:04 Scaling impact without expanding your footprint 05:11 The two biggest hurdles: fundraising and the dream team 06:52 Signs a nonprofit is ready 08:14 The financial strategy under your storytelling 09:41 How a foundation funds itself 10:38 Plane Wellness: woodworking for mental health 12:30 Connecting founders with the right supporters 13:57 What gets Anna up every day 16:05 What scale looks like for the foundation 17:37 Partnerships and the fundraising accelerator 19:12 Building the bridge between donors and nonprofits 20:42 Before you file for a 501(c)(3) 22:08 How donors can get involved 23:25 Where to find The Greater Sum 23:36 Advice for your younger self: plug your skills in 25:32 Wrap

  4. Oct 26

    Fresh Food Is a Basic Human Right: Jay Vilar on Fresh Truck and Mobile Markets in Boston

    Somewhere in Boston right now, a converted school bus is parked on a neighborhood street with 40 kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables inside, priced 30 to 40 percent below the grocery store. That's Fresh Truck, and Jay Vilar runs it. Jay grew up in an intergenerational Filipino household where his grandmother Lola taught him that if you can read, you can cook, and his mom, a holistic nurse practitioner, taught him to use food as medicine. He spent years as a vice president at a large advertising agency before walking away, going back to school for nutritional therapy, studying regenerative agriculture at the Rodale Institute, and eventually landing at Fresh Truck as executive director. In this conversation, Jay explains how Fresh Truck works: a fleet of four converted school buses and trucks serving 21 Boston neighborhoods five days a week, invited in by the communities they serve, staffed with community reps who speak the neighborhood's language, and built around Massachusetts' Healthy Incentives Program so SNAP shoppers can unlock an extra $40 to $80 a month for produce. He walks through how the team decides where the trucks go, why they're at capacity, and the e-commerce program they're building so the answer isn't always "buy another $700,000 truck." He also gets personal: what it took to leave a lucrative corporate job and live on $1,000 a month, why he's the busiest he's ever been and also the happiest, and the one skill he'd tell anyone to learn if they want into nonprofit work. Plus the moment on the truck when a shopper realizes she's had an extra $40 available all along. Jay's take, and the heart of this episode: fresh, affordable, culturally relevant food is a basic human right. It shouldn't be getting harder to access. It should be getting easier. Find Fresh Truck at https://freshtruck.org CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open 00:27 Welcome to the PR Bunker 01:00 Son of Julio, grandson of Lola: food, culture and healing at home 02:20 Nutritional therapy, regenerative agriculture, and the road to Boston 04:05 Fresh Truck: a produce aisle on wheels in 21 neighborhoods 05:34 How a health worker's school bus became a fleet of four 07:21 Affordability, HIP benefits, and 30 to 40 percent below grocery prices 08:37 Why Fresh Truck grew, and what stays the same 10:02 Grocery prices, SNAP cuts, and food as a basic human right 12:17 How Fresh Truck decides where the trucks go 14:35 At capacity: the e-commerce program 15:58 From ad agency VP to the happiest he's ever been 18:23 A market day: music, community reps, and the $40 unlock 21:13 Advice for corporate lifers: living on $1,000 a month 24:26 The fastest way into nonprofit work: learn to raise money 26:06 Don on selling, mission, and the yin and the yang 27:33 What's next: a November fundraiser and going deeper in 2027 29:55 Where to find Fresh Truck 30:31 Wrap 30:55 Outro

  5. Oct 20

    Behind the Curtain: Bradley Harris on Strategic Advisory and Never Losing Sight of PR Basics

    Bradley Harris was 21 when he was appointed executive assistant and advisor to West Virginia's Secretary of State. In one of his first senior staff meetings she asked what he thought, and he told her he agreed with whatever she thought. Wrong answer. She pulled him aside and told him that when she asks for his opinion, she wants it, respectfully, even when he disagrees. He's never lost that. From government public affairs he moved into agency work in economic development and tourism, then spent almost six years as the spokesperson for a publicly traded utility, where everybody's mad at you and nobody has a choice. Two years ago he went out on his own. Seven months in, he scrapped the Olivia Pope-inspired name and rebranded as Bradley Harris Strategic Advisory, a boutique firm in Charleston, West Virginia that advises leaders on positioning, messaging and stakeholder engagement. Don and Bradley get into why PR, marketing and advertising are not the same thing, why more communicators are landing in the CEO chair, why the basics of PR aren't going anywhere no matter what AI does, the quarterly newsletter that warms up stakeholders before you need them, and the handwritten note card (wax seal included) that still beats a text. Plus the book he's writing about life behind the curtain, and why he had to settle for "the" Bradley Harris. Connect with Bradley on LinkedIn or at https://thebradleyharris.com

  6. Oct 19

    From Big Tech to the Dance Floor: Daniel Choi on Building a Third Space for Bay Area Youth

    After nine years as a software engineer in Bay Area big tech, Daniel Choi didn't like what he was helping build: an AI revolution that was already displacing people with no safety net. What did sit right with him was the thing that shaped him as a kid, a dance community where he learned to be authentic, vulnerable, and to grow. So he gave his two weeks and went full send. Daniel is the founder and executive director of the Bay Area Youth Arts Foundation (BAYA), which runs low- and no-cost pop-up dance workshops across San Jose, Santa Clara, Los Altos and beyond. Every workshop opens with games and icebreakers, because the goal isn't just to learn the choreography. It's to leave knowing someone's name. Don and Daniel get into the moment at a teachers' camp when it all clicked, why "I'm really bad at dancing" is the excuse he hears most (his answer: get in line), taking workshops straight into high schools, and his dream of a permanent physical third space where young people can gather in real life again. Plus the backwards-choreography video that hit 200,000 views overnight from a guy who says he hates social media. Catch Daniel teaching a free public workshop at the Korean festival at San Jose City Hall on Wednesday, October 28. Learn more, sign up for a workshop, or sponsor a student: https://bayareayoutharts.org

  7. Oct 19

    Nobody Should Feel Alone: Shelby Jones on PALS Programs and the Power of Belonging

    Shelby Jones showed up to a PALS summer camp in 2018 not knowing a single person. Today she's the executive director. PALS Programs pairs young people with and without Down syndrome for a week of camp on college campuses across the country. Shelby talks about the loneliness epidemic, why community is the antidote, what PALS meant to campers coming out of the pandemic, and the plan to double the number of people PALS serves by 2030. Learn more: palsprograms.org

  8. Oct 16

    Seventy Colleges Gone: Larry Schall on Accreditation and What Families Should Look For

    Dr. Larry Schall, president of the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), the accreditor that traces its roots to 1885, walks through what accreditation actually is and how volunteer peer teams review a college. He covers why 70 institutions have left New England's roster since 2000, the shrinking pool of high school graduates, the new federal rules aimed at accreditors, why the soft skills matter more than a first job, and what families should really look for on a campus visit. Learn more: neche.org

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About

Bostonian | PR Guy | Podcaster | Strategic Communications & PR Consultant

Information

  • Creator
    Don Martelli
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Don Martelli
  • Show Website
    The PR Bunker