Christmas in July: What Happens When Nonprofit PR Does Its Job — A Dallas Cowboys Player Shows Up
How strategic media relations for a Dallas homeless shelter brought a Pro Bowl cornerback through the door — and what every nonprofit in Texas should know about the power of earned media.
It’s “Christmas in July” which means Christmas is exactly six months away. And around here, that’s enough reason to tell a holiday-themed story. It started with a string of media placements and ended with a Dallas Cowboys player walking through the doors of a homeless shelter carrying toys.
Former Dallas Cowboys player Trevon Diggs hosting a full Christmas party at Dallas LIFE shelter
The Client: Dallas LIFE and the Teddy Cares Initiative
Dala Communications was hired to lead the public relations launch for Teddy Cares — a first-of-its-kind initiative created by Dallas LIFE Homeless Recovery Center to bring comfort and hope to children living in homeless shelters. The concept was simple and powerful: for $50, a child received a teddy bear and a beautifully illustrated book written from the bear’s perspective, reminding the child that the shelter is temporary, that they are safe, and that people care about them.
Founded by Bob Sweeney, who has spent his career working in one of the country’s largest homeless shelters and developing the Homeless No More recovery program, Teddy Cares was built on a foundational truth: one in three people experiencing homelessness is a child. And those children didn’t choose any of it.
The Campaign: Telling a Story That Demanded to Be Heard
Our approach to nonprofit PR for Dallas LIFE was the same as it is for every client: find the most human, most credible version of the story and put it in front of the right audiences through the right channels.
Teddy Cares Launch at Vogel Alcove in Dallas
We developed and distributed media materials positioning the Teddy Cares launch as a significant civic moment: a Dallas nonprofit taking on a national problem with a remarkably personal solution. The 2024 earned media campaign targeted both mainstream Dallas outlets and community-focused publications, with the goal of generating the kind of coverage that reaches not just general audiences, but the donors, partners, and community leaders who could fuel the initiative’s growth.
Coverage landed across television, radio, digital, and print:
• Dallas Innovates covered the nationwide scope of the initiative, reaching the city’s influential innovation and business community
• KRLD 1080 explored how the program helps children adjust to shelter life, bringing the story to Dallas’s large drive-time radio audience
• Additional outlets covered the launch event, the mission, and the children whose lives the program was designed to change
Each story that ran wasn’t just a placement — it was a piece of credibility that traveled. and landed in front of a (then) Dallas Cowboys cornerback.
The Moment PR Proved Its Value: Trevon Diggs Calls
Trevon Diggs — Pro Bowl cornerback for the Dallas Cowboys — saw the media coverage of Dallas LIFE and Teddy Cares and reached out. He wanted to do something. He didn’t need to be pitched because the media has already sold the story and need for us.
What followed was a memorable moment with Diggs hosting a full Christmas party at the shelter in 2024, bringing gifts, inflatables, face painters, a barber offering free haircuts, cookie-decorating stations, and Santa himself. He signed autographs, took photographs with every child, and stayed for the whole thing.
“Out of everything — all my success and accomplishments — I feel like this is the most important piece of it. Seeing them happy and seeing them smile is the best thing.”
— Trevon Diggs, WFAA
WFAA and CBS covered it. 106.3 The Buzz covered it. The story of a Cowboys player giving homeless Dallas children a Christmas to remember generated its own wave of earned media — media that never would have happened if the original Teddy Cares coverage hadn’t reached him first.
Why This Story Matters for Every Nonprofit in Dallas
Nonprofit organizations are often the last to invest in strategic public relations yet are often the first to wonder why awareness, donations, and partnerships aren’t growing the way they should. The Teddy Cares story is a clear answer to that question.
Trevon Diggs called because a media story compelled him to a mission he wanted to support. That’s earned media doing exactly what it’s designed to do: reaching people you didn’t know you needed to reach, with a message you didn’t have to pay to deliver.
For Dallas nonprofits navigating tight budgets and crowded cause landscapes, strategic PR is one of the highest-return investments available. It builds third-party credibility with donors. It attracts corporate partners. It positions your organization as the authoritative voice on the issue you’re solving. And occasionally — as it did here — it brings a Dallas Cowboys player to your door.
The Intersection of Nonprofit PR and the Sports World
We share this story in July not just as a Christmas throwback, but because it illustrates something we think about every day at Dala: the sports world and the nonprofit world intersect more meaningfully than most people realize — and PR is what creates the bridge.
Professional athletes are increasingly intentional about how they use their platform. They want to partner with organizations that are doing real work, not just lending their name to a press release. What attracts them is exactly what attracts major donors and corporate sponsors: a clear mission, a credible story, and the kind of media presence that signals an organization is serious about its impact.
That’s the through line between our nonprofit communications work and the NIL personal branding and media training work we now do with student athletes at DFW high schools and club youth sports teams. Whether we’re helping a Dallas homeless shelter tell its story to attract partners like Trevon Diggs, or helping a high school athlete build a personal brand before the recruiting calls start, the underlying discipline is the same: strategic communications that earns attention, builds credibility, and creates opportunity.
The story doesn’t tell itself. But when it’s told well, the right people show up.
If your nonprofit organization is looking for a Dallas PR agency with experience in nonprofit communications and community storytelling, we’d love to connect. And if you’re an athletic director, coach, school administrator or parent interested in our NIL personal branding and media training program for student-athletes, learn more about our NIL services or reach out to our NIL consultant Lesley Berry, who brings 20+ years of professional sports marketing experience — including a decade with the Dallas Mavericks — to Dala’s growing sports communications practice.