President Barack Obama said in his inaugural address that Americans recognize that “what is required of us now is a new era of responsibility.” He added that,”This is the price and promise of citizenship.” The PR industry can play a vital role in helping to meet this challenge.

I attended the board meeting of the Ad Council (disclosure: I am a new board member) this afternoon and was amazed to learn the magnitude of the industry’s commitment. There are 50 campaigns underway, under the broad headings of community, health/safety and education. The media donated nearly $2 billion in space and time (radio the largest part at $980 million, TV at nearly $400 million, Digital at $163 million, Outdoor at $130 million). Brian Perkins, chief marketing officer of Johnson & Johnson (disclosure: client), gave evidence of the effectiveness of the campaigns, with 68% of Americans saying that they have stopped an inebriated person from driving and 600,000 Americans agreeing to mentor a child in the past nine months.

The Ad Council has already filmed a spot with President Obama, in which he asks citizens to Renew America Together by volunteering, which can be seen at www.USAService.org. A prize-winning campaign encouraging dads to spend time with their kids, called Take Time to Be a Dad, can be seen at www.fatherhood.org. The TV spot sure to double you over with laughter is a dad miming the cheerleading moves of his eight year old daughter. An all-digital campaign at www.thatsnotcool.com encourages teen girls to draw the digital line on incessant texting, spying on social network pages or requests for nude photos. The site, developed by R/GA, offers a YouTube channel for guest videos, a dialogue forum, and digital post cards that can be sent to pestering teen males.

So how can those of us in PR help? We can continue to build bridges between our clients and causes that make sense for their businesses. A good example is the Starbucks (disclosure: client) campaign launched yesterday with HandsOnNetwork to encourage Americans to volunteer for projects in their communities. The “I’m In!” program asks each participant to pledge five hours to community service, whether in a soup kitchen or reading to the blind. In return, Starbucks offers a free tall brewed coffee. To get more information, go to http://pledge5.starbucks.com or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKppxptbJLA. The goal is one million hours pledged by January 25 so hop on board.

We can also do pro-bono PR work for charitable organizations either as individuals or as part of each firm’s desire to give back to society. This is in keeping with a tradition begun by my father who served on the board of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Lyric Opera and Immigrant Service League. My favorite activity in the past year has been helping the Children’s Aid Society’s Frederick Douglass basketball program for young women ages 10-14. The girls tolerate me in scrimmages at the end of practice, where the old guys try to keep up in full court contests. Our firm has done outstanding work for community programs, such as the Dear John Campaign for the Atlanta Women’s Agenda and Mayor Shirley Franklin. This public education effort aims to end commercial sexual exploitation of children.

We have unique skills in understanding and interpreting societal trends. We have valuable relationships with media; positive coverage is critical to the fundraising efforts of the charities. It is incumbent on us to heed President Obama’s call and to emulate our colleagues in the advertising business by giving back as we can. Your comments are welcome as always.