Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Habitatforhumanityprplan
Habitatforhumanityprplan
Habitatforhumanityprplan
PR PLAN
December 2013
Submitted by University of Oregon
PR Campaigns Team:
Ashley Shantel Hill, ashleyshantelhill@gmail.com
Hannah Lime, hlime@uoregon.edu
Marina Baldry, mbaldry@uorgeon.edu
Stacie Slater, smarti12@uroregon.edu
Stephanie Martin, sslater@uoregon.edu
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 3
Nov. 7, 2013
Table of
Contents
Basis for Strategic PR
.................................................................................... Plan
4
Background .......................................................................5
................................................................ SWOT Analysis 7
............................................................. Primary Research 8
....................................................... Secondary Research 11
............................................................. Situation Analysis 12
.............................................................. Core Challenge 12
.............................................................. Goal Statement 12
Target Publics
...........................................................................................
13
Donors ............................................................................13
................................... Medium-Sized Business Executives 14
.................................................................... Individuals 17
............................................. Churches and Service Clubs 19
Volunteers .......................................................................21
......................................................................... On-Site 22
...................... University of Oregon Fraternity Sorority Life 24
Partner Families................................................................27
Staff ...............................................................................31
...................................................................... Conclusion #
...................................................................... Conclusion 35
........................................................................... Budget 36
.......................................................................... Appendix #
........................................................... Whats Next Report 37
........................................................ Best Practices Report 61
Background
Situation Analysis
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 5
Nov. 7, 2013
Basis for
Strategic PR
Plan
Background
Introduction to the Organization
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1990 as an affiliate of Habitat for
Humanity International. The organization continues to work with families, volunteers and the
community to fulfill the mission of seeking to put Gods love into action. Habitat for Humanity
brings people together to build homes, communities and hope. The Springfield/Eugene Habitat
for Humanity currently builds two houses per year; however, the goal is to double that number.
Since its founding the organization has built 49 homes in the Springfield and Eugene
communities. The organizations vision is to help build a world where everyone has a decent
place to live.
The home construction program enables low-income families to invest in their future. The
organization uses three criteria for selecting individuals and families for our homebuyer
program: need, willingness to partner, and ability to pay. With a lot of hard work, or sweat
equity, and help from community volunteers, Partner Families help build their own home.
Families complete a minimum of 400-500 sweat equity hours (depending on family
configuration) prior to moving into their new home. Each Partner Family receives continued
support after becoming a homeowner through education and mentorship. After the house is built,
Habitat for Humanity provides the new homeowners the opportunity to purchase their home with
a 0 percent interest, no-profit loan. The familys monthly mortgage payments then provide the
same life-changing experience for another family in need of a decent place to live. With every
family who builds a home, the organization grows, as does the Springfield/Eugene community.
Part of the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanitys mission is to ensure continual community
building. As such, the organization takes great pride in the preservation of existing community
neighborhoods. The home repair program, A Brush With Kindness, works to eliminate
substandard housing by assisting elderly or disabled homeowners and low-income veterans in
need of minor exterior home repairs. Bringing homes back to a decent, livable standard ensures
participating families are able to stay at home in a comfortable, safe and familiar environment.
A percentage of the organizations financial support comes from its ReStore program.
Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanitys ReStore program offers new and used building
materials, furniture and home improvement items for public purchase at a fraction of their retail
prices. Local businesses and individuals donate all items to the ReStore.
Community Relations
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity relies on community volunteers. Volunteers help
in three ways:
Monthly giving
Honorary giving
Workplace giving
Planned giving
In-kind donations
Vehicle donations
ReStore donations
Homebuilding sponsor
Engaging with its audiences and encouraging community building, Springfield/Eugene Habitat
for Humanity is involved with community relations events by setting up outreach booths at
various community events. It also retains active relationships with its donors; volunteers and
community partners on its Facebook page where the organization often publicly thanks their
publics for contributions in developing the community and helping Springfield/Eugene Habitat
for Humanity achieve its mission.
News Media Coverage
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity archive articles in S/E Habitat News, a fairly
recent self-published blog. The latest stories, both from August 2013, are Do You Know About
Our Sister Affiliate in Nicaragua? and Moss Adams Celebrates 100 Years by Helping Habitat.
The Nicaragua story includes a link to the affiliates newsletter, and the Moss Adams story
includes a link to the full article located on the KEZI website. The Moss Adams story is about a
local accounting firm that celebrated its centennial birthday by sending all 70 employees to
volunteer with S/E Habitat for the day.
The organization was recently mentioned in a blog post on the Oregonians blog, OregonLive.
Beacons Take Time to Embrace the City mentions the reason for the Beacons service: uniting
to serve the community for a few hours. It briefly describes where students and staff volunteered
and what they helped with: Habitat for Humanity also put a group of students to work indoors,
helping with organization and administrative work including stuffing envelopes for a major mail
campaign.
Communication Activities
The Springfield Eugene Habitat for Humanity is an affiliate of an international organization. The
international organization may have branding and messaging guidelines that the affiliate is
underutilizing.
The organization recently updated its website and it is now simpler to navigate. The
organizations two social media profiles are represented on the website with small share links
in the bottom right corner of the page near all the other contact information; however, it is not
represented on the Contact Us page. S/E Habitat for Humanity maintains an active presence on
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 7
Nov. 7, 2013
Facebook through a fan page and we also have a Flickr account; however, the photostream has
not been updated since March 2013.
Branding and Messaging
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity does not have clear communications, marketing or
public relations plan in place. Staff and Volunteers are not empowered with tools to ensure
messages are consistently telling the organizations story. The organization expressed interest in
cleaning up the marketing materials by unifying the look as well as the story across the board
because their logo, story and the mission statement are inconsistently displayed, however; the
mission statement contains wording that should be kept in all marketing materials: We bring
people together to build homes, communities and hope.
Competitive Factor
The Eugene-area market for nonprofit organizations is saturated. The combination of a saturated
market and a slow economic recovery keeps developing funds a continued challenge for the
Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity. The organization identified that other family-based
service agencies, particularly those that cater to children, are its strongest competition.
Strengths
Unstable funding
Homeowners
Low-income
Repair
Need
Help
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 9
Nov. 7, 2013
Next, the brochure for build families addressed how to become a Partner Family. The
information here lets applicants know what requirement they must fulfill to be a Partner Family
and how to proceed once accepted into the program. Furthermore, the brochure communicated
that the applicant must buy the house. The top five words from this word cloud are as follows:
Family
Habitat
Home
Building
Payments
Finally, the volunteer brochure informed the reader about volunteer partnerships with Habitat for
Humanity. It detailed the many ways a volunteer could participate: building, events, office work,
etc. The five words that appear most in this word cloud are as follows:
Volunteer
Work
Calendar
Orientation
Events
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 11
Nov. 7, 2013
This primary research helped the organization better understand what it is communicating to its
current messaging techniques and was helpful when developing a communications plan to better
reach its publics.
Facebook Audit
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity actively posts on a Facebook fan page. Its page
features a Flickr account, but it is not representative of the organization and will be taken off the
page in the near future. The UO Campaigns Team audited the organizations Facebook content
output from July 1, 2013 to Sept. 1, 2013. Auditing the Facebook content provided information
insight about the strengths and weaknesses of its social media output. The audit could be used to
develop an analysis of its content when compared to how other Habitat affiliates utilize
Facebook.
The administrative employees at the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity run the Facebook
page. The page, which was started in October 2011, had 199 fans. The profile image is the
affiliates logo. The page lists its website URL; however, it does not link to the website in any of
its self-descriptive copy, and the URL is easily missed on first glance, making the viewer search
for the information. The organizations mission is featured; however, it is an outdated version
that does not match what is on the newly updated website. The description mentions that the
organization has built 46 houses; however, this information is inconsistent with the 50th house
build featured as a cover photo, as well as being recently highlighted on its timeline. The
organization regularly tags community partner pages in its posts of gratitude of partners
contributions. It also tags members of Partner Families in posts that reference build sites.
From July 2013 to Sept. 2013, the organizations account posted to its timeline a total of 23
times. The affiliate posted nine times in July, six in Aug. and nine times in Sept. Only seven of
the nine July posts included images, while all August and Sept. posts included images.
The organizations content was shared three times; and fans shared the organization's content
once each month. In both July and Sept., two comments were made on the organizations
content, making four total comments by fans in the three-month period. The organization was
unresponsive to some of the comments left on its page during this time.
The organization liked two of the four comments and commented back to one of the four
comments made on the organizations page. Almost half (11) of the organizations posts thanked
volunteers, donors, community partners or a combination of those. Posts asked fans to take
action seven times throughout the three months. Topics of the posts during the three-month
period were separated into following categories:
Sponsors/donations (six)
Events (three)
Newsletter (one)
ReStore (one)
Safety (one).
In conclusion, the account used the following words most often: family, low-income, repair,
volunteer, homeowners, need, help, home, payments, building, work, calendar, and events. The
insight gained from this primary research helped prepare the key messages used in this strategic
PR plan.
Secondary Research
The Lundquist Colleges report, internal communication documents, and a best practices report
were three secondary sources used to gain a better understanding of the affiliates situation and
its position in the community. Below is a summary of the best practice report.
Best Practices Report
In order to gain a sense of familiarity with the affiliates current situation, research was
conducted by the UO PR Campaigns Team on best practice case studies of other organizations
that successfully made their way through situations similar to what the Springfiled/Eugene
Habitat for Humanity faces.
Strategies and tactics cited as best cases practices in the report included using a multimedia
campaign, events, fundraising, or creative marketing materials. The research found successful
storytelling strategies and tactics included user-friendly portfolios, strong PowerPoint
presentations and eye-catching brochures. The examples in the report resulted in increased
support for events and fundraising. The biggest takeaway from the research is that telling a brand
story cohesively throughout all channels is imperative for the organizations growth.
Situation Analysis
The Springfiled/Eugene Habitat for Humanity makes hard decisions about where to spend its
precious resources. The organization has done a number of things (brochure communication,
social media output, program development, email communication and newsletter distribution) to
move the needle and accomplish social good in the community, but its done so with out
professional looking marketing materials.
Lacking a strategic communications handbook keeps the organizations communication efforts
from their full potential. Further development of and fulfillment of its mission depends on its
ability to consistently tell its story in a compelling and effective manner. Whether drafting
emails, soliciting funding, sending a newsletter, or explaining a program to someone who walked
in the door, the organizations communications must be uniform.
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 13
Nov. 7, 2013
In order to increase awareness and address the need for stronger Springfield/Eugene
communities, there is a strong need for the organization to adopt both a PR plan and a
communication a guide. The plan and guide will establish a vision for Habitat for Humanitys
key messaging strategy based on key public profiles. Strategic and tactical recommendations
could be developed along with a measure for progress.
Because these materials will also enable staff to draft purposeful messages with a clear call to
action, adopting the plan and guide would help Habitat for Humanity increase its ability to secure
funding and better fulfill its mission within the community.
Core Challenge
The core challenge is to develop cohesive messaging, guidelines and materials for all the
organizations communications.
Goal Statement
After this campaign, the affiliate will be equipped to tell its brand story with professional tools
and tactics. The brand story will tell a compelling and consistent message across its
communication channels. Successfully meeting the campaign objectives will empower the
affiliate to fulfill its mission.
Donors
Volunteers
Partner Families
Staff
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 15
Nov. 7, 2013
Target Publics
Profiles
Messaging
Objectives and Evaluation
Strategies and Tactics
Deliverables
From the information we received from our many interviews with Springfield/
Eugene Habitat for Humanity administrative staff, the University of Oregon
Campaigns Team identified the following three donor publics as most essential to
developing a donor base: Medium-sized business executives, individuals,
churches and faith communities, and service groups.
Donors
Medium-sized Business
Executives, Individuals,
Churches and Service Clubs
Medium-sized Business Executives
Profile
Medium-sized businesses typically partner with the affiliate to sponsor events and builds.
Businesses that share values such as community development with the affiliate are the ideal
partner. Small businesses do not have the revenue to partner with the affiliate in this way;
therefore, small businesses are not as likely to partner with Springfield/Eugene Habitat for
Humanity.
Individuals who are also business executives wish to see a difference in the community but focus
primarily on showing their companys transparency and corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Service-oriented businesses, such as financial and law firms constitute a large portion of
revenues within Lane County and fit within the structure of the program. Pursuing partnerships
with executives from the following categories would be most likely to broaden the organizations
donation base:
Locally owned businesses have a bigger buy-in on making an impact in their community
Lumber mills
Executives
Self-Interests
Self-interests of medium-sized business executives to consider when partnering:
Exposure
Being seen as a company committed to developing a great culture for its employees
Media coverage
Goodwill
Influencers and Intervening Publics
Business Oregon
Network with influential business leaders while donating your time to a good cause
Network with influential business leaders while building a home for this family
Your donation helps the children and families you meet experience a brighter, better
future
Building this home helps break the cycle of poverty for this family. Because your
donation empowers this family to contribute to the communitys resources rather than
consuming them, you are not only helping a family in need, but also you are impacting
the entire community
Objectives and Evaluations
This audience would be used to help Habitat for Humanity fulfill its mission statement by
increasing donations and establishing long-term partnerships.
Objective 1
Establish 15 new business executive partnerships from Dec. 2013 to Dec. 2014.
Evaluation
Determine the success of this objective by calculating how many partnerships were established
as a result of executive build event.
Objective 2
Establish cohesive messaging guidelines for donor communication by December 2013.
Evaluation
To determine the success of this objective, count how many newly designed donor materials
were distributed.
Strategies and Tactics
Strategies and tactics for this audience are aimed at communicating the organizations brand
story and creating new business partnerships based on shared values.
Strategy
Prepare the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity to execute an Executive Build that
develops new partnerships with and for businesses and executives.
Tactical Recommendations
Provide a list of these businesses who share like interests to the client
Send a letter about who the executives can network with while at the event
Create a PowerPoint presentation that engages the audience, provides photos and tells the
brand story
Create slides that relay the benefits and give back around our community
Create invitation
Create a news release with the executives picture to be sent after executive build
Measurement Tools
Facebook analytics
Twitter analytics
Donor Flyer
Your contribution gives this family stability and a place to call home.
For $X amount you can give this child a bedroom of his own
Your donation of $X amount gives this family a place to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.
The kitchen you purchase for this family is where they will create family memories.
Objectives and Evaluations
Objective 1
Develop a new donor stewarding plan to be implemented by Jan. 1, 2014.
Evaluation
Determine the success of this objective by calculating how many partnerships were established
as a result of the new donor stewarding plan.
Objective 2
Establish 15 new individual donor partnerships from Dec. 2013 to Dec. 2014.
Evaluation
Determine the success of this objective by calculating how many partnerships were established
as a result of the new donor stewarding plan.
Strategies and Tactics
Strategies and tactics for this audience are aimed at communicating the organizations brand
story and creating new business partnerships based on shared values.
Strategy
Develop emotional stories that connect individual donors to the needs of the organization.
Tactical Recommendations
Caucasian (27.8%)
Asian (19.6%)
Hispanic (15.2%)
The Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity built two houses this year and relied on
approximately 550 volunteers to do so.
Self-Interests
Self-confidence boost
Volunteering for a few hours builds a place for a family to spend the rest of its life.
Primary Message 2
You can build a place for a family to feel safe and secure.
Make memories with your group while you build a home for a family to make a lifetime
of memories in.
Objectives and Evaluations
Objective
Increase the number of on-site volunteers signed up via VolunteerUP form from December 2013
to December 2014.
Evaluation
Measure the amount of volunteers signed up using the VolunteerUp form in December 2013 and
again in December 2014 to see if there is an increase.
Strategies and Tactics
Strategies and tactics for this audience focus on reaching out and compelling the audience to
respond to the call to action on marketing materials.
Strategy 1
Update brands story so the marketing materials show that partnering with Habitat for Humanity
is impacting and fun and makes people excited to volunteer.
Tactical Recommendations
Include interactive links to the VolunteerUP form on all new marketing material
Brochure
Flyer
PowerPoint presentation
Measurement Tools
Analyze all newly created outreach materials and measure whether they include interactive links
to the VolunteerUP form. Analyze all links currently in use on the brands pages online and
measure whether they include links to the VolunteerUP form. Measure the percentage of links
that are in working order and establish a timeline to update any links that need repair.
Strategy 2
Increase social media activity to expand reach
Tactical Recommendations
Create albums
Grades
Social events
Philanthropy requirements
Chapter presidents
Pan-Hellenic council
Develop brochure
Develop flyer
Provide list, contact information and donation deadline information of local businesses
who partner
Media coverage
Measurement Tools
Media tracking
Pitch story
Media tracking
Media analysis
Create albums
Facebook analytics
Twitter analytics
Volunteer Flyer
Public Relations Plan for Springeld/Eugene Habitat for Humanity 29
Nov. 7, 2013
Partner Families
Profile
Messaging
Objectives and Evaluation
Strategies and Tactics
Deliverables
A partner family is a family who expresses an interest in Habitat for Humanity
and submits an application to the organization. The application is reviewed by a
selection committee and if the family meets the necessary criteria, goes before the
Board of Directors for approval. The family will be recommended and accepted
based on need, ability to pay for a new home and willingness to partner with
Habitat for Humanity. The University of Oregon PR Campaigns Team recognizes
the organizations need to work towards inclusion; therefore, the Team suggests
the organization translate any materials created for Partner Families from English
to Spanish so it can provide both potential English-speaking families and Spanish-
speaking families with the necessary information.
Profile
Partner Families in the Springfield/Eugene area consist of both English and Latino ethnicities
and while these two groups are extremely diverse and experience life different ways, the needs of
the family remain the same within both groups.
The area still shows signs from the most recent government recession with roughly 17.4 percent
of residents living in poverty. With local poverty rates on the rise, the chance of a family being
one paycheck away from living on the street is a reality. The Springfield/Eugene community is a
family-oriented, community-centered place to raise a young family. There is a great need for
affordable, safe housing in the area.
The majority- 92 percent- of all families in the Springfield/Eugene area speaks English as the
primary language.
Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the area. Spanish-speaking families make
up 5 percent of the population. Tradition and family values are very important to Spanish-
speaking families and it is important to those parents to remind their family of its cultural
heritage by sharing special family customs and traditions while they adopt American
experiences.
Self-Interests
Adequate housing
Special financing
Habitat for Humanity will help you buy your own home
You can afford your own home when you partner with Habitat for Humanity
Your new house will make you feel safe and secure
Let Habitat for Humanity help you improve your familys condition
Objectives and Evaluation
Currently the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity has 2-3 partner families who are in the
program in some portion of the process. As more and more families start showing interest in the
program, the wait list will continue to grow directly impacting Habitat for Humanity in the other
areas. This is important because in order to grow the other areas of the organizations programs,
they must increase the number of partner families.
Objective 1
Increase the number of Partner Families who are being vetted by the committee at any given time
from 2 families to 4 families by December 31, 2014.
Evaluation
If we can increase the number of families from 2 to 4 at any time in the program than our goal
will be successful.
Strategies and Tactics
Strategies and tactics for this public aim at reaching and informing the public of opportunities.
Strategy 1
Broaden the reach of the program by updating our marketing materials by December 14, 2013.
Strategy 2
Generate interest in the Partner Family program with us by providing detailed information that
will help promote the program.
Tactical Recommendations
Number of subscribers
Filling a need
Leaving a legacy
Being an influencer
Achieving goals
Family
Administrative staff
The board recently expanded the organizations administrative staff. Members are directly
involved in guiding the organization to successfully achieve its mission. Some members of the
board are more involved, working on daily projects alongside administrative staff. The
administrative staff is involved in the every-day business of the organization. Administrative
staff members rely on volunteers to complete many daily tasks such as housekeeping, taking
phone calls and greeting visitors.
Messaging
Staff of the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity must be convinced that the proposed
recommendations will benefit the Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity, as well as the
community it serves. While the board must be shown a return on investment before it will move
forward with changes, the rest of the staff needs to be encouraged that they all play a part in
communicating the organization's story effectively.
Primary Message 1
Adopting the social media changes the University of Oregon PR Campaigns team recommends
will better equip the organization to fulfill its mission.
Primary Message 2
We can ready ourselves for growth by adopting these changes.
Secondary Message
There are timesaving strategies that will help Springfield/Eugene Habitat for Humanity
grow while conserving resources
Telling the affiliates brand story cohesively throughout all channels is imperative for the
organizations growth
The new marketing materials use concise yet rich content to strategically tell the
affiliates brand story
Objectives and Evaluation
To gain support from the publics, objectives must be followed by evaluative measures. These
objectives are geared toward gaining the boards support and continuing involvement from all
staff members.
Objective
To empower staff to effectively communicating the organizations story using Pinterest,
Facebook and updated brochures.
Evaluation
Determine whether there was a program established to help staff learn and adapt to new
tools and technologies
Measure how staff feels about the usefulness of the program with survey
Strategies and Tactics
To decide which strategies and tactics to use, the organization needs to consider timeframes and
how to best use limited resources. These strategies and tactics are focused on using the staff to
influence and direct the three other audiences.
Strategy 1
To empower staff by developing a working environment that encourages them to learn and adapt
to new tools and technology.
Tactical Recommendations
Tag staff
Use Facebook graph search to research staffs Facebook interests to strategize content
production
Present staff with existing communication guideline materials to guide daily messaging
responsibilities
Use a survey to measure staffs awareness of tools and how useful staff feels training
sessions have been
General Brochure
ReStore Flyer
Portfolio