Shelter Movers

Communications Plan PUBR57311 Public Relations and Philanthropy Tien Truong Emily Malcolmson Lauren Burnside Will Dixon Apoorva Joshi Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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Table of Contents I.

Situation Analysis​………………………………………………………………....….2 A. Background information………………………………………………..…….2 B. Issue/Opportunity………………………………………………………..…...2 C. SWOT analysis…………………………………………………………….…...2

II.

Audience Analysis​…………………………………………………………………….3 A. Profile of key audience………………………………………………………..5

III.

Communication Goals​………………………………………………………………..6

IV.

Objectives, Strategies and Tactics​……………………………………………………6

V.

Key Messages​…………………………………………………………………………8

VI.

Spokespeople​………………………………………………………………………....9

VII.

Evaluation​……………………………………………………………………….…….9

VIII.

Critical Path/Timeline​………………………………………………………………..10

IX.

Budget​………………………………………………………………………………..12

X.

Appendix​……………………………………………………………………………..13

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Situation Analysis Background Information: Shelter Movers is an organization that aims to help move women, children, LGBT members and others in situations of domestic abuse away from their abusive homes. They want to help these survivors remember that they have intrinsic worth and the power they have in making the decision to get away from their abuser. Shelter Movers are also able to help move treasured possessions out with the survivors with thanks to volunteers. Initiated in April of 2016, Shelter Movers has worked with over 300 families in their first two years of active service. They approach their third year anniversary this April. Shelter Movers have grown from their initial Toronto area to develop a working base of over 150 volunteers in Ottawa and Vancouver as well. Issue/Opportunity: The statistics surrounding domestic abuse sadly reflect the dire need for services such as Shelter Movers. One in three Canadians report abuse before the age of 15 and 83% of people who experience spousal abuse are women. Shelter Movers is hoping to expand their reach in the near future and become one of the top sites to appear in searches about domestic abuse. They also want to be a regular primary source to speak about domestic abuse for news stories. Strengths ● Large volunteer base, grew large within a small period of time ● No other service like this operating within Canada ● The service is relatively cheap, only costs $200 for a move ● The demand for the service has grown month-to-month ● Building out the service into new territories and still seeing success and the need for more

Weakness ● Not recognized as a primary source for news stories ● Not as prevalent as other not-for-profit services ● Sparse blog section on website and infrequent news coverage for Shelter Movers ● Operating on a small scale

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● Easy to replicate model making it easy to implement in other regions with little overhead ● Partnerships, such as with the Zuckerman Family Foundation help Shelter Movers provide this service more effectively ● Recognized as a valuable and necessary organization in the broader Violence Against Women framework Opportunities ● Can branch out into each province and territory within Canada ● Use a spokesperson to help develop media relations and have a more frequent space in news stories ● Offer post-move services to survivors ● More blog posts detailing the stories of survivors and content that can help those in abusive situations take action ● Developing relations with more shelters and police services to help more families

Threats ● Confrontations with the abusers and security teams during escort moves ● Other services starting up and operating within the same space ● Little media attention surrounding them ● Potential difficulties in recruiting volunteers ● Recruiting bad or problematic volunteers ● Not having enough of a brand name for shelters to recognize and reach out to the Shelter Movers

Audience Analysis Volunteers​: Volunteers are the heart and soul of this organization as it would not be able to exist without them. In order for the organization to reach its goal of expansion, they must also expand in size internally. Increasing the number of volunteers means more content for brand awareness striving towards the greater goal of getting women out of abusive households. Current volunteers are passionate about the cause and will be more willing to share their experiences. For the purpose of this communications plan, this is our most important target audience.

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Something to consider for this demographic is that many of them have full time careers and other commitments. The strategies for this group need to be attainable at a low maintenance level. Bringing too much to this group will become overwhelming and cause them to turn away. Corporate Sponsors:​ Not-for-profit organizations run solely on sponsorship and donations. As a result, corporate sponsors become a key stakeholder in the success of Shelter Movers. Attaining new corporate sponsors will aid the growth of the organization. Maintaining current corporate sponsorships is important in creating long term partnerships that assist with the longevity and success of Shelter Movers and their work. An important consideration when dealing with corporate sponsorship is making the relationship mutually beneficial. While corporations do not always sponsor with the expectation of something in return, creating a relationship that is mutually beneficial will help with bringing these sponsors back year after year. Individual donors​: Similar to corporate sponsors, individual donors also have an important role in the success of a not-for-profit organization. Something to consider for individual donors is how to get them invested? It is easier to get someone to donate when they care about the cause. It is important to also show them where their dollars are going since it is coming directly from their pockets rather than a company’s. In order to obtain and maintain individual donors, it is imperative to show them where their hard working dollars are going. Another thing to consider for this audience is which demographic to target. Shelter Movers must target their communication strategies to a group of people most likely to donate. This is likely 35-54 year olds with postsecondary degrees. This demographic is more likely to have a higher income and can afford to donate regularly to the organization. Women’s shelters and social service agencies​: Women’s shelters and social service agencies are a target audience for Shelter Movers because they can act as advocates for the cause. They will have similar goals in helping women get out of abusive living situations and thus offer the opportunity for partnerships. Something to consider with this audience is the role of geography. Unlike donors who can contribute from anywhere, a women’s shelter or social service agency is going to be more effective based on location. Researching and partnering with these services in the areas

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surrounding Shelter Movers will help create better communication strategies and thus better outcomes. Women experiencing abuse:​ The main goal of Shelter Movers is to help women in situations of domestic abuse away from their abusive homes. This makes women experiencing abuse the main target audience of the organization. In communication efforts, the key message to get across is that these women are survivors and they have intrinsic worth and power to make the decision to get away from the abuser with the assistance of Shelter Movers. An important consideration for this audience is the sensitivity of the topic. The organization must present themselves in an empathetic and approachable way in order for these women to want to confide in them. Much of the information these women are sharing is confidential. In order to reassure the women that they are safe in choosing Shelter Movers, the organization requires specific and strategic communications. While these women are the main target audience of Shelter Movers, this communications plan is more focused on building the organization from the inside out. Therefore, this plan will not target women who would use the organization. Profile of Key Audience Volunteers: Without volunteers, this communications plan will not be able to be executed. As a result we have researched relevant demographic and behavioural characteristics of this audience to develop the most effective and attainable objectives. In an article posted by Charity Village (2009), Donna Lockhart explains how finding volunteers is a struggle for organizations, but keeping them is equally as difficult. After investing the time and resources into recruiting volunteers, there is little or no return on investment. A key takeaway from this article is that in order for an organization run by volunteers to be successful, a main factor is the retention of volunteers. Another article, written by Andy Telfer (Charity Village, 2014), highlights that volunteers want to do meaningful work, but they do not want to be overwhelmed by it. He lists ten top tips for volunteer management that this communication plan has aimed to reflect in the proposed objectives that would be done by volunteers. From a management standpoint, this article will be useful for Shelter Movers when looking to recruit and retain volunteers.

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After researching the factors that affect retention rate, this communication plan has been designed to be achievable at a lower demanding, volunteer level. The objectives below are attainable at a level that will not be overwhelming and off putting for volunteers. Donors: Donors and sponsors are what will sustain the longevity of Shelter Movers. In the Podcast Monthly donors with Ashley Straith​ (2019), the author analyzes how to obtain monthly donors for a small nonprofit organization. The podcast gives insight on ways to reach potential donors which has been taken into consideration for this communications plan. The highlight of this podcast is that if the organization is welcoming and gratitude filling, they are more likely to have recurring donations. The podcast demonstrates what is important from a donors perspective; feeling appreciated and welcomed by an organization. This insight is key to implementing a successful objective targeting this key audience. After running a online quantitative survey from 2,000 people across Canada and the United States, Sector3Insights summarized which characteristics drive greater giving and how well charities perform these characteristics (Charity Village, 2018). A key takeaway from this research is to focus on the donor’s feelings, and create a sense of urgency. This is applied to Objective 3 of the plan. Communication Goals The main goal of this communications plan is to grow the positive impact that Shelter Movers is having on Canadian communities. This plan is aimed to make these impressions in three different ways. The first goal is to increase brand awareness on a national level, the second is to incentivize participation for new key stakeholders (i.e. attract new volunteers and donors), and the third goal is to build and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders (i.e. volunteers, donors and advocates). Objectives, Strategies and Tactics ● Objective 1:​ Increase website traffic by 20% by the end of the next fiscal year. ○ Strategy 1:​ Update and maintain the blog in order to gain more traction by developing stories that people can follow. This will help increase the engagement of the website overall. ■ Tactic 1: ​Create and publish one blog post per week.

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■ Tactic 2:​ Optimize the SEO for maximum visibility on the blog posts and create internal links to other blog posts and the website. ■ Tactic 3:​ Share the blog posts across Facebook and Twitter after they’re published. ○ Strategy 2:​ Build owned media to share on social platforms to increase following and reachability. ■ Tactic 1:​ Share photos and videos of volunteers and the moving process to social media while maintaining client anonymity. ■ Tactic 2:​ Plan social media content calendar one month in advance, considering all national public holidays ie. International Women’s Day. ■ Tactic 3:​ Share relevant secondary data, such as statistics, across all social media. ● Objective 2:​ Recruit three new volunteers each month for the next 12 months. ○ Strategy 1:​ Use earned media to connect with the community for potential volunteers. This helps show people the legitimacy of volunteering with the Shelter Movers. ■ Tactic 1:​ Develop a media kit to share with local and national news outlets to increase brand awareness. ■ Tactic 2:​ Secure interviews with news outlets featuring our spokespeople to spread the key messages. ○ Strategy 2:​ Use shared media to create a call to action for potential volunteers. ■ Tactic 1:​ Use relationships with notable influencers such as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau to optimize reachability of content and audiences. ■ Tactic 2:​ Have corporate donors repost social content that connects them to Shelter Movers. ○ Strategy 3:​ Use paid media to develop a presence in local communities. ■ Tactic 1:​ Manufacture a booth that can be reused and taken to volunteer fairs, ‘get involved’ fairs and other community events. ● Objective 3:​ Create partnerships with six new sponsors by the end of the fiscal year.

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○ Strategy 1:​ Create a mutually beneficial relationship with all partners with the use of owned media. ■ Tactic 1: ​Produce content on social media platforms that highlights the work each corporate sponsor does for Shelter Movers. ■ Tactic 2:​ Create quarterly newsletters that feature a list of new sponsors and how they are helping the organization. ○ Strategy 2:​ Connect with potential donors through owned media. ■ Tactic 1:​ Create donor mailing kit to send to potential partners such as well developed companies in the area of each Shelter Movers location. ■ Tactic 2:​ Create referral program for current donors to encourage donations from new sponsors. Key Messages Objective 1: Increase website traffic by 20% by the end of the next fiscal year Key Message:​ ​Shelter Movers is dedicated to working to end violence against women by providing an essential service that breaks the cycle of violence and promotes healthy reestablishment in the community. Objective 2: Recruit three new volunteers each month for the next 12 months Key Message:​ Shelter Movers offers an essential service to remove barriers experienced by survivors. We need your support to seamlessly move families fleeing from abuse. Objective 3: Create partnerships with six new sponsors by the end of the fiscal year Key Message:​ ​Shelter Movers actively collaborates with community partners to help families transition to a life-free of abuse. We need your support to continue to provide families with their needs at no cost.

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Spokespeople Spokesperson #1: Marc Hull-Jacquin The first spokesperson for the Shelter Movers is founder and executive director, Marc Hull-Jacquin. With his current positions, he is the most knowledgeable person within the organization. He understands the history of the not-for-profit but also, the goals for the future. He is the current face of the Shelter Movers which makes him a beneficial spokesperson as the public have already heard from him. As the executive director, Hull-Jacquin understands the organization on a national level as well as individual locations. Due to the sensitively of the situations, having an important person within the organization will show the severity of the issue and Shelter Movers dedication to the public communities. Spokesperson #2: Vicky Sage The second spokesperson for the Shelter Movers is policy director Vicky Sage. With her position, she has key information vital to being a good spokesperson for the organization. Working on the national level, she allows for distribution of information to a local level. She understands all the rules and regulation pertaining to this difficult situation and how to safely provide the service to women in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver. She is, also, a female member of the organization which is beneficial in the violence against women community they are apart of. As a result to the delicate topic, having a woman spokesperson will allow the female audience to understand and trust the Shelter Movers. She, also, has connections to local women shelters which will help Shelter Movers continue to grow. Evaluation Objective 1: Increase website traffic by 20% by the end of the next fiscal year Shelter Movers can use Google analytics to keep a track of website statistics. They would measure important metrics like visits, durations, new visitors etc. They should try and get a sense of the website traffic before posting new content on the website and also how it improves after posting new content. Number of search rankings would also be an important metric. The organization would keep track of how many times their blog posts are getting shared across social media. Objective 2: Recruit three new volunteers each month for the next 12 months This objective will be measured every month on an ongoing basis. Shelter Movers would take a look whether whether they were able to recruit three volunteers every month. If not, then they would review the strategies and tactics. They would revisit our media kit and our press releases

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and try to make up for the deficit in the next month. They would look at ways to reach media influencers more effectively to maximise reach and awareness about the organization. Objective 3: Create partnerships with six new sponsors by the end of the fiscal year Shelter Movers would evaluate this every six months. Since this is more of a long term and process driven objective, it wouldn’t makes sense to review it every week or every month. Ideally after the first six months after implementation of the plan they should have been able to create sponsorships with three new sponsors. If they reach this halfway point, they would continue with the strategy and tactics. If they fall short after six months, they would revisit and possibly revise our owned media content like mailing kit, newsletter and the content they share on social media regarding work done by their existing sponsors. Critical Path/Timeline TASK

DATE TO BE COMPLETED

NOTES

Develop a media kit

May 1, 2019

Use as needed to share media kit with local and national news outlets to increase brand awareness

Optimize the SEO for maximum visibility on blog posts

May 14, 2019

Manufacture a volunteer booth

June 1, 2019

To be reused and taken to volunteer fairs, ‘get involved’ fairs and other community events

Create a donor mailing kit

June 14, 2019

Use as needed (send donor mailing kit to potential partners such as well developed companies in the area of each Shelter Movers location)

Create a referral program for current donors

June 14, 2019

This is to encourage donations from new sponsors

Plan social media content calendar ​one month in

Monthly - beginning April 1, 2019

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advance​, considering all national public holidays ie. International Women’s Day Create newsletters

Quarterly - beginning April 1, 2019

Feature a list of new sponsors and how they are helping the organization

Create one and publish one blog post per week

Weekly - beginning April 1, 2019

1. Create internal links to other blog posts and the website 2. Share the blog posts across Facebook and Twitter 3. Share photos and videos of volunteers and the moving process to social media while maintaining client anonymity 4. Share relevant secondary data, such as statistics, across all social media 5. Produce content on social media platforms that highlights the work each corporate sponsor does for Shelter Movers

Secure interviews with news outlets featuring our spokespeople

Ongoing - beginning April 1, 2019

Use this to spread key messages

Reach out to notable influencers

Ongoing - beginning April 1, 2019

Use relationships with notable influencers such as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau to optimize reachability of content and audiences

Reach out to corporate donors repost social content that connects them to Shelter Movers

Ongoing - beginning April 1, 2019

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Budget The working budget for the Shelter Movers, to implement a communications plan within their education, is a total of $14,000. This budget will include implementing new tactics, maintaining the current ones, and covering overhead costs. For this communications plan, the budget will be used to develop strategies to raise brand awareness and build and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders. As a not-for-profit organization, all the work is volunteer-based and the budget is fully going towards efforts to build Shelter Movers. TASK

BUDGET

NOTES

Develop a media kit

$500

The budget will be used to for printing and mailing purposes

Optimize the SEO for maximum visibility on blog posts

$200/month ($2400/year)

This budget will be used to use SEO for multiple key terms

Manufacture a volunteer booth

$2500

This budget will be used for banners and equipment

Create a donor mailing kit

$500

The budget will be used to for printing and mailing purposes

Initial Cost Total - $5900

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Appendix Hallward, J. (2018, November 21). New research shows the drivers of greater donation behaviour for charities. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://charityvillage.com/cms/content/topic/new_research_shows_the_drivers_of_gre ater_donation_behaviour_for_charities/last/143#.XH6IWqfMy1s Lockhart, D. (2009, December 14). Understanding volunteer retention. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://charityvillage.com/cms/content/topic/understanding_volunteer_retention/last/ 553#.XH3jUafMy1t Straith, A. (2019, February 4). The Small Nonprofit Podcast: Monthly donors. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://charityvillage.com/cms/content/topic/the_small_nonprofit_podcast_monthly_d onors_with_ashleigh_straith/last/143#.XH6BPqfMy1s Telfer, A. (2014, February 5). Top ten tips for volunteer management and retention. Retrieved March 1, 2019, from https://charityvillage.com/cms/content/topic/top_ten_tips_for_volunteer_managemen t_and_retention?last=5%2053#.VIHH0DHF9h4ips