“The horse through all its trials has preserved the sweetness of paradise in its blood.� --Johannes Jensen
Table of Contents Summary Philosophy Background Goals Objectives Tactics Message Schedule
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summary
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HARE is a non-profit organization in dire need of financial and voluntary support to survive as a humane society for hooved animals suffering from abuse and neglect. Throughout this campaign book, you will find that I have recommended a fundraising dinner to meet goals embedded in the organization’s mission and identity as a rescue shelter. The primary message of this campaign is that when SHARE shares a horse, you share a home, whichis meant to garner the support of horse lovers and loving families who want to adopt a horse in the future, but likely do not know about the Society for Hooved Animals Rescue and Emergency. This situation will be addressed through specified public relations tactics related not only to the funraising dinner, but also to the objectives and overall public relations strategy to make SHARE the primary horse rescue shelter in central Illinois that is used as a place where the lives of horses are rescued and rehabilitated, anda place where families may come to prolong the lives of these animals in their own home by adopting an equine.
Overview
philosophy
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ublic relations is not only used by professionals to communicate a favorable image for clients, but it is, on a fundamental level, intended to create goodwill for an institution. In this specific situation, public relations is being used to not only create goodwill for the client, SHARE but to increase awareness of horse abuse and neglect, and to ultimately save the lives of horses who suffer in central Illinois. It is also important that SHARE acknowledges how it can help the community to want to promote the goodwill of this cause by focusing this campaign on a community event that is sure to spark the interest of specified publics in the Champaign county region.
Statement of Principles
BACKGROUND F
ounded in 2005, the Society for Hooved Animals Rescue and Emergency is the only non-profit humane society in the Champaign area dedicated to the rescue and rehabilitation of abused and neglected horses in central Illinois through: Providing the care and support necessary, with the help of volunteers, to nurse exceptional horses back to health.
Finding loving homes for horses through an in-depth adoption process.
Informing owners about how to properly care for their horses.
Educating the community about the abuse and negligence facing many horses nationwide.
S
HARE is not visible in the public’s eye, and those who require the organization’s services must actively seek their assistance in adopting a horse. This is its greatest impediment
Organization
BACKGROUND
S
ince SHARE is largely dependent upon the support of volunteers and financial support from donations and state grants, the organization requires a strategic effort to raise awareness and call the community to action to help support the organization through both time and money. SHARE exists because there are horses in tragic situations of neglect and abuse that need to be rescued and rehabilitated. Without a non-profit organization like SHARE in central Illinois, these equines will ultimately not have a means to survive. When designing a strategic plan to improve the equine rescue’s current situation, it is necessary to consider how the organization functions in relation to its current market situation.
Situation
Adoption SHARE provides an in-depth adoption process, which is unique to most equine rescue organizations anyone would typically come across. With this in mind, SHARE’s mission to pair each horse visiting their home with a loving, stable home for each equine is a lengthy process for both prospective families and volunteers. This means that SHARE volunteers and owners have little time to focus efforts on raising awareness and garnering the community’s monetary and voluntary support to this cause. Legal As a non-profit organization, SHARE has contracts or agreements with Prairieland Feeds, Bellflower Feed Mill. They also have legal agreements that impede the organization from hosting educational tours with children.
Volunteers This organization relies on the support of volunteers who help rescue, rehabilitate and prolong the lives of neglected equines. These volunteers typically have some kind of affiliation with the University through the University of Illinois Pre-Vet Club or the Student Equine Emergency and Rehabilitation Society, but also include a select number families in the Champaign-Urbana area.
Donations SHARE does not receive many financial contributions, which make it somewhat difficult to provide this service to horses and horse lovers. This is due to the current economic crisis and overall lack of awareness.
BACKGROUND
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hile SHARE currently does not have a position in the mind of its community, it does have a place in the mind of a select number of horse lovers and loving families looking to adopt a hooved animal.
Publics
BACKGROUND
H
orse lovers in central Illinois are one of SHARE’s key publics, as they represent a group of people who obviously deeply care about horses and their well-being. This public is categorized as aware or latent They will likely provide the monetary donations or time to ensure SHARE’s success as an organization. Although this audience may not realize the importance of supporting SHARE, they likely know enough about horses that they would be sympathetic to donating their time and money to his non-profit if they knew more about the pertinent issue of hooved animal abuse and neglect.
P
rospective families looking to adopt a horse are also SHARE’s key public because almost every SHARE horse is a temporary resident at the shelter. This means that SHARE actively seeks loving families to adopt a horse so that they can foster other horses who have suffered from devastating instances of abuse and neglect. This public is likely apathetic since they know that they can adopt a horse from SHARE, but also recognize that adopting a horse from SHARE is a lengthy process that requires a lot of commitment and has strict guidelines as to how and where the horse can live. This audience may feel that this adoption process is quite stressful, but at the same time know a lot about horses to have the know-how care for once neglected horses and to have a SHARE horse become a member of their family.
Publics
GOALS T
he overall goal of this focused public relations strategy for the client is to improve awareness of their non-profit organization to garner financial support & increase the amount of dedicated volunteers. SHARE has few dedicated volunteers, public relations personnel and time to allocate these resources to fully to generating a specialized public relations campaign. What SHARE desperately needs is to use this to increase this awareness and funds to the organization, but they can obtain these resources by first using the few dedicated personnel they have to make horse lovers aware of this problem. SHARE does not have a place in the minds of the public and it aims to improve upon its commitment to educating horse owners about how to properly care for their horse. The client’s task goal is to implement specified public relations methods to better organization operations. In subsequent pages, this analysis will define how SHARE will garner financial support and increase the amount of dedicated SHARE volunteers to ultimately make this cause a focus in the community amongst the key publics. >>
Raise funds on a community-level to support the wellbeing of this non-profit organization.
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Educate the community about the abuse and negligence facing horses in dire situations in central Illinois.
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Attract interest horse lovers across the community to increase SHARE volunteers.
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Continue to inform hooved animal owners how to properly care for their horses, whether these animals suffer from mild instances of neglect and abuse, or are new to caring for a horse.
Overview
GOALS
Publics
HORSE lovers W
hen establishing goals for horse lovers, or horse enthusiasts, in Champaign county, it is necessary that SHARE create an interest within this public in the cause of supporting an organization that rescues, rehabilitates and prolongs the lives of hooved animals who have suffered from severe instances of abuse and negligence. Once interest is generated in this cause amongst horse enthusiasts, it is vital to the future of the organization’s mission to turn these supporters into donors and/or \volunteers so that they may assist in further educating the community and horse owners about how to properly care for horses.
loving FAMILIES I
n terms of loving families in this particular region, it is necessary that SHARE communicate the need for families who meet the strict guidelines to keeping a SHARE horse at a home to this public. It is through this that SHARE can raise the necessary funds on not just a community-level, but also to ultimately create enough space at the ranch itself so that other horses who are in need of rescue and rehabilitation have a place to live and be cared for.
OBJECTIVES Awareness
To have an effect on awareness specifically those interested in adopting a horse for their home. SHARE must make use of creative public relations techniques to find loving homes for these animals as soon as possible.
When working to have an awareness specifically those interested in captivating the interest of horse lovers. SHARE must make use of creative public relations techniques to generate interest in supporting, donating and volunteering for this cause.
Acceptance
To have an effect on acceptance, SHARE must communicate their need of financial and voluntary support known to prospective SHARE horse owners and horse lovers within the next year through viable information and specified public relations tactics.
Action
To have an effect on action, specifically how SHARE will implement creative public relations strategies and increase awareness amongst the key public, SHARE must utilize persuasive professionals and enthusiasts to find ways to reach these goals
TACTICS
I
n order to change SHARE’s current public relations situation, I recommend implementing the following strategic tactics: The first tactic I recommend is an interpersonal communications tactic that addresses all objectives. Hosting a special event, like a fundraising dinner will likely help the organization interact with the appropriate publics, and ultimately help reach the client’s goals. Since SHARE’s publics are wealthier horse lovers and families who may want to adopt a horse, they would likely be enticed to attend a dinner that not only was within their social atmosphere but also an event that raised money for abused and neglected equines. The advantage of this tactic is that it covers all objectives, and it is a fun way for SHARE to communicate their cause and need for financial and voluntary support. Whereas the disadvantage to using this tactic is that it could be costly and seem pretentious to those who are horse lovers, but do not appreciate social events. While the organization does not likely have the budget to implement this tactic, they can call out to current supporters to help host the event. Through this tactic, key audiences would be made aware because they would find out about the dinner and then for the cause. It would also make them accept this cause, since there would likely be a pitch involved at some point in the evening. And, it would also call them to action when they would buy the tickets, the proceeds would already take action towards fighting against horse negligence.
Additionally, the success of this interpersonal communications tactic will be measured by the number of tickets sold and by the crowd’s response to the event afterwards. The second tactic I recommend is an organizational tactic that addresses awareness and acceptance. By sending out invitations to horse lovers and creating a feature release for the community to spark interest in families who may be looking to adopt a horse, it would only be appropriate to send out formal invitations to the event and to write a feature release for the community section in the News Gazette. The advantage of this tactic is that everyone likes to be invited to a party. On the other hand, the disadvantage to using this tactic is that if the invitation is not printed correctly it could be perceived as spam. More importantly, it may not reach the homes of these key publics. SHARE likely has the budget and time to implement this tactic, and can measure its success by the number or people who RSVP to the invitations The third tactic I recommend is really a series of news media tactics, including a feature release, community calendar and event listing.
This tactic, which addresses the objective of awareness, will likely help SHARE interact with its appropriate public because it will be released in the social part of the News Gazette, which these key publics likely read since they probably pay extra to have the newspaper delivered to their home each day. The advantage of this tactic is that it will allow the event to get a lot of coverage in one designated section of the people where people look for things to do; however, a disadvantage to using this tactic is that it will likely be read by the general public and not a niche, targeted audience. In terms of finances, this tactic is likely feasible and the success of this specific tactic will be measured by the number of people who attend this event. The last tactic I recommend is an interpersonal tactic that will address each objective. By distributing an electronic advertisement to these specific audiences, these publics can become aware, RSVP and make a donation at the touch of their mouse pad. The advantage of this tactic is that people can automatically RSVP and make a donation using their credit cards. The disadvantage to using this tactic is that some may not want to use their credit cards to RSVP to this event. Again, SHARE likely has the funds to implement this tactic and success of this specific tactic will be measured by the number of people who attend the fundraiser.
MESSAGE
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ince this public relations campaign is centered on a fundraising dinner, the dinner itself will feature a master of ceremonies, likely a former horse trainer who adopted a SHARE horse and who is an opinion leader in the Champaign-Urbana community. This person will serve as the spokesperson for this event which will detail the struggles of being a neglected and abused horse around dinner and conversation. It is through an emotional appeal, more likely a guilt appeal, that SHARE will tap into the audience’s compassion for equines and come to support this cause at the end of this event. The primary message for this event is that when we (SHARE) share a horse, you share a home. It is about connecting the community through education, first and teaching others on how to spread awareness of horse abuse and neglect. While at the same time, the purpose of this event is to increase donatiosn, talk to the audience about adopting a SHARE horse, inform them on how to adopt a SHARE through their in-depth adoption process, or to captivate the interest of those in attendance to spend their time volunteering at this organization.
Recommendations
schedule
Tactic Implementation