PR Problem Our PR team has been hired to plan Helping Hands 50th anniversary dinner.

The purpose of this event is to raise money for the organization. We have been hired to promote the event to donors as well as the public who are interested in the organization. We must also provide event planning support and guidance for Helping Hands. Organization (Backgrounder) Located in the River West area, the organization is made up of 75 employees and 150 volunteers. Of the 75, 25 of them are full-time, 45 are part-time, and 5 are interns. The amount of volunteers working there varies from season to season. Helping Hands leadership consists of nine board members. The president is Marcus Tapscott, who went through the program when he was a teen. Kevin OReilly is the boards vice president, and the rest of the board consists of seven members that are in charge of different departments: Programming and Promotion, Finance, Housing, Education, Job Placement, Health Care Services, and Volunteer Services. The organization has partnered with the six homeless shelters in Milwaukee over the last ten years to better reach the homeless youth and the services Helping Hands provides. Mission/Vision/Values/Goals and Objectives The mission of the Helping Hands organization is much more than just helping homeless youth off the streets. Our mission is to empower the youth of Milwaukee in order to build foundations that strengthen the bonds of community. They want to give youth the empowerment and education to help end the vicious cycle of violence and homelessness. By educating, networking, volunteering, and keeping themselves healthy, they can help improve the entire city of Milwaukee. The organizations vision statement is Every youth has the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. This shows Helping

Hands truly believes in the youth they help. They want to give them opportunities they may have not had before. Each youth that participates in Helping Hand programs must know they matter and have worth. The five values of Helping Hands instill very important principles which tie into what both the mission and vision statement want to uphold. The five principles are Encourage Volunteerism, Expand Collaboration, Support Diversity, Promote Healthy Lifestyles, and Inspire Youth. If they can instill these values in the youths they reach, the youth can not only help themselves but also the community around them. The goals of Helping Hands are in three categories: volunteerism, finance, and programs. Almost all non-profit organizations could not function if it werent for their hard-working volunteers. Helping Hands is the same and each year they hope to increase the number of volunteers and opportunities for these people to assist with. Helping Hands also hopes to increase fiscally by 10% over the last year. They will attempt this number by introducing new fundraisers and community outreach programs to raise awareness for their organization. Lastly, Helping Hands will continue looking into developing new programs to help the youth coming to their organization. They will continue providing a safe environment to educate and nurture their youth. The objectives of Helping Hands are to help youth meet their goals. For the volunteerism goal they will create both a 5K run/walk this year and also increase community awareness in local high schools by implementing the Day in the Life campaign. Students will have a chance to participate in a 24 hour supervised simulation of what being homeless feels like. To help with the financial goal, Helping Hands will reach out to both local businesses and alumni of the Helping Hands programs. They will ask businesses to help sponsor the college education of exceptional youth in the Helping Hands program, which exceeds the organizations financial

ability. They will launch the Pay it Forward program which will reach out to successful alumni asking to help contribute both as a volunteer and financially to benefit the current youth in the program. The last two objectives deal with developing additional programs for the youth to participate in. Helping Hands will help sponsor a monthly health clinic for the Milwaukee community that will include check-ups, physical therapy, mental health consultation, along with sex and drug education. They will also work on developing evening programs to help keep youth off the streets of Milwaukee, creating a safer situation for the youth and for the community. Target Audience The organization, Helping Hands, has been empowering Milwaukee youth for 50 years. The tireless efforts of our association are made up of men and women who continue to give hundreds of homeless children a second chance at life. Without the generous donation of their time and assistance, this institution would not be celebrating this incredible achievement. Helping Hands has a specific target audience which includes: predominant business owners, church groups, local schools, families within the tri-county area, and lastly alums who have succeeded with help from our organization. We believe homelessness is a growing epidemic; it is our responsibility as community members to come to the aid of children in need. To put it simply, our mission is to empower the youth of Milwaukee to ultimately make them valuable, contributing members of society. Our target audience is the community as a whole. Survey The Helping Hands organization annual survey helps us gain a better understanding of our audience. Each year, we ask for input that will help us achieve our never ending goal of improving the lives of Milwaukees homeless youth. The survey touches on a variety of concerns we gather from our annual report. Specifically, we research ways to better reach the audience

and meet their demands. The inquiries include asking how our volunteers would like to see their monetary donations spent, and how their time could benefit Helping Hands. A new portion of our survey this year focused on feedback concerning our 50th celebration party. This will help us remain as dedicated and relevant to our audience as they are to us.

Talking Points The talking points were originally constructed as a way to make sure that everyone involved in the organization knew what sorts of responses to give out to media and community members with questions. With that in mind, we made sure the Helping Hands Organizations talking points were short, straightforward, and pertinent. We decided it would be best to state all important information directly related to our event, such as time, place, and activities throughout the evening. Choosing this approach worked best for us due to the fact that our event dealt heavily with the planning and promoting of a 50th anniversary party. Those involved need to be fully aware of the goings on of the event in order to advertise, as well as encourage interest and attendance.

Blog Post In our blog post, it was extremely important the Helping Hands Organization reach out and inform the audience, while attempting to connect with them by featuring our Presidents own underdog story. First, we made a point of discussing the many great things Helping Hands has to offer, including 50 years of dedication to the hundreds of Milwaukee youths that have come through Helping Hands doors looking for support regarding housing, education, job-placement, and health care. As stated previously, we followed up by tying in our President, Marcus

Tapscotts, own hardships as a youth living on the street in order to engage readers, and tie them emotionally to our cause. Lastly, we included relevant information about the event such as time, place, entertainment, and guests, so as to communicate the major details to all readers. Pitch Letter With the pitch letter we chose to invite Ms. Katrina Kravy from Fox 6 News because she is a local face that will help to get the mission of what Helping Hands does for the community out in the open for others who do not know what they do. When writing the letter, we chose to start off with all the most important information, which included what the event is about, location, time, and date. The way we went about our pitch letter was to sell the organization as well as get Ms. Kravy wanting to attend our black tie dinner event. The letter went into talking about the event and how it will be celebrating 50 years of Helping Hands as well as selling Ms. Kravy on the idea of networking with multiple prominent people within the Milwaukee community. We then went into discussing how Helping Hands has assisted the youth in the community and how they are closely connected with local business, then encouraged Ms. Kravy to attend and gave her the inside scoop to what she might expect throughout the night. This format worked best for this situation because it was short, sweet and to the point. It held the correct amount of information and was signed from the President of Helping Hands, which tells Ms. Kravy she is an important figure and he specifically would like for her to attend. Social Media Strategy When discussing our social media strategy, we really had to focus on how many social media outlets we wanted to utilize and how we wanted to go about posting information on them. When looking at our audience, we chose to work with four social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. These four were chosen because of the variety they all express,

making it more accessible to a wider audience. We chose the President and Director of Programming and Promotion to be head of our social media campaign, partnering with our PR team. We chose these two because they are well experienced and need to be kept in the loop with what is going on. The Director of Programming and Promotion has also put together a team to run the different outlets that will help with organization, as well as the process running smoothly. If there is a crisis, the team will be able to successfully handle and inform our audience with our 24/7 monitoring process we implemented on our social media sites. With our timeline, we chose this approach because it was well spaced. The campaign started a significant amount of time before our event so our audience is aware and conscious of it. Throughout the months counting down to the event day, we will slowly start to add more information to put onto our social media sites. This social media strategy works best within our situation because we are not overwhelming our audience and public with social media posts. The gradual increase will effectively gain attention, interest and will build up leading to the event.

PR Problem Helping Hands Organization is a 49 year-old non-profit organization that helps homeless youth get their feet on the ground. They offer housing, education, job-placement and health care services to homeless youth in the city of Milwaukee. They pride themselves on taking a holistic approach to service the needs of these homeless adolescents. Over 80% of youth who enter the Helping Hands Organization graduate from high school and many go on to receive a college education. Next year they will be celebrating their 50th anniversary. This is a huge milestone for this organization and they would like to throw a large party to celebrate. They want to have a very elegant feel for this event and hope to raise lots of money. Tickets for the event are $50 a plate. They have hired you to promote this event to an existing list of generous donors and the public who are interested in this organization. It is your job to promote this event and also provide event planning support/guidance internally for the organization.

Organization (Backgrounder)

75 Employees o 25 Full-time o 45 Part-time o 5 Interns

150 Volunteers o Varies from season to season

Leadership: 9 board members o Marcus Tapscott President Bachelor of Science in Political Science from St. Norberts Minor in Human Services

JD from Marquette University

o Kevin OReilly Vice President Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Ohio State University MBA from Ohio State University

o Michelle Vorgan Director of Programming and Promotion Double major in Communication and Psychology at UCLA Masters Degree in Social Work from UCLA

o Jodie Carr, CPA

Director of Finance* Bachelor of Science in Accounting from UW-Madison

o Joseph Battelle Director of Housing Double major in Theatre and Psychology at UW-Milwaukee

o Margaret Palfrey Director of Education Double major in Secondary Education and Special Education at Carroll University Masters Degree in Child Development at Carroll University

o Lee Jenkins Director of Job Placement Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from American University

o Vivian Turkle Director of Health Care Services Bachelor of Science in Public Health from UW-Oshkosh Doctorate from UW-Madison

o Charlene Rosenbaum Director of Volunteer Services Bachelor of Science in Organizational Leadership from NYU

In business for 49 years o Private

o Partnered with homeless shelters in Milwaukee Works with all six homeless shelters in the city Partnering for the last ten years Working together in order to better reach the homeless youth, providing them with the services Helping Hands offers. We have implemented the organizations programs into the shelters to better connect with and aid the teens there. Company Culture o Second chances o Core Values Respect Achievement Caring Determination Growth Family Integrity Honesty Service

o Paying it forward Many of the teens that have gone through our system now work either for Helping Hands or for homeless shelters, using their experiences to

reach out to others who are in a similar situation. It is one of our goals to not only teach our teens how to improve their own lives but others as well. Location o River West area

Mission Statement: Our mission is to empower the youth of Milwaukee in order to build foundations that strengthen the bonds of community. Values: Encourage Volunteerism Expand Collaboration Support Diversity Promote Healthy Lifestyles Inspire Youth Vision Statement: Every youth has the opportunity to achieve their fullest potential and

participate in and contribute to all aspects of life. Goals: 1. Increase amount of yearly volunteers and volunteer opportunities throughout the organization. 2. Exceed donations by 10% of last fiscal year by community outreach and fundraising. 3. Create new programs for youth within a safe environment to nurture, educate, and instill family values. Objectives: Create a new fundraising event: 5k run/walk along riverfront in downtown Milwaukee Connect with local schools and higher education institutions in Milwaukee area to increase awareness by having students participate in Day in the Life campaign Establish a sponsorship program with local businesses and citizens to support exceptional youth that exceed organizational limits. Launching the Pay it Forward campaign in order for alumni to contribute and benefit to the lives of incoming and at-risk youth. Initiate monthly health clinic that includes check-ups, physical therapy, mental health counseling, and sex and drug education. Integrate programs throughout the day and into evening in order to keep youth off the streets and away from negative influences.

Helping Hands Target Audience The organization Helping Hands has been empowering Milwaukee youth for 50 years. The tireless efforts of our association made up of men and women who continue to give hundreds of homeless children a second chance at life. Without the generous donation of their time and assistance from volunteers across the Milwaukee area this institution would not be celebrating this incredible achievement. Helping Hands has a specific target audience, which includes; predominant business owners, church groups, local schools, families within the tri-county area, and lastly alums who have succeeded with help from our organization. We believe homelessness is a growing epidemic; it is our responsibility as community members to come to the aid of children in need. To put it simply our mission is to empower the youth of Milwaukee, to ultimately make them valuable contributing members of society. Our target audience is the community as a whole.

Questions for Survey 1. In what ways would you be most likely to be involved with the Helping Hands organization? __monetary donations __food donations __clothing donations __volunteer services __not at this time __other:__________________________

2. How would you like to receive updates about the Helping Hands organization? __email __mailed newsletter __other:_________________________

3. If you are one of our sponsors would you like to know where your contributions are going? __yes

__no __not applicable 4. If no how important is it to you to know where your donations are being used? __5 very important __4 important __3 neutral __2 not important __1 no interest 5. How aware are you of what the Helping Hands organizations does for the greater Milwaukee area? __4 very aware __3 aware __2 have an idea __ 1 not aware

6. How would you like to receive your invitation to the Helping Hands organizations 50th anniversary celebration? __e-vite (e-mail)

__post card __formal invitation 7. Would you be interested in participating in the following activities (check all that apply): __silent auction __raffle __date auction 8. What type of dinner option would you prefer? __buffet __plate entre __no preference

9. What type of entertainment would you prefer?: __live band __Disc Jockey __live performances __no preference

10. What social media site do you utilize for the Helping Hands organization event information? __Facebook __Twitter __4 Square __Tumblr __YouTube __Word Press Blog __helpinghands.org

Talking Points

1.) The Helping Hands black tie dinner event will take place on January 12 at 5 pm. 2.) The event schedule for the evening is as followings, 5 pm: cocktail hour, 6 pm: dinner, entertainment and silent auction to follow. 3.) The event will take place at the Milwaukee Art Museum. 4.) The event will celebrate 50 years of helping homeless youth grow and achieve greatness in society. 5.) The event will feature guest speaker, Donald Driver, former NFL wide receiver of the Green Bay Packers. Driver will speak about his captivating life story as a homeless youth. 6.) The event will bring together numerous donors and prominent local figures, as well as graduates, employees, and volunteers of the Helping Hands organizations. 7.) The Helping Hands 50th celebration will be a black tie dress code. 8.) The event will feature local DJ Dittle Myskittle and ya boi Juicy Froot. Fundraising events of the night will be a silent auction as well as a raffle. 9.) A surprise unveiling will occur at the end of the night.

Helping Hands Celebrates 50th Anniversary! The Helping Hands Organization is an association that has done so much for my life; it has given me the resources to help others who were in my situation, and it has given hope to hundreds of youths throughout Milwaukee. With your constant support we have made it here, 50 years of funding has provided, housing, education, job-placement, and health care services. Together we have saved lives. As most of you know I lived on the streets of Milwaukee for most of my childhood. Each day was a battle against crime and drugs. It wasnt until I was given the opportunity of a better life I met two volunteers Jeff and Tom. They selflessly gave up their time to help me find a place to live, a school to attend; they helped create who I am today. I promised myself I would give back the opportunities I had received. Establishing Helping Hands, I knew I wanted it to be founded on the values of faith and a sense of community. We hope to nurture the potential, improve health and instill a sense of community amongst at risk youth so that one day they might be able to give back to this organization and the community. I thank you all for your continued support. A few months from now, we will celebrate the past 50 years, the lives we have made an impact on and those who we have not yet met. To the next 50 years. To celebrate, we will be holding an anniversary gala. You wont want to miss out on this event! Everyone involved in the organization will be there, including some awesome special guests. Itll be your chance to catch up with those you havent seen in a while, and take part in all the activities we have to offer. The Helping Hands black tie dinner event will take place on January 12 at the Milwaukee Art Museum right on the lakefront in downtown Milwaukee. Be sure to get your drink on at 5pm during the cocktail hour! There will be dinner and various entertainments such as a raffle, silent auction, and Milwaukees very own DJs Dittle Myskittle and Ya Boi Juicy Froot to follow. Stick around to see former Green Bay Packer, Donald Driver, speak about his captivating story as a homeless youthand maybe if you ask nicely, he could teach you some jaw dropping moves from his Dancing With the Stars days! If all of this doesnt make you want to attend, at the end of the night we will have a SURPRISE unveilingany guesses on what it could be? I guess youll have to come to find out! For any questions, comments, or concerns, dont hesitate to call the Helping Hands organization directly at 414-555-3825, or visit our website at helpinghands.org. Hope to see you there!

Marcus Tapscott President

April 10, 2013 Ms. Katrina Kravy Fox 6 News 9001 N. Green Bay Road Milwaukee, WI 53209

Dear Ms. Kravy, Music, food, and sports, come sample the vibrant Milwaukee culture. On January 12, 2014 the Helping Hands organization is holding a black tie affair at the Milwaukee Art Museum starting at 5:00pm. During the night guests will be able to participate in silent auctions, a raffle, and a cocktail hour to socialize with prominent community members. The event will celebrate 50 years of helping homeless youth grow and achieve greatness in society. It will also bring together numerous donors and prominent local figures, as well as graduates, employees, and volunteers of the Helping Hands organization. For the last 50 years the Milwaukee community has been instrumental in the success of Helping Hands helping youth get back on their feet and giving them opportunities to grow personally and professionally. Helping Hands is strongly dedicated to the Milwaukee homeless youth and has partnered up with local businesses that are vital to the success of our organization. We encourage you to attend this event in hopes that you will cover all the great things we have to offer including our keynote speaker, Former Green Bay Packer Donald Driver speak about his captivating story as a homeless youthand maybe if you ask nicely, he could teach you some jaw dropping moves from his Dancing With the Stars days. Concluding the night we will announce our surprise unveiling which will surely impress and excite the Milwaukee community. Thank you for your time, we hope you are able to attend our event. Sincerely,

Marcus Tapscott President 414-542-3786 mtapscott@helpinghands.org

Social Media Strategy: To advertise for our campaign, we will be utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to reach our publics. We have chosen these channels of social media because they are popular among the range of people we are inviting and they are interconnected as well. Pictures taken on Instagram can be shared on both Facebook and Twitter, and the same can be said for videos posted on YouTube. Tweets can also be shared on Facebook. This interconnectedness allows for those who do not have one kind of social media to still view the pictures or tweets because of sharing. Our President, Marcus Tapscott, as well as Michelle Vorgan, our Director of Programming and Promotion will be in charge of the social media campaign. Michelle has put together a team to run the different outlets to create buzz and awareness for the event. Michelle also has a crisis team that consists of eight Helping Hands employees breaking down into two members per social media site, partnering with our PR team. To help minimize negative feedback, comments will have to be approved on Facebook and comments will be disabled on YouTube. We will have in place 24/7 monitoring on both Twitter and Instagram to reply to negative activity. Such comments will be responded to in 24 hours, however if there is profanity it will be deleted and then there will be a statement made. If negative comments escalate, we will directly message the sender, and ask them for input for future situations so that they feel included and important. Social media will be updated at least twice a week during the beginning stages of our campaign. Then in the months leading up to our event, we will steadily increase the amount of information shared on that media. Our timeframe will be an eight-month continuum. At 8 months prior to our Helping Hands event, we will be posting our Save the Date announcements on Facebook and Twitter. This will be the start of reminding our audience about our black tie dinner event. When it comes to six months out we will send out invitations to our audience in the mail as well as start to post media updates via Facebook and Twitter. We will start promoting our hashtag, #BlackTie50 on our Twitter and Instagram pages four months prior to the Helping Hands event. Also around the four-month marker we will post our YouTube campaign video with Donald Driver announcing his excitement to be able to help out a cause that touches him so close to home. There will be weekly photos being introduced on Instagram as well as a blog post by the Chairman announcing how he is very much excited about this event and reiterating how it can help so many youth in Milwaukee. With two months out before our event there will be the start of a countdown with daily pictures on Twitter and Facebook, giving snapshots of highlights before the day comes. Also within the one-week before the Helping Hands event, there will be promotions to get people

involved, excited, and reminded about the big day. One of the promotions will say, First fifty people to show up at [insert local business name here] will receive five raffle tickets to go towards our drawing during the event! There will also be multiple tweets a day as well as emphasizing the need to retweet our followers. Retweeting shows our audience that we are seeing, hearing, and acknowledging the things that they have to say about our event. There will also be one last blog post by the Chairman as well during that week. Our strategy will be successful because were not overwhelming our public with social media posts. Instead it will be a gradual increase and will effectively gain attention, interest and build up leading up to the event. By utilizing multiple media outlets we will succeed in grasping the attention of our wide audience.