4Hope Agency

4 Hope Agency Team

Meagan Finucane- Executive Director and Editor

Jessica Bullitt- Research and Media Director

Jake Jenkins- Research and Evaluation Director

 Table of Contents

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….

Situational Analysis……………………………………………………………………………...

Campaign Planning……………………………………………………………………………

Campaign Execution………………………………………………………………………………

Campaign Evaluation…………………………………………………………………………

Final Budget and Schedule……………………………………………………………………

Lessons Learned………………………………………………………………………………

About the Agency………………………………………………………………………………

Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………………….
I. Introduction

Dr. E. Robinson once said a PR practitioner is “An applied social and behavioral

scientist. Problem solving is the most powerful tool available to the applied practitioner.” As PR

practitioners, it is our task to react and anticipate an organization’s unforeseen problems as we

work to deliver solutions. Agency 4Hope began the problem solving process for March of Dimes

with four steps: Defining the problem, planning and programming, taking action and

communicating, and finally evaluation. The need to create a campaign arose as the series of

strategic messages we developed oriented into short goals from beginning to end for our client,

March of Dimes.

Campaigns overall are imperative to every organization as they help to build

relationships, solve problems, organize information, test tools and evaluate methods of that

organization. As PR practitioners, we use theoretical concepts through a proposal to identify the

operations and objects of our client. After we have developed strategies and then tested our

tactics, we evaluate the work we have completed. We provide resources to our client that

provide ways to strengthen the channels that allow communication to be interchanged both

internally and externally.

Specifically, nonprofits need campaigns to strengthen their programs and keep

relationships due to the dependent outputs they assist. Due to the lack of resources and

manpower most nonprofits face, they are not always able to provide help and reach their desired

public as one would hope. Campaigns are an excellent way for nonprofits to build relationships

and trust within their environment while working to spread action, awareness and acceptance of

the organization.
 4Hope agency was created to assist local clients like March of Dimes who are seeking

assistance in the Lafayette community. By creating a strategic campaign for our client, we have

worked to actively address the observed and identified problems of our client.

We will now provide a detailed description of our campaign and how it was executed.

II. Situational Analysis

4Hope Agency began this campaign by conducting formative research and in-depth

analysis on our client, March of Dimes. With an understanding of the culture, mission, audience

and work this nonprofit provides nationwide, we were able to approach this campaign with a

strategic planning mindset, ready to take on the challenges that laid ahead. Our research allowed

us to think critically about ways to help bring awareness and volunteers to March of Dimes. This

eighty year old life-saving nonprofit provides hope, strength and stability to many mothers and

babies who lack financial stability and knowledge of the resources that would enable them to

receive help. By mothers not being aware of the resources provided to them through March of

Dimes, many families are impacted by the detrimental birth defects, premature births and infant

mortality. It was very apparent once researching the community and speaking to local businesses

about their lack of knowledge about this nonprofit. Many were stunned to learn that ​prematurity

is the #1 killer of babies in the United States and March of Dimes is working daily to change

that and help more moms have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies. From polio to

prematurity March of Dimes has focused on researching the problems that threaten mothers and

children, actively finding ways to prevent these life or death situations. ​The lack of awareness
and manpower internally needed to spread the word about March of Dimes was a major setback

for this nonprofit.

Agency 4Hope first conducted research which assisted in processing and planning what

we wanted to achieve and deliver by the end of thoure campaign. Our team decided the best way

to address the identified local problems March of Dimes faces was to focus on building a strong

future. As our research pointed, the Lafayette and West Lafayette communities are rapidly

growing with new families, new business developments and elders looking to reside in town. We

saw this as the perfect opportunity to use these three publics as potential donors and volunteers to

actively work to spread awareness to other members of the Lafayette community.

Our passion to spread March of Dimes’ mission (which is comprised of medical research,

education of pregnant women, community programs, government advocacy, and the support of

pregnant women and mothers) grew as we spoke with members of the community who had been

impacted by March of Dimes. Having a first person perspective allowed our group to see

first-handedly how the community could be further impacted if they had gained more awareness

of March of Dimes.

Our Campaign

Our campaign addressed March of Dimes with five major components of strategic planning.

First, defined the mission, and created ways to explain the community why they exist, what is

their primary purpose and what output are they providing the community. Next, we analyzed the

current condition of the nonprofit. Knowing the lack of awareness and resources were key

indicators of the nonprofits success, we sought to provide ways the nonprofit could expand their

resources to the Lafayette community. We then conducted a scanning the environment and
prioritized who was critical to address. From class lecture, learning the market is not static, it’s

dynamic, helped our agency to keep our actions and plans in perspective. Our next strategic plan

was identifying where we wanted to go with the campaign with the noted strengths and

weaknesses we had identified. Finally the last step in our strategic plan was how we planned to

get to achieve our goals and objectives.

Overall, we have created our campaign based on the needs and issues our strategic plan

helped us to identify. We worked to develop ways to implement change for our client with hope

we would have an increase of awareness and participation of volunteers in the Lafayette

community. Currently, according to our client, March of Dimes locally is trying to increase

participation through small fundraising and outreach events; however; this does not seem to be

doing enough. Through our research 4Hope Agency decided to hone in on this issue and tackle it

in a few different manners. First, we are planning to create general awareness of March of Dimes

in the Lafayette community. We created information tactics that included information about the

nonprofit. We held an event that was targeted for mothers and local businesses to learn ways that

as residents of the Lafayette area are able to provide help to March of Dimes. The information

we created were given out to attendees at our event which included packets to families,

businesses and organizations, inviting them to learn more and become better equip to either

volunteer or monetarily support the nonprofit.

Our client has also expressed the importance of community building, which is one of the

problems the organization is facing. Due to the lack of understanding among residents, there is a

lack of volunteers, lack of resources, community attention and involvement individualized to

Lafayette’s branch of March of Dimes. As an agency, we tackled this problem through a

community event. By identifying various publics that we can educate, we believed this would

provide people the necessary information needed to become interested and willing to devote time

or money toward the nonprofit. Through resources, we identified local businesses in Lafayette

that may not have been aware of March of Dimes, they included: YMCA, local libraries, small

shops and schools, Our hope was that this event would be an opportunity to both educate and

unite the community through a March of Dimes info session. We targeted specific publics that

would be ideal users of the nonprofit, including mothers and pregnant women of the community

through “mommy and me” programs. ​Our effort and plan for this event ties back to how we

are trying to solve both our client’s needs and the local Lafayette communities needs of

receiving more volunteers through the empowerment of knowledge.​ In this planned event, we

exemplified how one's donation of time, money and treasure were useful to March of Dimes.

We provided ways people are ​able to participate to help those in need include: donating,

matching gifts (companies will match the donation employees give), becoming a part of the

President’s Society (if you donate more than $1,000 then you are part of this society, sort of like

a membership program) or even participating in marches like the local March for Babies on May

6, at Jefferson High School. ​March of Dimes focuses on community involvement while

addressing health inequities bringing to life their overall vision which is: “To improve the health

of mothers and babies through: education on healthy pregnancy; prenatal care and other services

to reduce the risk of premature birth and other poor birth outcomes; and support for families

whose babies need specialized care in the NICU.” ​March of Dimes,​ (2014, October 28​).

Community Impact.​ Retrieved from​ ​https://www.marchofdimes.org/mission/about-us.aspx

III. Campaign Planning

 Our main goal for this campaign was to increase awareness and action of March of

Dimes’ mission to foster strong relationships with identified local publics in the Lafayette

community.

After identifying our client, we established contact internally with a few key members. Our

primary contact for this campaign was March of Dimes Development Specialist, Kaila

Hoffsteter. Her knowledge of the nonprofit allowed us to understand the steady decrease of

participation within the Lafayette community. Participation was lacking in three specific areas

which included: fundraising, volunteers, and in events like their annual March for Babies which

originated here in Lafayette. Members of the community are not aware of the events like these

due to little to no advertising and sparse community outreach. Overtime, the lack of awareness

has built distrust between the organization and its publics. Therefore, our campaign’s goal was

formed to re-establish trust within the community by educating people about the services of

March of Dimes. Our actions were focused upon starting to include the community and its

various publics more regularly. We had achieved this by creating events like our our community

education awareness occasion where we sought to gather various publics together to inform the

community of March of Dimes. This was also was an opportunity for local members to mingle

and become familiar with people who share the same interest and needs as patrons of Lafayette.

In order to further achieve our primary goal of the campaign, we created nine objectives outlined

and explained below.

IV. Campaign Objectives & Execution

The elements of our campaign was centered around clearly identifying the problems and

goals of our campaign. As we learned in lecture, we must clearly identify and be aware of the
messages that our identified public(s) would consume. We must also be aware of the concise and

clarity of messages and tools we were planning to use to convey our messages to these specific

publics. How well we tailored our campaign to available resources (human and financial)

allowed us to conduct an honest appraisal of what we hoped our campaign would accomplish.

Agency 4Hope began by identifying problems and creating a concise statement that

would allow us to approach the goals and objectives of our campaign. Our problem statement

was ​Through our formative research, we identified that the Lafayette branch of March of Dimes

is currently lacking strong relationships with its various publics in the Lafayette community. In

turn, this is adversely affecting the success of the nonprofit and causing there to be a lessened

amount of volunteers and resources available for mothers and babies in need.

After we created this problem statement we began the to create the specific goals objectives of

our campaign. Learning in lecture that campaigns begin and end with research in a cyclical

motion, we referred back to our formative research conducted in the first few weeks of our

campaign. Meeting with our client allowed us to create a broad end point we would work toward

until reaching the conclusion of our campaign. After creating our campaign’s objectives and

goals, we tested if they stood up to answer the five questions we learned in lecture: First, do they

clearly describe the end result expected? Second, are they understandable by everyone in the

organization? Third, do we have a completion date? Four, are our goals realistic and attainable?

And fifth, is it consistent with our management objective? These questions help guide us the

multiple tools and strategies we created for our campaign. Our process and outcome objectives

were then developed as we planned ways to communicate and influence behavior in the
Lafayette community. The rationale behind all these strategies and tools were to accomplish our

goals, objectives and overall problem statement.

Objectives:

1. One objective is to establish a relationship with two contacts that are a part of the lafayette

community by our event date. April 15.

Rationale​: Building a relationship with the community will allow March of Dimes to grow and

build further contacts with the local members of Lafayette.

Execution​: Agency 4Hope researched and cultivated a relationship with a local Registered Nurse

and proponent of March of Dimes, Jeanne Wilton. She currently works at Riggs Community

Center and specializes in ​Prenatal Women’s Health. Jeanne shared in a personal interview about

her background with March of Dimes for the past thirty year. And the life saving impact March

of Dimes provides her patients daily. Jeanne spoke at our event, sharing her experiences working

with March of Dimes and provided attendees ways to get involved with the nonprofit in the

community. Jeanne’s presence was impactful on the community as it allowed attendees to see

first-hand how March of Dimes works to help the community.

Our primary client, Kaila, had notified our group four days before the execution of our

event that she had resigned from her role as Development Specialist for March of Dimes. We

immediately contacted Kaila’s new replacement, Jeff, who was not able to make the trip down

from Indianapolis for our event. The promised attendees and partners that were confirmed to

attend our event had not followed through and did not attend our event due to the absence of

our client’s attendance. Although this seemed to be a setback in our campaign, we had kept

other contact relationships close such as Jeanne from Riggs. We also took this as an opportunity
to reach out to the headquarters of March of Dimes in Indianapolis and connected with

Fundraising Specialist, Jenna Siela. Our agency created a feature story that would be shared to

social media platforms and families involved with March of Dimes. This story was also shared at

our educational event bringing attention and awareness to the impact March of Dimes has on

both the community and at a national level.

2. Our second objective was to create five ways to highlight March of Dimes beneficial

work they provide to the local Lafayette community by the end of our campaign.

Rationale​: The variety of tools used guarantees that publics will be drawn to at least one

to create credibility and trust with the organization.

Execution​: Prior to our event, we planned to advertise with a media kit including

information about March of Dimes. This media kit would be given to local businesses and would

include a flyer, an infographic, a feature story about someone who works for or was impacted by

March of Dimes research, and ways to sign up to participate in events like the March for Babies

in May. We believed these would be effective as part of our communication strategies because

they were message based persuasion methods. This method of persuasion used to entice people

to our event and educate them is the “change of behavior by disseminating information. This

attempts to influence behavior by changing attitudes”. The information we released through

those various tools as mentioned below.

The flyer and infographic were very factual and meant to persuade through logic. The

infographic mentioned drastic facts that would hopefully change someone’s perspective on the

severity of premature births and the part March of Dimes plays to help the problem. These facts

would then entice them to do more such as come to our event or volunteer. The flyer was meant
to inform the public about our event and what they could expect. This would hopefully tempt

them to want to learn more by coming to our event.

Another tool we used to persuade and inform people about March of Dimes was the

feature story created on Jeena Siela, a Fundraiser Specialist who works out of the Indianapolis

office for March of Dimes. Although we were not able to reach any media outlets to get this

story posted. Were were able to send it to Jeanne Wilton from Riggs Hospital, Jeff Johnson the

new Development Specialist for March of Dimes and Jeena Siela, the Fundraising Specialist we

created the feature story about.

Another method of persuasion we created was the creation of a social media account for

March of Dimes for Lafayette’s specific publics. We saw this as a way to highlight the work of

March of Dimes in a centralized location with easy access. This information shared on social

media would make the public feel more involved and aware so they are more willing to get

involved.

Finally, the last way we informed the public about March of Dimes was through our

educational event presentation. Our event consisted of various facts and games that would

educate the audience about March of Dimes. Our goal was for all this information to entice

people to change their behavior by seeing the cause they could contribute to. That concludes 5

ways of informing the public about March of Dimes.

3. Our next objective is to disseminate 8 facts about March of Dimes through various

mediums to educate our publics by our event.

Rationale​: We want to disseminate eight facts in order to solve the problem of lack of

education and awareness of March of Dimes and their mission.

 Execution​: We used the infographic and event to educate the public. The infographic had

six facts on it that ranged from national problems and March of Dimes solutions to local ones.

Having a wide variety of facts would hopefully show readers how helpful our client is on all

levels, and to point out their work in the area. It’s also important to show them the problem exists

in Tippecanoe County as well so getting involved will only help their community. The event had

other facts about March of Dimes and their work. It also contained videos of babies who

received our clients care including one here in Lafayette. This was another way to show our

audience how relevant March of Dimes is.

4. The fourth objective we created was to have three different mediums advertise our

event a week before it occurred.

Rationale​: By using different mediums to advertise our event, we would be able to reach as

many people as possible. We would also be using this advertisement as a way to build credibility

with our identified publics as it was earned instead of paid for by the client.

Execution​: We achieved our objective by reaching out to various mediums on print, online and

in person advertising tactics. Our contacts included large and small businesses in Lafayette such

as YMCA and posting on our curated social media account such as Facebook. We also

advertised on a local blog for parents and children called Macaroni Kid. This local blog is

specific for Lafayette highlighting different events put on throughout the community. Our last

form of social promotion was on the Indiana March of Dimes Facebook page. This would help

inform people who already followed the activities of our client and would be more willing to

participate.
 5. Our fifth objective was set to test our event’s effectiveness and impact on the local

community. This was conducted through a post-survey to those who attended the event. Overall,

we hoped to see a 30% increase of knowledge based on the survey results.

Rationale​: The survey will be used to help garner how effective our campaign was in

educating the local community about March of Dimes.

Execution​: Due to the low attendance at our event however, we were only able to get one

survey taker. It was from a family, a mother and her son who had said they increase their

knowledge of March of Dimes by 50% from our presentation.

6.The sixth objective was to create a communications intern position for the Lafayette

March of Dimes Area by the end of our campaign.

Rational​: This position is crucial for March of Dimes as it struggles to reach various

publics due to the lack of manpower and volunteers in the community. By creating this position,

March of Dimes would be able to use this intern to create and present material to the community

both on social media platforms and in-person meetings. The intern position would be for college

students which would allow another public to be included in learning about March of Dimes

resources in the Lafayette Area.

Execution​: Our client had expressed that due to the lack of manpower and financial cuts

the nonprofit has recently faced, local assignments such as the Lafayette and surrounding areas

are lacking March of Dimes representatives. Currently, the regional representative is assigned

more than one city so commitment to educating and helping just Lafayette has dwindled. Our

agency sought to tackle this problem by creating this intern position which would allow more

time dedicated to giving the Lafayette area the attention it deserves by planning events, running
local social media, and educating families about March of Dimes resources. Our strategy for this

position was to create an appealing and informative application notice that would be sent out to

advisors at colleges like Purdue, along with being posted online at the March of Dimes website.

For this position we created an application listing the job requirements and expectations.

In order to remain in touch with the community, our agency created two social media

platforms:Facebook and Twitter along with a gmail account which would allow the new intern to

use during their time with March of Dimes. These social media accounts would keep people

involved and engaged with the community and stay up to date on trends and events, too.

Finally, we created a social media plan and newsletter outline for the intern to implement

once beginning their position. These necessary resources would allow the community to remain

in touch with news and ways to get involved or even donate to the nonprofit. Our materials will

be handed to the interns program supervisor, Jeff Johnson at the end of our campaign as he seeks

to find a new intern.

7. The seventh objective is to create at least one social media platform for the March of

Dimes in Lafayette and gain 25 new followers by the end of the campaign.

Rationale​: We wanted a way to keep the local community engaged and up to date with

information regarding local and national March of Dimes news. By creating two social media

platforms: Facebook and Twitter we were able to foster the strong lasting relationships being

cultivated online.

Execution​: We created 2 platforms of social media, Facebook and Twitter, for March of

Dimes in the Lafayette Area. We believed these would effective for the audiences we were

targeting. These are also great platforms to disseminate information for the future. We also
created a Gmail account in order for the communities members to get in touch with the intern if

they were to have any questions.

Unfortunately, we have not yet reached the 25 new followers on these social media

accounts;however, we hope that the new intern and Development Specialist,will be excellent

resources to promote these platforms.

8. Our eighth objective was to receive ten sign ups for a monthly newsletter which would

have periodic updates about March of Dimes throughout the year.

Rationale​: This newsletter will create a lasting relationship and build trust with local

community members. By keeping people informed, there will be a stronger willingness to

volunteer ones time, treasures and talents to the nonprofit.

Execution​:Our goal was to use our event as the way we would receive sign up for the

newsletter. We planned to get these new sign ups at our event but due to its low attendance we

were not able to do so. However, we were still able to create a strong outline for the

implementation of a newsletter for our client to use monthly.

9. Our final objective was to receive ten new volunteers for the March for Babies event

on May 6th 2018.

Rationale​: We hoped our campaign would reach enough people that would be interested

in volunteering their time to march for this special cause. Getting volunteers will increase

involvement and commitment within the community. The march represents a “foot in the door”

technique allowing people to become engaged with the events March of Dimes puts on in the

future.
 Execution​: Unfortunately, due to the low participation and attendance at our event we

were not able to achieve this objective. Our hope is that our new social media platforms can

promote the need of volunteers to the community in a greater capacity.

V. Campaign Evaluation

There are few elements of our campaign that we were not able to accomplish due to a few

factors which included an overestimate of the time and resources we had for this campaign. First,

we were not able to create a video interview as planned with our primary client contact, Kaila.

Her schedule was not amenable to the times we suggested to meet. Additionally she was slow to

respond and required two to three times being probed to answer our even the first email we sent.

Second, the cost of a videographer was too expensive for our budget. Our agency had no

experience building a film so hiring outside help was essential. Instead, our client did provide us

with newly branded content from March of Dimes to share with attendees of our event. The

main purpose of this video we would have created was to help rebrand March of Dimes so that

the local community could feel a part of its mission. Third, due to the rebranding of March of

Dimes we were not able to order the merchandise we planned to have for our educational event.

These marketing materials, such as buttons and pens, were going to be used as give-aways at our

event. Instead, we used our budget money to purchase prizes for attendees at our event. These

included small spa items that mothers could use to pamper themselves after a long day. Finally,

the last element of our campaign that we were not able to execute was actually sending the

created press release to local media stations.

It was not ideal that our client had resigned from her role as Development Specialist four

days before the planned event, leaving us little time to gather other contacts to potentially attend.
As a result of our client's resignation, and after we reached out to other contacts at March of

Dimes, Jeanne Wilton, RN Neonatal nurse at Riggs Community Center was the only contact able

to attend our event. Her presence at our e​vent was a success as she had the opportunity to

connect with the mother and child that attended our event on a personal level.

We have learned that part of becoming PR practitioners includes being adaptable to

unforeseeable situation. Our campaigns original objective was to evaluate the knowledge gained

of the attendees that partook in our educational event. Due to low attendance our agency was not

able to use this as a clear objective without receiving biased results from our small crowd.

Instead, we focussed decided to look at the material creation and contacts built within the

community for the new March of Dimes Development Specialist, Jeff.

Our agency did face many setbacks throughout our campaign; however, we were still

able to create material that can be used to educate and recruit volunteers for the March of Dimes.

The created internship description is a major success to our campaign as this new role

will help Jeff balance the workload he is responsible for on a day-to-day basis. The intern will be

used to help in any capacity needed especially as the new social media accounts become used

more often.

The other tactics were able to create for our campaign included an infographic that

highlights national and local issues of March of Dimes, a feature story with a Financial

Developer Specialist from the national March of Dimes headquarters. This local story will help

the communities feel more connected with the organization and their work.

Finally, the last major success of our campaign was building a relationship with RN

Jeanne Wilton. This thirty year supporter and advocate of March of Dimes shared some of her
stories and experiences using March of Dimes support as a nurse. Riggs Community Center has

cultivated a partnership with March of Dimes due to Jeanne’s involvement and impact in the

community. Her words were honest and true as she spoke at our event how March of Dimes

saves the lives of so many of her daily patients due to the help of prenatal research and care.

VI. Final Schedule and Budget

 Our March of Dimes campaign was a success in increasing knowledge, awareness and

attitude change in the Lafayette Community. We were able to create nine different usable tactics

for our client and come in under budget. The original plan for our budget was spent creating

materials like hiring a videographer, creating promotional materials and spending more money
on food and drink. Through research and analysis, we found that we could reach our specific

target audiences through printed material instead which is where our money was then spent.

We had saved money on renting a room for free from the Tippecanoe County Library

instead of a coffee shop off campus. This room provided all necessities we needed for our event

and invited more families to attend, too.

With the grant money, we used it to print material to hand to businesses and local

families to educate them about March of Dimes. The other cost was spent on food and drink to

provide for families we entertained at our event. We created fun incentives to participate in our

events activities which created an energetic and dynamic learning atmosphere.

The campaign would not have been successful without this grant as we were able to

create professional and memorable material for our client, March of Dimes.
 We came in under budget and did not use all of our grant money with 407.50 left in our

account.

VII. Lessons Learned

A key part of any campaign’s post-mortem evaluation is an honest analysis of what

failed. Even more important than this analysis, however, are the lessons learned from those

failures. It is vital to the success of future campaigns that the agency takes a step back, removes

any personal attachment to the tools and tactics utilized, and takes a sincere look at what failed.

This is done so these mistakes can be avoided in campaigns to come, each one becoming

iteratively stronger than the last.

There were plenty of lessons to be learned from this campaign, both individually and for

the agency as a whole. The crux of most of these issues involved our over-ambition regarding the

scope of this campaign. Because we as an agency felt passionate about doing the most we could

for the organization we chose, we devoted ourselves to coming up with as many tactics as

possible to achieve our goal of increasing community engagement with the March of Dimes.

Unfortunately, we overshot with our planning and ended up unable to accomplish most of what

we had planned to do. This was not because of lack of hard work, each member of this group put
in plenty of effort to make this campaign happen, but because of our overambitious list of tactics.

As an agency consisting of three full-time students, we dedicated all the time we possibly could

to this campaign, but that time still proved to be just under what would be needed to fully

implement the list of tactics we had planned for. This was the first lesson we learned from this

campaign, we needed to develop a plan not only suited to our ambitions for the organization but

also suited to the time and energy we had access to. In the future, when we are public relations

professionals, this will not be as much of an issue because we won’t have multiple classes vying

for our attention, but the concept of budgeting for both money and time is a valuable insight

regardless.

The next most important lesson will always be applicable, however, throughout our

careers as public relations practitioners. When we initially reached out to the local chapter of

March of Dimes we had success in contacting the representative almost immediately. Because

we had yet to hear back from any of the other potential clients for our agency, we took a leap of

faith and stuck with the March of Dimes. This proved to be a fallacious ideology when our only

contact with the organization quit after weeks of us being unable to contact her. This led to a

massive setback on our already full calendar of tactics, causing us to scramble for a new contact

which we eventually found but by then it was all but too late for the campaign. In hindsight, it

would have been best to establish multiple points of contact with the organization so we had a

failsafe in case this exact nightmare scenario occurred. We were focused on the impact we would

have on the community which admittedly was shortsighted considering the fact that any impact

we would have had on the community all but hinged on our contact with the March of Dimes due

to our acting on their behalf.

 In addition to the lessons learned by the agency as a whole, each of us learned our own

personal lessons from this campaign that we can and will take to our future careers as public

relations professionals. Below are the individual lessons learned as recounted by the members of

the agency.

Meagan​: This campaign had taught me a great deal about planning, trial and error,

learning from my mistakes and the impact we can have as students on the community. Leading

this campaign was a great learning experience that taught me that preparing for unforeseen

events is key to success. Knowing your audience and conducting research throughout the

campaign is necessary as you learn more as you go along with the campaign. Being aware of the

work ability of your teammates and the time were were given to complete our planned objectives

were simply overestimated. I had hoped to have a larger turnout at our event, but instead of

dwelling on the low attendance, I am so proud of the work we were able to provide our client.

I gained life-long skills and put my PR knowledge to work as we created this campaign.

Looking back on the events that transpired left our team at times unsure of where to put our time

and energy. However, we were resilient and managed to create usable and relevant materials for

our client, build relationships within the community and spread March of Dimes’ mission to the

Lafayette public.

Jessie: ​Although the end result is not what we expected, I have learned a vast array of

tips I can apply to future campaigns. This was my first campaign so every step of the way was a

new experience. However, that means along the way, I gained valuable knowledge about

planning and executing campaigns, working with a client, and even a little about myself as a PR

practitioner.
 In this recent campaign, I learned how time-consuming they are. There was no taking a

few days off because there was always an email to send or a tactic to make. You always have to

be thinking about how to make it better and make adjustments as they are needed. This was one

of my greatest challenges which were balancing all my commitments and jobs. However, we are

all busy so this was never an excuse and it just needed to be a priority.

My next challenge was learning how to reach out to the community and not feeling

rejected if the majority didn’t respond. Only thirty percent of the public receives the intended

messages so this should have been no surprise. However, after doing hard work and it not having

the intended effect was frustrating. It could feel futile at points but I had to remember how

important the cause was and it’s my job to try my best, even if it isn’t successful in the end.

Finally, one of my biggest challenges is having the confidence to take on all aspects of

this campaign. I know what I am good at and what I am not but this often stopped me from doing

the work that needed to be done. However, this project made me realize I have to overcome this

because it is a team effort and I have to be able to do all parts in order for it to be a successful

campaign. For instance, I am not usually good at visual design tactics but I had to overcome this

in order to create the infographic. With the support and aid of my group, I was able to create one

that would fulfill March of Dimes needs. It was a good experience and one I will learn from to

apply to the future.

Overall, this campaign taught me a lot and challenged me in ways I wouldn’t get in a

normal class. March of Dimes is a great organization and I hope we have contributed to their

success in some way. I know this is my first campaign and I have a lot to learn for the future, but

I will take everything I accomplished here and use it to better myself as a PR practitioner.
 Jake:​ This was my first public relations campaign and as such it has served as an

excellent learning opportunity for me, providing me with valuable knowledge that I can take

forward into my career. Perhaps more importantly, this class was a sort of incubator for my still

developing public relations skills. I am relatively new to the public relations field, having just

officially declared it as my major this semester. This means that the knowledge I was learning

from my public relations techniques class that I was taking simultaneously with this class has

been informing my decisions and abilities along the way. I was figuring out how everything fit

together as the pieces were coming at me which is, arguably, the best way to learn how to

perform considering that is how the actual job will be. I am going to have to learn, adapt, and

think on my feet once I’m in the field, and having done that in a safe classroom setting is

extremely valuable.

I have also learned where my strengths and weaknesses lie, allowing me to hone them as

I finish up my time in school. I’ve discovered that I am a decent enough graphic designer, and

with some education in that aspect I could even be proficient. I have also discovered that I am

better at making decisions in a group because I suffer from choice paralysis if it is left up to me

entirely. This is an issue that I can overcome with time, and it is one I will definitely look to beat

before I enter my first job.

The final and arguably most important lesson I have learned from this campaign has to do

with time management, namely that I am bad at it. I work better under pressure, but that work

should only be editing the final draft, not writing the entirety of a press release or completing a

design. I learned that I need to be more proactive with first drafts, allowing myself to make

mistakes and even fail so I can iterate and eventually find the best solution. Starting projects
under the gun has not worked out as well as I thought it would, but now I know how to best

approach projects to come.

As a whole, this campaign has been a great opportunity for me to learn about the public

relations field and about how I will someday fit into it. I’ve discovered my talents for writing,

design, and speaking while also discovering my flaws. All in all, despite the fact that our

campaign could technically be classified as a failure, I consider it a great success due to all that it

has taught me.

VIII. The Agency

4HOPE is a small student run agency that partners with local nonprofits to help them take

steps towards achieving their mission. This agency makes connections with the local community

and creates a lasting partnership to further the organization’s relationships with their publics.

These three students who make up the agency are dedicated to high quality work for a low

quality price. They are for Honesty, Optimism, Persistence, and Equality which exhibits itself

through their work and their partnerships with local organizations. Below are brief bios about

each member of the agency.

Meagan Finucane- Executive Director and Editor

My name is Meagan Finucane and I am a senior

graduating in May 2018 with a Bachelor of Arts in

studying Public Relations and Strategic Communication

with a double minor in Spanish and Organization

Leadership and Supervision at Purdue University. My three

strengths are listening, leading people/teams and my

diligent work ethic. I am passionate about learning and am always looking for the opportunity to

solve a problem and find a better solution.

Some of my professional highlights have been: President of PRSSA (Public Relations

Student Society of America), Chief of Staff for the Purdue Foundation Student Board, Account

Executive for a student-run firm, an Old Master host for New York Pulitzer Prize winner, Ginger

Thompson, selected to present the Pinnacle Award at the Purdue President’s Council 2017

Naples trip to a major alum donor, interning at a fashion PR firm in London in the summer of

2017 and being a candidate for Purdue’s Homecoming Queen for 2017-2018 school year.

In the future, I look forward to using my PR and leadership skills to work in a global PR

agency. You will always find me with a pen and paper in my hand ready to take in all that I can.

I aspire to surround myself around thoughtful leaders who can challenge me to think deeper and

change the work one PR campaign at a time.

Jessica Bullitt- Research and Media Director

My name is Jessica Bullitt and I currently attend

Purdue University. I plan to graduate in December 2018

with a degree in Public Relations and Strategic

Communications with a minor in English. I have gained

helpful experience while holding positions on the social

committee for Public Relations Student Society of America

(PRSSA), Vice President of Public Relations in Kappa Delta Sorority, and a Public

Relations/Marketing internship for Columbian Park Zoo in Lafayette. For the future, I plan to

continue learning and growing to eventually work in author publicity.

Jake Jenkins- Research and Evaluation Director

My name is Jake Jenkins, and I am a Public Relations and Art

History student at Purdue University. I started out as an

engineer, before finding that my passions lie elsewhere and

ended up falling in love with communication. I’ve held

multiple outward-facing positions in organizations on campus

such as Press Secretary for Purdue Student Government and

Marketing Chair for the Purdue Concert Committee,

as well as internal positions like Historian for Purdue’s PRSSA chapter.

I hope to use my charismatic communication skills and strategic inclinations to work at a public

relations firm doing work on the consumer side of things before going on to open my own art

gallery in DTLA.
IX. Appendix

1. Infographic
2. Baby Price is Right Answer Sheet
3. Social Media Facebook, Twitter, Gmail

:
4. PowerPoint Presentation at Event
5. Social Media Planning Sheet for Internship
6. Internship Description
7. Newsletter Template
8. Press Release