CMGT : Non Profit Marketing Communication Spring 2015 Monday 6:30 pm

Transcription

1 CMGT : Non Profit Marketing Communication Spring 2015 Monday 6:30 pm Instructor: Gary Wexler Office: To be determined Office hours: Mondays 5:15-6:20 pm, other times by appointment Course Description: The subject is the communication thought, theory and practice of the nonprofit sector. The communications of nonprofits is not about applying a business communications paradigm to a philanthropic entity. Communications paradigms are built from the bottom-line up, driven by goals. In business communications, the ultimate goal is profit. Profit drives all decisions. In nonprofits, the bottom-line is the cause that will change a community, a society or the world. Achieving the goals of the cause drives everything. Therefore the communications thought for nonprofits, while using many of the same skills as communications for businesses, is laced with a very different rhythm in order to achieve its goals. That rhythm is a reflective flow of the soul of a community or the society that the nonprofit is committed to improve. The rhythm beats to big ideas ideas of what the values of the society should be and what actions the nonprofit will actually perform in order to be a tangible reflection of those values. Students will be challenged to think critically and creatively, evolving their own BIG IDEAS that will drive both a nonprofit entity and its communications. They will learn to apply much of their previous communications learning to a different construct than they have ever encountered. They will learn communications not based upon big media buys, but instead based upon BIG IDEAS that will drive a viral exchange of information through both social marketing, word of mouth, community organizing, branding, traditional advertising practices and public relations. They will learn how to use their skills not just to sell products and services but to be socially conscious professionals, acting upon their expertise to achieve the goals of a better world. Learning Goals and Required Skills: Learn to write a nonprofit communications plan at a level of excellence where the reader is immediately captured and motivated by the emotional /societal issues upon which a nonprofit cause is based, laced with strategic writing that presents a well crafted, critically analyzed and creatively executed business plan Learn to create BIG IDEAS that drive the communications of the nonprofit world through viral/social marketing, community organizing and public relations. Learn how this skill of stretching a dollar through BIG IDEA communications can be applied to the business world that is becoming increasingly concerned with every dollar of expense Understand the difference between goals, strategies and tactics and how to apply them to: the communications of fundraising, the communications of advocacy for the cause, and the communications of participation/membership Who owns the conversation, wins. Learn to frame the conversation that the nonprofit should own and host and how to move that conversation through donors, advocates, leaders,

2 participants and others. Learn the strategies for the nonprofit s two basic conversations its tangible (business) conversation and its intangible (soul) conversation Understand the segmentation of the nonprofit marketplace; identify the influencers in each segment and how to work with them to virally penetrate their networks with BIG IDEA communications Understand a changing world and how nothing any longer fits into previously well-defined boxes; rather it s becoming a blend. This is evidenced in how business and nonprofit entities are now blending their communications through cause-related marketing to help each other reach their goals. Class Philosophy and Work Practices: The classroom will be set up as a Communications Agency. The clients of that agency are nonprofit organizations. Several different nonprofits operating in Los Angeles will be contacted to be partners in this course, serving as the clients. Students will be divided into teams consisting of two to four members. Each group will be assigned to a specific nonprofit client. They will meet with the client at the nonprofit at the beginning of the semester to gather information and will meet with them again at the end of the semester to present their communications plan. Throughout the semester, they will have the option during their own time to interface with the nonprofit entity either in person, on the phone, or through ; sit in on appropriate meetings; go out into the field; and ask questions based upon what they are learning in class. Before students initially meet with their client, they will learn in class about the nature of the nonprofit sector and will also review and practice the interviewing/information gathering skills required when they meet as communications specialists with these organizations. Once student groups are set, the groups must make appointments to meet with their nonprofit clients twice during the semester. Those appointments will most likely need to take place during the clients business hours. The first appointment to interview your client and tour their organization will need to occur by Week 3. The second appointment for two hours for your final presentation will need to be scheduled for Week 16 (final examinations week). Most classes will consist of the following activities: a. a. Questions from the previous week and review of reading. b. b. Interactive lecture delivered by me, in which you are expected to be an active participant. c. c. Team breakouts, applying the information of the lecture to a critical and creative thinking path for your specific client end of semester project. d. d. Mini-presentations from two-student breakout groups reflecting the work described in c above. e. e. Critique from me of ideas and individual presentations. Occasionally there will be guest lecturers. At the end of each lecture, the group breakout process will take place, reflecting the learning from that lecture. In order for this class to work, students must view themselves as a responsible and motivated employee of the Communications Agency. That means you must attend class and absolutely be present when your team initially meets with your nonprofit client and at the ending presentation to the client. It is understandable that you may have to miss an occasional class. Therefore, you are allowed one absence without penalty. Thereafter, the first unexcused absence costs 2% of the total grade, the second an additional 3%, the third another 5%; i.e., three unexcused absences lower 10% of your grade (e.g.,

3 lowering a B+ to a C+). Being absent more than three times will limit you to a grade of C and a possibility of failing the class. Your office in that agency is the classroom. No employer will retain an employee who does not show up to work regularly. You will be, in a sense, a professional with real responsibility in a real job. Your group, like any within a Communications Agency, will be dependent upon you. You cannot be a good group participant or professional collaborator if you are not present. More than two absences, unenthusiastic or disruptive participation, will hurt your grade. Also, being the constant cynical, idea-killer critic who elevates himself or herself above the group, paralyzing the group process, preventing it from moving forward, will hurt your grade as well. Grading Scheme: A 95.0% or higher A- 90.0%-94.9% B+ 87.0%-89.9% B 83.0%-86.9% B- 80.0%-82.9% C+ 77.0%-79.9% C 73.0%-76.9% C- 70.0%-72.9% (C- or lower is a failing grade) D 60.0%-69.9% F 59.9% or lower Assignments and Grading: Client Project: Communications Plan and Report (50%) Draft sections of the client project will be turned in for grading, in stages, throughout the semester, so that you can gage how you are succeeding. We will discuss the schedule in class. This is a team project. Each team will receive a group grade based upon their group work during the semester and their ending presentation of a complete marketing communications plan that will be presented in front of the client. That work will consist of: Understanding and developing clear goals, strategies and tactics manifested by the creation of a fundraising plan, an advocacy plan and the stakeholder participation plan (25 pages) Segmenting and identifying your audiences, influencers and their networks (included in the 25 pages above) Creating big ideas that will motivate all your communication and power your social marketing efforts and developing implementation strategies for those ideas (included in the 25 pages above) Establishing the tangible and intangible conversation that your nonprofit should own and host, leading to social marketing, community organizing, public relations and creative/messaging/branding work (the length of this section depends on the specific ideas and implementation) Creating your evaluation protocols, so that you and your client have a standard upon which to judge whether or not your plan is working (2-3 pages). Grading Criteria: The client project will be evaluated in terms of: How well you analyze and apply the information and analysis from the readings, lectures and field experiences. How well the plan is written. How well traversed is your path from critical thinking to creative thinking to big idea creation. How effective, clear and motivating your presentation deck or flipchart is for your final presentation to the client. The quality of your ideas for your clients.

4 You will receive extra grade consideration for additional interactions with your client beyond the required first meeting and closing presentation. Presentation to Client (10%) You will receive an individual grade for your stand-up final presentation to the client. Each team member will present for about 10 minutes. Presentations to these clients will be made during Week 15 and Week 16 (final examinations week). We may have to schedule presentations at a time other than the designated class evenings. Scheduling for such presentation will begin in Week 9. Collaboration in Client Project (5%) You will receive an individual grade based upon how effective a team member/collaborator you were in your group process. Grading criteria: Did you prepare well to be an effective participant each week? Did you offer your own ideas? Did you listen to your fellow participants well, consider and respect their ideas, allowing their ideas to take flight as well as your own? Did you collaborate with your team members such that everyone create more and better ideas? Did you take responsibilities and deliver upon them? Did you figure out where your talents lie and where they did not, allowing others to take the lead in areas where they were more adept? Writing Assignments (25%) You will receive individual grades for two distinct writing assignments. The first assignment is detailed in the outline for Week 1. That assignment is worth 5% of your grade. Below is the second assignment worth 20% of your grade: Based upon the cause of your nonprofit client, choose a representation of popular culture either a book, an article, a movie, a play, a TV show, a song or an event that relates to the organization s issues. Define at least three ideas upon which the popular culture selection is based. Define at least three ideas upon which your nonprofit client is based. Find the commonalities between those ideas and explain them. Based upon the commonalities, create a big idea for the nonprofit. Sell the idea to the people familiar with the popular culture selection so they can relate and jump into it with enthusiastic participation, furthering the goals of the nonprofit entity (7-9 pages). Interactive Class Participation (10%)

5 You will receive an individual grade on your interactive participation during lectures, beginning by the third lecture. (I m giving you the first lecture to be totally intimidated and the second one to begin loosening up.) Communications is about communicating. Nonprofits are about improving the soul of the communities and the society in which you live. All news sources comment or tell stories about our society. Combining both communications and nonprofits should lead you to ask questions, challenge and contribute during class. While the class is technically a lecture, it will also move as a facilitated conversation. You will notice there are no quizzes. I don t believe anyone learns this kind of work from a quiz. You will learn from how you apply the knowledge you are receiving in class and through readings, to a real life situation. You will learn from how you use critical thinking skills to create ideas. You will learn from how well you listen to me, to one another, to the writers whose words you read, and to your client. Listening is the number one skill in the communications field. Thinking is the second. Creating is the third.

6 Academic Integrity The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University s Academic Integrity code as detailed in the SCampus Guide. It is the policy of the School of Communication to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student s expulsion of the Communication major or minor. The School and the University is committed to the general principles of academic honesty that include and incorporate the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one's own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another's work as one's own. By taking this course, students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. All submitted work for this course may be subject to an originality review as performed by TurnItIn technologies (Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. to find textual similarities with other Internet content or previously submitted student work. Students of this course retain the copyright of their own original work, and TurnItIn is not permitted to use student-submitted work for any other purpose than (a) performing an originality review of the work, and (b) including that work in the database against which it checks other student-submitted work. Students with Disabilities Students requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be sure this letter is delivered to the professor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is open Monday-Friday, 8:30-5:00. The office is in the Student Union 301 and their phone number is (213)

7 Required Materials 1, The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil. 2. A Thousand Words: Photos from the Field International Medical Corps 3. Change by Design Tim Brown 4. The Design of Dissent Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic 5. Search Inside Yourself Chade-Meng Tan 6. Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Human Crisis Edited by Architecture for Humanity 7. The Dragonfly Effect; Quick Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change, by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith (2010, Jossey-Bass). 8. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, by Malcolm Gladwell 9. Ebola crisis stretches Doctors Without Borders means. Villars, D.G. & Whalen, J. (2014, November 28). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from Article: Homeless World Cup: Social Entrepreneurship, Cause Marketing and Partnership with Nike: Stanford Graduate School of Business Case E376 6/4/ A Celebration That Defined a Generation: Grant Park, New Media, and Barack Obama's Historic Victory to the US Presidency: By Kathy Merloc Jackson, Harold Dorton, and Brett Heindl: The Journal of American Culture: Volume 33, Number Article: Big data for social innovation. Desouza. K.C. & Smith, K.L. (2014, Summer). Retrieved from: Article: How big data will change the face of philanthropy? Bernholz, L. (2013, December 15). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from Class Sessions Class sessions are subject to change. Do not undertake stated assignments below until they have actually been assigned. Do not read until the reading has actually been assigned. Week 1: January 12th

8 What will happen in this class and what is expected? Discussion of the major client project and what is to be included. What is a nonprofit? The should of society The nonprofit communication paradigm: Cause vs. profit. Reading assignments for next class Search Inside Yourself. (Entire book) Writing assignment: This is an individual assignment, spanning 3 pages. Based on tonight s presentation

9 Week 2: 1/19: No Class Martin Luther King Day Week 3: January 26th Review of writing assignment Review of book: Search Inside Yourself The DNA approach to (a) communication and advocacy for the cause, (b) communication and fundraising, and (c) communication and participation. The two levels of nonprofit communications (a) tangible business messages, (b) intangible soul messages. Present your review of your client s and others sites, plus your initial thoughts. Preview of next week: Interview your client before next week s class. Take good notes during your interviews and write up the results in note form. What are your initial understandings of the client s messages, on both the tangible and intangible levels? What are the questions you should ask in your coming interviews with your clients, based upon tonight s lectures and conversations? Writing Assignment: Week 4: February 32 Readings: To be assigned Idea-based communication vs. media-based communication. The idea creation structure. Pick your clients and teams: Meet with your clients during this week or next Create an idea about advocacy for the cause. Based upon that idea, create an idea for fundraising. Present your two ideas. Week 5: February 9 Readings: To be assigned Guest lecturer:

10 Goals, strategies, and tactics: Deciphering several nonprofit campaigns and breaking them into these three categories. What can be and should be the goals and strategies (not tactics) for the communications of the advocacy, fundraising and participation for your clients? Present your thinking. Week 6: No class President's Day: Reading: To be assigned Segmenting and identifying your client s audiences, influencers and their networks. Developing the case statement. Segment your client s audiences, influencers and networks. Create a case statement. Discussion of your writing assignments (previewed in Week 4). Schedule time with me in Week 6 and Week 7. I will meet with each of you individually on about your writing. Week 7: February 23 Reading: To be assigned Guest Lecturer: Understanding foundations and marketing your client s cause to them. Create strategies and tactics to communicate your client s fundraising needs to a foundation. Choose a foundation and understand their funding criteria. Present your communicating-to-foundation ideas. The next class on March 5th will meet at the Art Center College of Design at the Hillside Campus, NOT the South Campus in the center of Pasadena. You will meet me in the lobby. We are being hosted by Mariana Amatullo. ( Week 8: March 3 Lecture and discussion: Design Strategy/Design Thinking Evaluation of performance to date: By this week, you will receive an from me, providing

11 a clear indication of where you stand at this halfway point. Week 9: March 9 Readings: To be assigned Guest lecturers: Corporate cause-related communications Create a cause-related marketing strategy for your client, and present. Start to organize your final presentations. Present your initial outlines this evening. Start working on the written report of your client project. The first draft is due Week 11, 6 pm in my inbox. You will elaborate on the writing as we move through the next few sessions. Begin setting your appointments in the next 10 days with your clients for final presentations beginning on Week 15 and Week 16.

12 Week 10: March 16 No class Spring Break Communicating the cause though a community organizing structure. Guest lecturers: Selected clients of this semester and last semester Varun Soni, Dean, Office of Religious Life, USC Imam Jihad Turk, Interim Dean, Bayan College, Claremont Lincoln University Michael Jeser, Executive Director of USC Hillel. Community organizing How should your client organize its community(s)? Present your community-organizing plans. Preview of next week: First draft of writing due Week 11, by 6 pm in my box. Have you set your final presentation appointments with your client? Note: I must be present during your final presentation, so the appointment must be done early to accommodate everyone s schedule. Week 11: March 23 Social entrepreneurship of the next generation. My review and critique of your first drafts of writing Preview of coming week: Written report with presentation deck due Week 13, by 6 pm in my box. Have you set your final presentation appointments? Note: I must be present during your final presentation, so the appointment must be done early to accommodate everyone s schedule. Work on your revisions to the client report and presentations. Present for my critique. Week 12: March 30th Entire session devoted to preparation for presentations to clients.

13 Week 13: April 6 In ad agency style of multiple rehearsals, the entire class is devoted to client presentation rehearsals and critique. By now, you MUST have the date for your final presentations with your clients. Note: I must be present during your final presentation, so the appointment must be done early to accommodate everyone s schedule. Week 14: April 13 Final review of writing, and final rehearsals of PowerPoint deck and oral presentations. Client presentations will begin next week and through the week after. Note: I must be present during your final presentation, so the appointment must be done early to accommodate everyone s schedule. Week 14 : April 20 Rehearsals andpresentations to clients. I will be present to observe and evaluate. Week 15: April 27 Continue on work for final presentations.