Ricky Taylor Foundation: Supporting Teen Cancer Patients in Monash - Research Paper

Introduction

The Ricky Taylor Foundation is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2015 to provide support and resources to teenagers who've been diagnosed with cancer (Rickytaylorfoundation.com.au, 2019). It is mainly based in Monash Children's Hospital where it aims to help those receiving treatment improve their cheerfulness and wellness. This is done by giving them psychological education, suitable environments for activities to boost their capability to endure what struggles they may go through and offering them openings to mingle with other teenage patients. However, after interaction with one of the Foundation's founders, the Foundation is found to struggle to secure partnerships with donors and organizations, and in advocacy in social media forums. This plan aims while updating the Foundation's campaign methods and approaches to more efficient forms, to attract companies and well-wishers who will offer donations and agree in partnerships that would go a long way in helping the Ricky Tailor Foundation in continuing its work.

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Executive Summary

Following interaction with one of the founders of this Foundation, Danielle Taylor via email, it was clear that the Foundation needed a form of advocacy and campaign to increase its awareness in the country to help them attain funds from for its sustenance (Jessup et al., 2018). As Danielle states, the Foundation heavily relies on holding numerous fundraisers throughout the year which include an annual trivia night, a bingo night, a Christmas raffle, an entertainment book and a drag musical night as well. The plan will focus on sensitizing the public on the initiatives of the Foundation, its importance, and make people understand how it goes a long way in helping those teenagers in clinics receiving cancer treatment cope. It will employ reaching out to the people on mainstream media and social media, to create awareness in the general public and approaching organizations. Both profit and non-profit sharing similar values and motivations would be willing to create partnerships with the Ricky Taylor Foundation (Epstein, 2018). This will help promote the Foundation among the people and amongst organizations. One of the targeted companies will be a branding company whose benefits with the Foundation would be somewhat mutual as while the Foundation advertises its work, the company would brand giveaway items at a negotiated fee (Tuominen et al, 2016).

Research and Situational Analysis

Other than the fundraisers, the Foundation also receives donations from Keys-Borough egg farm, Kmart, Target, Dan Murphy, and Pancake Parlor. However, Danielle Taylor expressed feeling lucky that the Foundation had friends and family who support it whenever there seem to be obstacles along its course. As of 28th February 2018, the latest cashflow statements, the Foundation has a deficit of $3,805.84, indicating negative growth for the Foundation (Rickytaylorfoundation.com.au, 2019). Danielle also stated that the Foundation fails to excel in advertising, mostly in social media platforms which in the contemporary world, could be very effective tools for promoting organizations when used decisively (Thomkeaw et al, 2018). By integrating social media in relation, the Foundation will promote its good work to the extensive network, and may catch the eye of potential donors. the plan will recruit volunteers who will voluntarily spread the Foundation's agenda to the media. This will involve teenagers and middle-aged people who regularly use these platforms (Milner, 2015).

Publics: Segmented

This public relations plan for the campaign will target two main groups of people: the first, or primary group is the general public and. The secondary group targeted is comprised of the leaders of organizations and companies. Once the primary targets, being those in the general public and the volunteers are reached, they will help in spreading and promoting the Foundation, and will eventually reach the secondary target, the leaders of potential partners, donors, and companies. The secondary targets will be reached directly by members of the program and the Foundation.

Goals

The plan aims to increase the number of donors and partners for the organization to promote the growth of the Foundation.

Objectives

• To have at least two more partners of the Foundation by the end of the year 2019.
• To meet up with at least ten organizations and companies to bid for partners and donors by the end of 2019
• To establish and run a social media platform for promoting awareness among the youth of the society, which will include a YouTube channel, an active Facebook page, and a tweeter account by September 2019.
• To upload at least two photos daily and a video daily to the social media platforms showing happy moments with the benefactor teenagers.
• To improve the online presence by linking the social media platforms with the Foundation's official website and encouraging comments, suggestions, and conversations on the website, ensuring at least ten of each daily.

Strategy

The strategy employed in this plan is to show the importance of the Foundation to the society, especially teenagers and how much it improves their lives during cancer treatment. The approach used is increasing the awareness to the public and in social networks by forming effective and efficient communications systems including websites and social media platforms (Noe, 2017). Besides encouraging donors and organizations to be part of the Foundation, it also involves approaching organizations and suggest partnerships for mutual benefits as other for-profit organizations seek non-profit organizations to promote their prominence to the public (Olivier, 2016).

Tactics

Partnerships with other companies and organizations will be done by making fundraisers with their themes, charity drives and walks (Goodwin, Snelgrove, Wood, and Taks, 2017). Branding companies could promote their work and advertise it by creating labels for the Foundation and branding its giveaways, a mutually beneficial activity. A social media presence is important to show the good work being done to help those in need and could be a source of encouragement to people to do so as well. It is a tool for awareness for the Foundation (Lovell et al, 2016). Building effective social platforms and a running website is important.

Message

The key message for this plan is the importance of helping out one another. The teenagers battling cancer also need companionship and should feel equal to other people around them. In this new age of social networking, let us create awareness out there that a little help could help another person in a great way.

Evaluation

There will be surveys conducted to identify potential partnering companies, potential additional activities to generate revenue for the Foundation. The success rate of the social media platforms in terms of viewership will be observed daily to determine their feasibility and importance to the Foundation.

References

Epstein, M.J., 2018. Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.

Goodwin, A., Snelgrove, R., Wood, L., and Tasks, M., 2017. Leveraging charity sports events to develop a connection to a cause. Event Management, 21(2), pp.175-184.

Jessup, D., Glover IV, M., Daye, D., Banzi, L., Jones, P., Choy, G., Shepard, J. and Flores, E. (2018). Implementation of Digital Awareness Strategies to Engage Patients and Providers in a Lung Cancer Screening Program: Retrospective Study. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(2), p.e52.

Lovell, E., Bahadur, A., Tanner, T. and Morsi, H., 2016. Resilience: the big picture. Overseas Development Institute.

Milner, M., 2015. Freaks, geeks, and cool kids: Teenagers in an era of consumerism, standardized tests, and social media. Routledge.

Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

Olivier, C., Hunt, M.R. and Ridde, V., 2016. NGO-researcher partnerships in global health research: benefits, challenges, and approaches that promote success. Development in Practice, 26(4), pp.444-455.

Rickytaylorfoundation.com.au. (2019). The Ricky Taylor Foundation | Assisting teenagers in their fight against cancer. [online] Available at: http://www.rickytaylorfoundation.com.au/.

Thomkaew, J., Homhual, P., Chairat, S. and Khumhaeng, S., 2018, September. Social media with e-marketing channels of new entrepreneurs. In AIP Conference Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 020147). AIP Publishing.

Tuominen, S., Hirvonen, S., Reijonen, H. and Laukkanen, T., 2016. The internal branding process and financial performance in service companies: An examination of the required steps. Journal of Brand Management, 23(3), pp.306-326.