communication assignment
ahmad9933
SAMPLE.docx
Communications Strategy for Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC)
Student name,
Executive Summary
Given its size and resources, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC) has good external communications, but needs to reach a younger generation of external audiences. The organization’s website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts are well-organized and updated regularly, but it lacks a nutrition facts and advice webpage that is based on the extensive research done for patients with Crohn’s disease and their families to rely on. The organization uses a variety of channels, such as emails, newsletters and face-to-face interaction, to communicate with its stakeholders. CCFC’s mission and vision statements are always front and center, making it its first priority in all the events, newsletters and emails. Its consistency in its reputation, image and identity is very successful.
The purpose of this report is to improve CCFC’s external communications, and to create new strategies that would help the organization expand its external audiences, meet its objectives, live up to its values, and fulfill its mission statement.
Through attentive reading of the official Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada website (http://www.ccfc.ca), I found many hyperlinks that led to web pages of events, information on the organization and the disease, volunteer forms and information on how to mentally, emotionally and physically deal with a loved one diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. However, I noticed the only thing missing that CCFC has not acknowledged was the importance of creating a healthy diet for someone diagnosed with Crohn’s. By updating and using social networking sites, the organization is able to engage in a two-way interactive discourse with people who want to be involved with the organization and the members already involved with the organization. I came across many online journals and blogs that had positive coverage on past events and the incredible accomplished goal of millions of dollars that was raised for medical research. There is a ceremony held every year to honor dedicated volunteers with awards, so there is no doubt that the organization shows its appreciation to the members of the organization. With this being said, I noticed all the pictures posted on the website of past events, were of volunteers that range from 25 years old to an older crowd.
Recommendations to improve the organization’s external communications include setting up an information booth in the seven major malls in Vancouver the first weekend of every month and sending groups of volunteers to reach out to elementary and high school students from January to April. This will continue to raise awareness surrounding this issue and the organization, while also expanding to a younger generation of audiences and promoting the new addition to our website.
Communication Objectives/Goals
Due to the lack of knowledge that young people have about the issue surrounding Crohn’s disease and colitis, we are going to increase awareness and knowledge about Crohn’s disease, colitis and the CCFC. We are going to aim particularly at elementary and high school students. We want them to understand this disease, how to help someone that is diagnosed with this disease, mentally, physically and emotionally, and how to cope with a loved one that is going through the pain of this disease. Our goal is to visit 50 schools with our youth speakers within the next three months.
Our other communication goal is to provide patients with Crohn’s disease or colitis, their families and the general public with information and advice on healthy eating habits, nutrition facts and the types of food that can contribute to a healthy diet of someone diagnosed with this disease. We want them to be able to compose their own healthy diet by using the food and nutrition advice we give them and post them up for others to read. Our goal is to increase website visits by 50% within the first six months of our campaign.
Key Messages
Our first key message is aimed at young elementary and high school students from ages nine to 18: We need to learn more about Crohn’s disease and colitis, in order to prevent and help those around us that are unfairly diagnosed with it. We need to raise more awareness, in order to raise more funds for extensive research to find the cure. Key message: Do You Know Where Your Colon Is?
Our second key message is aimed at Inflammatory Bowel Disease patients, their families and the general public: We are providing a section on our website dedicated to educate nutrition facts and advice for a healthy diet for people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease or colitis. Key message: Live Better, Longer with a Colon-Aware Diet.
Communications Assessment
The Crohn’s Disease and Colitis Foundation of Canada has a great image, identity and reputation. The problem is that their demographic of volunteers, funders and donors seem to only range from 25 years old to an older crowd. Another problem is that there aren’t any nutrition facts on the website for IBD patients and their families to acknowledge and help them create and maintain a healthy diet. Its reputation is excellent, due to many volunteers and funders that come out for annual events and the result of millions of dollars raised for medical research. There is always positive media attention, usually in blogs, newspapers, online journals and a few news stations, surrounding the CCFC’s annual events, especially the GutsyWalk. CCFC is up to date with its current social and cultural trends by using social media, such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. CCFC is great with consistently updating their social media networks with photos, events and videos and communicating with friends, subscribers and followers in a two-way interactive dialogue. As for its economic impact, the healthcare system has covered $753 million in the year of 2008 alone and an estimated cost of $1.8 billion has affected many individuals and families dealing with this disease. CCFC’s only competitor is the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, but they do not compete with each other, they are helping their own nation prevent Crohn’s Disease from spreading to more people. They are both helping the same cause, trying to find a cure. As I have mentioned above, the many supporters of the CCFC are usually part of the older crowd, which means we need to improve on our external communications to the younger crowd, as they are the people that are great with social media and will spread the word, make a difference and bring their values into adulthood. We also need to improve communicating healthy diets to all of our stakeholders, so that they know we are still trying to educate them and teach them new facts according to the new research done. We will use social media, face-to-face communication and our website to reach our current and potential stakeholders and direct our mission, vision, key messages and new additions to a wider range of external audiences.
Target Audiences
We are going to communicate our communication goals and key messages to the stakeholders listed below.
High school and Elementary school Students
We are going to communicate information about Crohn’s disease and colitis to young people, who ranges from nine years old to 18 years old. Many of them do not know what Crohn’s disease or colitis is. We need to have a face-to-face interaction with them at their schools to explain this disease to them, how to take care of someone that is diagnosed with it and the nutrition facts that are needed to make a healthy diet. We need to also explain our organization and our mission and vision. Besides face-to-face interaction, we will also use social media to communicate with these students. They are impressionable and are able to use social media to gain more attention for this organization. Young people are also very good at spreading the word to their friends, as long as they believe in our organization and what we do for diagnosed patients and the society.
IBD Patients & their Families
We need to continue our communication with IBD patients and their families and help them through this tough time. All the IBD patients and their families have a thorough knowledge of this disease and this organization. They are the volunteers and the people who attend the events and donate funds to our research. Besides giving information about the disease and how to cope with it, we want to promote our new webpage of information about creating and maintaining a healthy diet for an IBD patient. We will email all the members of the CCFC, post it up in our electronic newsletter “Talk about Guts!” and update our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube with the new addition.
General Public (Ages 25 and older)
Reaching young people means to expand our demographic of volunteers, funders and donors, but we are still grateful for the volunteers and funders we have now, who are part of the older demographic. Many of them are aware of this organization and what it does for the society. By reaching to young people, hopefully they will create a chain reaction and influence their older role models. By reaching to this older demographic of volunteers and funders, hopefully they will influence the younger generation to volunteer and donate. We will need to communicate our new addition to our website via email, our electronic newsletter, face-to-face interaction and social media.
Media
There have been a many online journals, blogs, newspapers, news stations and social media networks that have been keeping track of the many events we hold. Some of them know about this disease that is affecting many Canadians and what our organization stands for, but many of them still do not know what this disease is. We will use email and social media to reach our online bloggers and reporters. We will invite them to more of our events, so they can see our massive turnouts and the positive impact we have on society.
Communication Mechanisms
We will need our dedicated volunteers to be divided into teams to create their own way to send our key messages, mission and vision to local, public elementary and high schools. They can compose a skit, lecture or different activities to explain our organization and the disease we are raising money for. Every team will have a person that is diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, so they can share their own experiences and stories for the younger generation. There will also be a donation box set up, so that students and teachers can donate funds for our medical research. We will also be passing around flyers, information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the disease and our organization. Every information package, flyer, newsletter and brochure will have our logo and organization name on it, so we will be consistent with our image and branding. It will also include our mission, vision, values, information on Crohn’s disease, nutrition facts for people diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and how to cope and help loved ones that are diagnosed.
We will also need volunteers to set up booths all around the major malls in Vancouver, such as Metrotown and Park Royal, to promote the new addition to our website and to raise awareness about the disease and our organization. We will be passing out information packages, printed versions of our electronic newsletter and brochures about the disease and our organization. The printed newsletter will include inspiring stories from people who have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. This will target the general public, from young people to the older crowd. They will be able to donate funds for our research in a donation box set up at the booth. We will continue with the events we already have annually, such as the GutsyWalk and the All That Glitters Gala, to continue to raise awareness and funds, as it always has the biggest turnouts.
The channels we will continue to use to communicate with elementary and high school students, IBD patients and their families, the media and the general public (ages 25 and older) are face-to-face interactions, social media, emails and our electronic newsletter. This will encourage individuals to be involved in a two-way communication with our organization. It is important to be consistent with our mission, values and image in a two-way interactive dialogue with external audiences.
Timeline and Budget
The estimated time frame to execute our External Communication Strategy is one year. Starting in May to the end of June, we will finish our new webpage of nutrition facts and advice. This will involve a two month period where our website designer and a group of research assistants will collaborate to create this new addition to our website.
We will begin to set up our booths at the malls in the beginning of May (2012) and continue to occupy the malls the first weekend of every month, from Friday to Sunday. If this activity is effective, we will continue to set up booths at the malls for the next year. We will need 21 groups of six to seven volunteers to set up booths in seven major malls in Vancouver. Each group will only need to sign up one day every month for four hours to accomplish this activity. The cost for the flyers, information packages, brochures and newsletters is estimated around $300-$500. I purposed this timeline because our events only occupy the months of April, May, June, September and November. This activity is planned to take place every month for one weekend because we need more ongoing, monthly activities, so that we can be consistent and continue to raise awareness without wasting any time. We will have two weeks to plan our first weekend at the major malls.
We will begin to visit elementary schools in the months of January, February and March, in order to accomplish positive influence in 50 chosen elementary schools located in Vancouver. Approximately 16 to 17 presentations a month will accomplish our goal to create a positive influence on the children. Approximately 30 groups of six to seven volunteers will perform their presentation to elementary school students. Each group is highly encouraged to present at least two presentations in the months of January, February and March. The estimated cost of the flyers, brochures, newsletters and information packages range from $300 to 500. I have chosen this timeline because we do not have many events early in the year.
We will visit high schools in the month of April to create a positive impact on 18 high schools located in Vancouver. We will need approximately 18 groups of six to seven volunteers to create a presentation that will have a huge positive impact on high school students. We will hand out information packages, newsletters, flyers and brochures, which will cost us an estimated $300-500. I chose the month of April to visit the high school students because they will have time to think about volunteering for our organization during the upcoming summer. We will have the rest of the year of 2012 to find volunteers and execute our plans to visit local, public elementary and high schools in the year of 2013.
Evaluation
