CreateAthon planbook

1. Grand Rapids HQ Green Umbrella Planbook
Brooklyn Wilson, Noelle Hobbs, Erin Stehlik, Tom Crawford, & Abbie Patenaude

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Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………....2
Secondary Research……………………………………………………………………………...3
Action Plan……………………………………………………………………………………….7
Timeline…………………………………………………………………………………………..9
Evaluation……………………………………………………………………………………….9
Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………...10
Appendix A……………………………………………………………………………………...10
Appendix B……………………………………………………………………………………...12
Appendix C……………………………………………………………………………………...16
Appendix D……………………………………………………………………………………...17
Appendix E……………………………………………………………………………………...18
Appendix F……………………………………………………………………………………...19

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Grand Rapids HQ is a nonprofit organization that ​is a drop-in center for youth ages 14
thru 24 who are experiencing unsafe or unstable housing. They are launching a mini capital
campaign named, the “Green Umbrella Project.” This project’s purpose is to raise funds to
replace the Grand Rapids HQ roof, which will make their space more energy efficient. This
proposed campaign will help to improve current strategies. This campaign will help to reach the
goal of this campaign, through research, strategies, and evaluation of those strategies.
Secondary Research
Methodology
Secondary research for this campaign was conducted by using Grand Valley’s Summon
database and Google search. Grand Valley’s Summon database was used because of the
campaign’s focus on Grand Valley State University’s (GVSU) students, so it was a starting point
to try and gather information as close to GVSU as possible. It was, also, an easily accessible
database to be used by a Grand Valley student. The use of Google search was to provide
information on less scholarly sources, but with a wide range of information. The easy-to-use
quality of Google search provided a beneficial use to the secondary research . The keywords
used to provide results were different combinations of, “fundraising,” “donations,” “drop-in
centers,” “youth,” and “income.” This allowed the opportunity to access a variety of scholarly
journals and articles pertaining to the subject.
The use of secondary research was to establish an understanding the motivation of
donating habits, and how to more successfully advertise to them to encourage donations. This

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helps to create a preliminary source of information to begin creating objectives, tactics, and
strategies.
Social Media
In order to effectively create a campaign for an organization that helps underserved
youth, it is important to have an understanding of their characteristics and find a way to reach
them. Homeless youth are found to be very active on social media and use sites to communicate
with a diverse social network to talk about their issues. The majority of these youth are also
reported to connect with family and home-based peers via SNS, and many used social media to
communicate with caseworkers (Barman-Adhikari et al., 2016). Therefore, social media can be
used for accessing, educating and intervening with this group that tends to be hard to reach. If
our campaign were able to utilize social media to promote the organization,
Fundraising for Drop-Ins
Receiving donations for any type of non-profit organization can be difficult, but there are
certain measures that can be taken to increase the effectiveness of fundraising. First, there are
many different sources of funding to consider, including private donors, charitable foundations
and local, state or federal governments (Slesnick et al., 2008). Some suggest seeking private or
federal funds, as opposed to local funds, because it decreases the competition with other agencies
in the area that are also trying to collect from those local sources.
There are also several strategies for raising funds that an organization can employ to
increase their probability of receiving a larger amount of donations. One strategy is to use

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evidence-based strategies, which shows potential donors the successes and accomplishments of
the organization (Zerger, 2002). It is important to reassure donors that their money is going
toward a cause that is credible and produces positive results. ​In a survey of Michigan drop-in
centers serving adults, Holter and Mowbay (2005) found that an​ organization’s ​experience and
expertise in grantsmanship, community networking and coalition building are integral to
financial success for nonprofits. It is especially beneficial for an organization to be highly
involved in the community because it shows their commitment to helping other local companies
and individuals succeed, which motivates individuals to want to give back to that organization. It
creates opportunities for relationship-building among the organization and key donors within the
community.
Average Household Income
Factors such as household size and location are considered when it comes to determining
the income of lower, middle and upper class households. According to the Pew Research Center
middle class or “middle income” Americans are defined “as adults who annual household
income is two-thirds to double the national median, after incomes have been adjusted for
household size” (Amadeo, Kimberly, n.d.)​. ​The Urban Institute, in the United States in 2014
lower class incomes were defined at $30,000-$49,999, middle class at $50,000-$99,999 and
upper class at $100,000-$349,999. These numbers have changed over the years due to population
increases, state of living and household numbers. Most recently, according to the 2016 United
States Census Bureau the median household income for Grand Rapids, Michigan is $42,019.

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From this research, the target audience was defined at individuals and families with a middle to
upper class income of $50,000 or more a year in the greater Grand Rapids area.
Repeat Donations
When it comes to donating, it is important not only to gain donors, but also to encourage
repeat donations. This is a problem because between “60-70% of donors” fail to donate the
following year (Chung, n.d). A way this can be accomplished is by using a “celebratory tone” in
communication to the donors (Chung, n.d.). This tone can be used to celebrate the donors last
donation, which practice positive reinforcement of donating to the cause or organization. In
addition to thanking the donor for their contribution, messaging can be used to celebrate “what
the donation accomplished” which validates its importance by showing how a “direct, concrete
result” (Chung, n.d.). Additionally, “people who have positive experiences with giving will be
more likely to give again” (Oppenheimer, p. 205, 2015). People were “more than 2.5 times as
likely to donate when they knew that their gift would not go to overhead compared with a control
condition” and tended to give more because of this reason (Oppenheimer, p. 206, 2015) By
putting the donor at the center of the communication and using “you,” this can be a way to
increase the frequency of donations.
Donor Motivation
There are many reasons why a person will donate to an organization or cause. One
reasons is that “donors give in response to social pressure or to fit in with social norms”
(Oppenheimer, p. 204, 2015). On the other hand, donors may “give in homage to their religion or

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faith” this is because they believe it can provide spiritual benefits (Oppenheimer, p. 204, 2015).
Another reason is that donors may give to “help themselves indirectly,” such as an exchange for
tangible goods and services (Oppenheimer, p. 204, 2015). Another interesting contribution to
donating is the use of an image of eyes. For example, a picture of eyes “displayed on collection
box resulted in a 48% of increase” of donations (Zagefka & James, p. 183, 2015). Another
contribution of giving is the option to donate “publicly or privately” and “offering support
buttons or wristbands increase the likelihood that donors will donate” (Zagefka & James, p. 159,
2015). This gives the donors a tangible gift for their donation and allows them the option to
choose whether they want to be named. If an identifiable person is featured “positive mood and
feelings of general happiness’ boost donations (Zagefka & James, p. 161, 2015). This can be
used instead of depicting a negative situation in communication to the audience. Lastly, people
are more likely to donate “if victims are making effort to better situation (Zagefka & James, p.
170, 2015). This is something that applies directly to Grand Rapids HQ because that is a main
goal.
Benefits of Donating
A finding that has frequently emerged is that “giving to charity reliably increases
the donor’s well-being” (Oppenheimer, p. 205 2015). Additionally, the more a donors
understands the effect that their gift has had, the more they psychologically benefit
(Oppenheimer, p. 208, 2015).
Target Audience

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The target audience is defined as individuals and families with a middle to upper class
income of $50,000 or more per year in the greater Grand Rapids area. The following
demographics tend to donate more than their counterparts: women, higher educated people,
married people, people with children (Zagefka & James, p. 156, 2015). Also, people “over that
age 60 are 6 times more likely to donate than those under 30” (Zagefka & James, p. 157, 2015).
Action Plan
Objectives
Our objectives are to raise between $80,000 and $120,000 through donations by
December 2018 and to bring traffic of at least 1,000 individuals to the Grand Rapids HQ Green
Umbrella Project landing page by December 2018. These will be implemented by using two
strategies with six tactics.
Strategies
The first strategy involves communicating the roof as essential to providing protection for
the unsafe and unstable youth. This would be accomplished by the Facebook campaign, a flash
mob with green umbrellas, flyers and the website landing page for the Green Umbrella Project.
Our Facebook campaign would be composed of daily posts relating to our key and secondary
messages (Appendix C & D). These messages will be targeted towards females who are mothers
between the ages of 30 and 60 years and have a medium income of $50,000 (Amadeo, Kimberly,
n.d.; Zagefka & James, p. 156, 2015)​. ​This is because these specific characteristics contribute to
higher charitable donations. The flash mob with green umbrellas will take place in Rosa Parks

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Circle during the months of June, July and August of 2018 during one of the movie nights in the
park. They will reiterate the green umbrella theme into people’s minds by physically seeing the
umbrellas in the park. Flyers will be posted around the local community areas to raise awareness
of Grand Rapids HQ and to encourage word of mouth (Appendix B).
The second strategy is building a stronger relationship with donors. This would be
accomplished by hosting a kick-off party for the public portion of donations. This event will
have a press release for media contacts for Grand Rapids HQ (Appendix E). The press release
will be sent out two weeks before the event. This press release will inform the public and donors
about the event to spark interest in attending. At the event, there will be pledge cards where
event attendees can pledge to be green in support of the eco-friendly roof that the funds are being
raised for (Appendix F). In addition, to further encourage donations, there will be green
umbrellas handed out to donors who donate $100 or more.​ ​This is because donors may give to
“help themselves indirectly,” such as for an exchange for tangible goods and services
(Oppenheimer, p. 204, 2015). Therefore, providing a tangible gift that is a symbol for the
initiative and is useful to the donor can benefit both parties involved. The green umbrellas that
are given away will be used and will help to create a connection between a green umbrella and
Grand Rapids HQ on the streets of Grand Rapids.
Key messages
● We can’t give the youth protection without a new roof.
Secondary Messages
● Raise our Roof: Roof for Youth

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● Every donation counts
● Help starts with protection, protection starts with a roof, the roof starts with YOU
Timeline
Evaluation
Our objectives for this campaign are to raise between $80,000 and $120,000 through
donations by December 2018 and to bring traffic of at least 1,000 to the Grand Rapids HQ
landing page by December 2018. We will evaluate the amount of money raised by the final total
of donation dollars at the end of December 2018. In addition, we will track the amount of visits
to the main websites landing page in order to determine if 1,000 people visited the homepage.

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Appendix A
References
Ask Donors to Give Again with Positive Reinforcement. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2018, from
https://www.classy.org/blog/asking-donors-to-give-again-through-positive-reinforcement/
Barman-Adhikari, A., Rice, E., Bender, K., Lengnick-Hall, R., Yoshioka-Maxwell, A., &
Rhoades, H. (2016). Social Networking Technology Use and Engagement in
HIV-Related Risk and Protective Behaviors Among Homeless Youth. ​Journal Of Health
Communication​, ​21​(7), 809-817. Retrieved from
http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=4d
4c60e1-4bbb-4385-8885-15a5f27a10e8%40sessionmgr4008​.
Cramer, B. (2009, June). Increase Donations in a Down Economy? With Social Media, Yes, You
Can! ​Nonprofit World; Madison​, ​27​(3), 8–9.
Heyman, D. R. (2015). ​Nonprofit Fundraising 101​. Newark, NJ, UNITED STATES: John Wiley
& Sons, Incorporated. Retrieved from
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/gvsu/detail.action?docID=4444879
Holter, M.C., & Mowbray C.T. (2005). Consumer-run drop-in centers: program operations and
costs. ​Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal,​ ​28​, 323–331.
Janke, M. J., & CauseVox. (2016, June 01). How To Get More Donations For Your Nonprofit Or
Cause. Retrieved March 24, 2018, from
https://www.causevox.com/blog/5-ways-to-get-more-donations/

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Oppenheimer, D. M. (2015). Increasing Donations and Improving Donor Experiences: Lessons
From Decision Science. ​Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences​, ​2​(1),
203–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215600884
Slesnick, N., Glassman, M., Garren, R., Toviessi, P., Bantchevska, D., & Dashora, P. (2008).
How to open and sustain a drop-in center for homeless youth. ​Children and Youth
Services Review​, ​30​(7), 727–734. ​http://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.12.004
The Reparation Effect: Indulgent Consumption Increases Donation Behavior. (2010). ​Advances
in Consumer Research​, ​37​, 527–528.
The Role of Brand in the Nonprofit Sector (SSIR). (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_role_of_brand_in_the_nonprofit_sector
Zagefka, H., & James, T. (2015). The Psychology of Charitable Donations to Disaster Victims
and Beyond. ​Social Issues and Policy Review​, ​9​(1), 155–192.
https://doi.org/10.1111/sipr.12013
Zerger, S. (2002). Substance abuse treatment: what works for homeless people? ​National Health
Care for the Homeless Council.

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Appendix B
Flyers

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Appendix C
Social Media Tactics
We believe hot meals are the cornerstone to belonging, and that access to nutritious, delicious food is a
human right. Make a Meal for HQ and support Grand Rapids youth. ​https://hqgr.org/makeameal
Join us on Sunday, May 6 from 1:30- 4:30 PM for the Walk for Good Food! The Walk for Good Food is a
walk throughout downtown Grand Rapids that raises money and awareness for food justice in our
community. ​https://hqgr.org/walk-for-good-food-2018/
Help starts with protection, protection starts with the roof, the roof starts with YOU! Donate to our green
umbrella project today and insure the youth of Grand Rapids continues to have a safe place with HQ.
#RoofForYouth ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject
Pledge to be green and support our Green Umbrella project to restore our roof and create an eco-friendly
future for our youth. #RoofForYouth ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject
We need you! Donate to our green umbrella project and help ensure the future of our operation.
#RoofForYouth ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject
We can’t protect the youth without a roof. Donate to our green umbrella project today and insure the
future of HQ. #RoofForYouth ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject
Today we launch our Green Umbrella project with the goal of funding a new green roof for our facility.
Our old roof is is a the end of its life and is needs to be be replaced to insure the future of our program. A
new green roof will provide protection for our youth and our environment. Help raise our roof and
support Grand Rapids’ youth.
#RoofForYouth ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject
A green roof can provide protection for our youth and our environment. A donation to our green umbrella
project is a donation to the future of Grand Rapids. #RoofForYouth
www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject

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Appendix D
Social Media Graphics

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Appendix E
News Release
NEWS RELEASE Contact: Luke Petsch
lpetsch@hqgr.org
Grand Rapids HQ to throw event for Green Umbrella Project
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., June 1, 2018 - ​Grand Rapids HQ will hold an event on Thursday, September
13 to launch their Green Umbrella Project, a campaign aimed at raising funds to replace their roof, do
masonry work and improve the sealing around their windows. It will be held at The Venue at the
Highlands.
The event will kick off the public portion of their fundraising efforts and will include drinks and
appetizers for guests. Their goal is to raise between $80 and $120 thousand to repair roof leaks that have
caused water damage to walls and furniture.
“A roof is the most essential requirement for creating a safe and protective environment for our youth
members,” said Luke Petsch, Development Director of GRHQ. “Some of the leaks were visible while we
were open for drop in and seen by members, which compromises the sense of safety we strive to create.”
The new roof will also be made from reusable and energy-efficient materials in order to become LEED
certified and reduce their environmental impact. Since the roof is already at the end of its expected life
cycle, HQGR saw it as an opportunity to make their space more environmentally friendly in the process.
Grand Rapids HQ plans to start the renovation process of their new roof in early october. This campaign
will not only help the at-risk youth, but will benefit the community as a whole by developing future
leaders.
For more information, visit:​ ​www.HQGR.org/greenumbrellaproject​.
About Grand Rapids HQ:
Grand Rapids HQ is a drop-in center for youth ages 14 through 24 who are experiencing unsafe or
unstable housing. Their mission is ​to create a safe and affirming space for youth to find rest, build
connections and pursue their passions to realize their dreams. They provide meals, showers, laundry
services, employment and educational resources, housing support, and more. For more information on
HQGR, visit: ​https://hqgr.org/​.
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Appendix F
Pledge Card

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Appendix F