All_Saints_Proposal_Draft (1.75)

“ R e c o n n e c t R e s t o r e ” Prepared for: All Saints’ Episcopal Church Prepared by: Chariot PR Date: 2/11/14

“Reconnect Restore ”

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary – 3 Problem Statement – 4-5 Work Statement – 5 Goals – 6 Objectives – 7 Strategies – 8 Tactics – 9 Publics – 10 Project Management Statement – 11 Duties & Schedule – 11 Budget – 12 Evaluation – 12 Qualifications - 13


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Executive Summary

All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Torresdale was originally established as All

Saints’ Mission Church in 1772. In the past nearly two and a half centuries, All

Saints’ Church has grown to a congregation of about 250 and hosts three serv ices a

week, along with supporting a choir, youth group, nursery, preschool, kindergarten,

and Cub Scout troop. The church writes on their website that they “have evolved to

address the needs of our local community, the greater Philadelphia area , and the

global community”. The strategies and tactics within this plan will help All Saints’

raise the funds they need to subsidize two restoration projects, which will in turn

provide their community with aesthetic beauty, historic tourism appeal, and a

restored place of worship and ministry.

Our team, Chariot PR, has met with members of All Saints’ Church to

understand their problems and desired outcomes. The church asked us to create an

event to address two problems: a lack of funding needed to restore their steeple and

cemetery, and a desire for increased community involvement and awareness of

their church. We have discussed several options and our research efforts have led

to this proposal of the first annual “Spring into Something New” event which will

begin to diagnose both of their problems at once.

This event will host several local businesses at the All Saints’ Church during

one Saturday. Essentially a local business expo, each business will offer sessions to

teach attendees a skill or craft. The Northeast community already has many small

businesses that host their own independent teaching sessions, and the ones who

come together for this event will naturally want to advertise it themselves because

they are invested in our success. “Spring into Something New” will attract business

owners and community residents of all ages and interests to All Saints’ Church.


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Problem Statement

All Saints’ Episcopal Church is a unique and historic landmark that has been

in the Torresdale community since 1772. The church has a historic cemetery as well as a school, which is celebrating its 100th year this year. Their longevity has brought a positive influence on their neighborhood for over two centuries, but now they are in need of support.

Problem 1: Money

All Saints’ is looking for a spring event that will raise money. In the past All Saints’ has only had one fund raising event that took place in the fall. This event was a craft sale. Although it raised a decent amount of money, the ladies of the church insisted that it was getting old, that only their parishners show up, and lately people had been bringing in their own “junk” to sell. The money is needed to help restore the cemetery so that the church can host walking tours. The steeple needs to be supported and the church would also like an electronic sign instead of the one they have currently, which uses magnetic letters. This sign is problematic because most companies have stopped making magnetic letters, and the church has to think very carefully about what they put on the sign because as we were informed by Maggie, “We might not have enough vowels.”

Opportunity:

All Saints’ has never had a spring event before so that means our options are wide open. We also won’t have to work around anything else the church is trying to do. Because we are hosting a spring event there is a better chance we can hold the event outside and get a higher attendance of people.

Problem 2: Awareness

As mentioned above All Saints’ is a historical church, but it seems at the moment no one knows that. Outside of parish members there is no knowledge of the renovations that All Saints’ needs to perform. They are also not part of the Pennsylvania historical society.

Opportunity: Because knowledge of the church is minimal we might be able to gather more

attention for our cause because it’d be something new. Also because All Saints’ is


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relatively unknown there appears to be no negative feelings towards them, therefore making it an open door to tell publics about our cause.

Problem 3: Community Involvement

Currently All Saints’ has a youth group, a day school, and a Boy Scout troop, but the congregation itself is not made up of many families. All Saints’ feels very drawn to the community and wants to appeal to everyone. On their website they say:

“People joining you in the pews come from all around NE Philadelphia. We are men and women and children. We are young and old. Some of us our white and some are black. Some have families and some are single. Some of us are straight and some of us our gay. Some of us our people of means and some of us struggle to make ends meet.”

Currently the church doesn’t have as much diversity and families as it states on it’s website. Our client wants more families to know about All Saints ’ and for the church to feel like it is a part of the community

Opportunity:

Torresdale has a big community that it is very active. Also starting a relationship can be easier than maintaining a relationship and or fixing one. The fact that All Saints’ is open to everyone is an ideal that can appeal to everyone and gives our team a lot to work with.

Chariot PR will be working to address fundraising for All Saints’ while creating awareness and community involvement by hosting a spring event.


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Work Statement:

Goals

To raise funds for All Saints' restoration

projects

To increase awareness and community

involvement in the church's activities


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Objective 1

Have 100 people attend “Lunch and Bid” fundraising event Our main event, “Lunch and Bid” is going to be a silent auction held on the church premises. We will request donations for auction items (valued at $30 or more) from church members and local businesses. There will be a variety of items up for auction. The event will have food and music. Tactics:

- Light up the Night In order to draw attention to our event we will be lighting up the cemetery and church with Christmas lights and candles making the whole place “glow.” Banners will strategically be placed in front of the church advertising our “lunch and bid” event as well as bringing attention to our campaign. This will happen a few nights before our event.

- Contact 40 businesses for donations for the silent auction The list below is a bunch of businesses that we will contact asking for donations for our silent auction

- Create a sneak preview corner at auction This corner will depict the renovations the church needs as well as a sneak preview of their walking tour. This corner will have big pictures as well as descriptions of the plan to restore the church.

Strategies: - “All Saints’ Church needs restoration in order to offer tours and remain

a relevant historical site.” This message is also designed to reach members of the community as well as business owners. This message is necessary because positioning All Saints’ as a historical site would bring more people into the area, which in turn provides growth for businesses in Torresdale

- As church members this will be a fun event to participate in and to bring your family and friends to This message will be told to parish members encouraging them to donate as well as come to our auction and bring other people to.

- “Lunch and bid” This is the slogan and name of our major fundraising event. The intent of this slogan is to make people view it as a causal fun event where money will go towards a good cause.


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Objective 2

Have 50 people attend free car wash event On April 12, the Saturday before our main event, we will host a free car wash at All Saints’ Church. While we will solicit, but not require, donations, our main cause is to promote the silent auction event the following day. We will use flyers and conversation to promote the event. We will also contact the church’s high school youth group to ask for help running the car wash. Tactics:

- Host free car wash to advertise our event and solicit donations. This event will raise donations, help establish a positive reputation for All Saints’ Church in the community, and advertise our main event by hand ing out fliers.

- Place signs on street promoting car wash These signs will be placed right outside of the church pointing to where our event will be held.

- Create flyers with information about All Saints’ restoration processes and events We will reach a broad local public and gain more participants at our event through flyers that will be posted in local businesses and organizations. Community members will also learn about All Saints’ attempts to become a larger part of the community through restoring their historical site.

Strategies - Come to our free car wash and see what we’re about

This message is designed for people to be drawn by the idea of free, but to want to see what All Saints all does.

- Come back to our big event At our car wash we are going to encourage members to come back for our silent auction as well as participate in our 50/50 raffle

Objective 3

Achieve news coverage from at least one media outlet

We will distribute press releases to local media outlets for our car wash and Reconnect Renovate silent auction. We hope to get coverage from at least one local media outlet, in addition to free postings in event calendars.


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Tactics:

- Create two press releases to send to at least five media outlets. By sending out the initial press release, we will inform the media outlets about All Saints’ Church’s historical significance, needs, and plans. By the second press release, the media outlets will already know about the church and will be more likely to cover the “Reconnect Restore” event.

Strategies: - “All Saints’ Church is Historically Significant”

This message is designed to reach the businesses and residents of Torresdale as well as media outlets that receive our press releases. It is a vital message because it helps establish All Saints’ as a historical landmark in the Northeast community.

Objective 4

Draft a proposal to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania gives promotion and resources to historic sites in southeastern PA. They have an online application for historic sites to become a member of their organization. Our group will draft a proposal for All Saints’ Church to become a member. Tactics:

- Contact Beth Twiss Houting at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to inquire about membership

Beth Twiss Houting is the contact person for information regarding membership to the Historical Society. We will reach out to her to identify the necessary steps All Saints’ Church would need to take to gain membership. We will relay this information to the Church.


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Publics to be targeted

Local Business and Organizations

•This public is necessary to target in order to gain their participation in our event

•By participating in our event, businesses will want to advertise for us•They are key to becoming more involved in the community•Message used: "We help you, you help us"

Current Congregation

•They already know how great their church is•This public would be the easiest to convince to come to our event •Messages would be spread via their weekly bulletin and announcements by the pastor

Families in the Torresdale area

•They are members of the community that would have the most interest in the church

•Our event is catered to get them so the church can be a more united community

•Messages used "Learn something you've always wanted to try"

Youth Group and Cub Scouts

•These publics will be targeted to help us run and advertise these events•Messages used will consist of telling them how it can be work towards earning a badge and or volunteer hours


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Project Management Statement:

Task 2/16-2/22

2/23-3/1

3/9-3/15

3/16-3/22

3/23-3/29

3/30-4/5

4/6-4/12

4/13-4/19

Member

Call Businesses X X Ben & Colleen

Make silent auction sheets

X Rachel

Make floor plan of auction

X Chas

Determine food for lunch and bid

X Nick

Create flyers X Ben Write press release 1

X Rachel

Write Press release 2

X Chas

Contact Beth Twiss Houting

X Rachel

Create signs for car wash

X Chas & Colleen

Purchase car wash supplies

X Nick

Host car wash X Everyone Talk to church about silent auction

X Ben

Take photos for preview corner

X Rachel

Light up night X All

Banner for in front of church

X Rachel & Nick

Purchase light up night supplies

X Nick


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Budget

Due to a limited budget, Chariot PR is keeping costs as low as possible. In order to accomplish this, all of the printing for flyers will be done either at All Saint’s Church, or on campus through our personal printing budgets. The only funding that we are asking from All Saint’s Church is:

Car wash tools = $75 o We need to purchase sponges, hoses, nozzles and soap for the car

wash

Food & refreshments for event = $250 o Chariot PR will purchase hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, pretzels and a

variety of beverages in bulk, and will have them prepared at the church before and during the event. We will sell these refreshments for a small profit.

In addition, we are asking for an extra $75 in case of an underestimation of total costs. In total, Chariot PR is asking for $400 to cover all expenses necessary to successfully conduct this plan.

Evaluation

Businesses pitched and number of businesses at event We will pitch our event in person to at least 25 businesses in the Torresdale/ Northeast area on March 8th and 15th. We will meet with our contacts at the church to decide an optimum number of businesses for the event and adjust the number of pitches accordingly. We may need to contact more or less businesses depending on the capacity of the church grounds. The number of businesses at the event will be evaluated based on how close it is to the number the church wants. News coverage Our goal is to generate at least one local news story from our press releases. Attendees at carwash We will count the number of cars we wash and people we advertise to at the car wash. Our goal is to wash 50 cars and leave everyone with a flyer for the event. Attendees at Spring into Something New event We plan to have at least 100 attendees at our event. One member of Chariot PR will be in charge of tallying guests.


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Qualifications Ben Bousquet is a senior psychology major with minors in public relations and philosophy. His most recent focus has been on his public relations work - both at La Salle and his internship with the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management’s External Affairs Division. Ben has worked with several organizations to effectively craft messages and reach target publics. He looks forward to the opportunity to volunteer his time and public relations knowledge to a worthy community organization, All Saints’ Episcopal Church . Nick Gentile is a senior, public relations major. Through his work through La Salle University and his internship at Blake Anthony Group, a marketing consulting firm, Nick has been able to gain experience in organizing and conducting special events, marketing to the most important markets, and creating visually appealing publications. Nick’s knowledge will help to coordinate and advertise the “Spring into Something New” event being held for All Saints’ Church. Rachel Finkbeiner has well diversified writing skills. As a sports editor of the Collegian she is familiar with writing and editing journalism as well as being proficient in Adobe InDesign. Rachel has also taken two writing courses that involved writing short stories. Her experience as an editor has enabled her to maintain relationships with media personal and use social media such as twitter and Instagram to reach an audience. As a collegiate athlete Rachel has time management skills, as well as leadership experience which she hopes to utilize for this project with All Saints’ Church. Charles Berenato for the past two years has been on the fundraising committee for Sigma Phi Lambda, which has given him experience approaching businesses and asking for support. The 5K fundraiser Charles helped organize, generated nearly $20,000 collectively for La Salle Academy in two years. Although he has only published two articles for The Collegian, Charles’ writing experience earned him an internship with isportsweb where currently he is a Philadelphia 76ers correspondent. Charles will use his writing and interpersonal skills to help aid Chariot PR’s team in their spring event. Colleen Brand is senior public relations major with a minor in Social Work. Throughout her four years she has strengthened her work ethic and has focused on increasing her personal knowledge through group and individualized experience. Colleen recently was hired by a home caregiver organization to work part time in addition to helping her supervisor create various public relations strategies in her hometown. She enjoys volunteering her time at various nonprofit organizations as well as a yearly mission trip with La Salle University UMAS. With her experience in event planning, organizing specific campaigns and advertising, Colleen can help ensure that her team meets all of their goals for their client, All Saints Episcopal Church.

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