Save The World Honors Project PDF

Preview

Summary

Optional honors project essay for BADM 320, Wolters ...

Description

Save The World Project Non-Profit Organization: CATsNAP

Prepared by: XXX Netid: XXX BADM 320 Spring 2017 James Scholar Honors Project

Introduction: CATsNAP, established in 2005, focuses on reducing pet overpopulation and increasing the overall welfare of animals in Champaign County area . CATsNAP is short for Champaign Area Trap Spay/Neuter and Adoption Program. They hope to achieve this goal by spaying or neutering animals regardless age, sex or breed – limiting situations where animals are born in unsafe environments. CATsNAP of Central Illinois provides cheaper spay or neuter service and hold educational programs to promote successful pet ownership . CATsNAP falls into the Civic and Environmental Advocacy industry because one of their main goal is to reduce the number of unwanted animals in the Champaign-Urbana area; therefore, looking out of the city’s environmental well-being .

Key Success Factors of the Industry: The foremost factor for most non-profit organization within the Civic and Environmental Advocacy industry is to focus on one overarching social goal to benefit a broad segment of population . This means that citizens and community members should be well-aware of the organization’s services to be able to utilize them well when needed . CATsNAP’s umbrella goal is to protect animals from potential abuse by curbing the population. Another key success factor is providing affordable solutions to the social problem – CATsNAP gives and refers their customers to low-income or cheap spaying and neutering services. While clearly stating their overarching goal is useful, being adaptable is important too. The non-profit organization should be willing to extend their services to provide for the greater fulfillment of their bigger picture goal. While CATsNAP generally adopts, neuters and refers cats, they welcome all kinds of animals to support their organization’s vision. Along with adaptability, longevity of the proposed solutions is desired too. If the solutions are temporary then the purpose of the non-profit organization is defeated. The society relies on such organizations to do enough research and come up with sustainable insights. CATsNAP’s job is not over when they place cats or other animals in homes. They make sure to provide post-adoption services and have educational programs to promote positive pet-owner experiences. They also have a great network with the Champaign County Humane Society and foster homes to be able to cater to all the animals. According to CATsNAP’s website, they never euthanize animals due to lack of space – showcasing a well-developed goal and communicating it to the community.

Finally, non-profits organizations, with limited finances, should clearly establish ways of gathering more help from community members. CATsNAP’s website has a “How to Help” menu bar which directs the website user to either donation, volunteering or fostering for cats.

SWOT Analysis: Strengths: CATsNAP is one-of-a-kind non-profit within the Champaign-Urbana area, which gives them an edge over everyone else. With such an advantage, CATsNAP can ensure that their brand image can permeate in everyone’s minds in the community. With that being said, CATsNAP can greatly benefit from expanding their social presence to Instagram and Pinterest. Currently, CATsNAP is only on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram can be used to showcase the cats that are up for adoption in a more artistic way. Moreover, the hashtags can help gather attention of people outside of the Champaign County area, which can open doors to several opportunities for the organization as a whole. In short, Instagram taps into the “excite” stage of the 4E framework for social media. Pinterest, on the other hand, can be utilized to “educate” potential customers. Pinterest boards are a great way to spread information on how to effectively own pets, adoption checklists, dos and don’ts with pets etc. CATsNAP can also pin or share other people’s advices to give their customers a holistic idea before taking the big leap into adoption. As mentioned above, CATsNAP’s connections with foster homes and the local Humane Society helps ease the load on their small organization. CATsNAP, with its limited resources, cannot host each and every animal that comes through their front door. Therefore, having supporting organization tremendously assists in achieving CATsNAP’s main goal. Lastly, CATsNAP’s adoption program is very well positioned on their website. There is an “Adoption” menu bar which has all the information needed during the adoption process. CATsNAP also includes a lot of services within their adoption fees. Post-adoption services are a great way to entice potential customers to consider looking into CATsNAP’s cats. All of the different cats in their possession, along with their pictures and important health information are listed out under the same “Adoption” tab. The staff also does a phenomenal job of sharing the cat pictures on Facebook and Twitter to let their followers know of new opportunities.

Weaknesses: CATsNAP’s website, while very informative, lacks the visual appeal. It is very plain without any videos or pictures of their facility. Customers would be more excited to visit the organization’s office if they have a good idea of what it looks virtually. Virtual tours can also increase customer’s trust

because they will know that the cats are in a safe environment. Media richness is one of the two factors that defines social media, and CATsNAP will attract a regular flow of visitors if the website is more lively. As a part of making the website brighter, it would be helpful CATsNAP can make their “About Us” page more personalized. For example – they can add pictures of their leadership and a little blurb of what specific role they play within the organization. This will help the website visitors to narrow down their questions to the specific person and form a better relationship with the staff. Another area where CATsNAP can improve upon is the Events calendar. After checking out the webpage as well as the calendar, I was unable to spot any events for the next six months. The educational events are an important part of a non-profit organization’s brand identity. A potential adopter would be disappointed to not find any events to attend. Therefore, making sure that there is an event per month and publicizing it well will get CATsNAP more attention in the local community. When CATsNAP is more regular with their events, they can also start a monthly newsletter that will act as a friendly reminder and an advertisement to their followers. Some customers can be less social media savvy, but regular check their emails – newsletter is the perfect tool to bridge that gap. In terms of gathering more funds, I believe CATsNAP should expand their online donation services from just PayPal to other forms of payments. Opening more methods will encourage more donation as potential donors have varied options to make a difference within the organization. Currently, CATsNAP does a great job of listing out how every dollar makes a huge difference in their regular operations – such as mere $30 can get a month’s supply of anti-thyroid medication or prescription food for cats. Once the newsletter is set in place, the links to different donation methods can also be incorporated!

Opportunities: CATsNAP has a very big geographical advantage – it is based in the campus town of a Big 10 university. CATsNAP should utilize the thousands of students on campus to advance towards their mission. The staff should pair up with a university department such as Animal Science or the Vet Med School to gather more volunteer or funds. Moreover, a lot of students are interested in adopting pets during the stressful years of college. Therefore, it is in CATsNAP’s interests to expand their presence on the University of Illinois’ campus. Following the 4E framework again, the organization will benefit from engaging their existing customers to establish their brand even further . CATsNAP should encourage current adopters to provide testimonials about their experiences to create a more relatable atmosphere for potential adopters via their website. Word of mouth, online reviews or peer reviews in general are much more effective than sole research because they are more personal and touch every aspect of the product – the good, the bad

and the ugly. Testimonials and reviews will increase CATsNAP’s self-disclosure on their social media platforms and will leave a lasting impression on their clients. The more in-depth the information is with regards to feelings, ideas, and beliefs, the more authentic the brand image.

Threats: CATsNAP does take in a lot a fair amount of sick cats and it might be hard for them to make sure that such cats find a home before they become terminally ill. Therefore, the organization runs the risk of constantly taking care of unhealthy cats till their demise. Most adopters prefer to adopt young, healthy bred cats so that they can keep them for long and feel that their investment worth it. Moreover, adopters might go elsewhere to adopt pets – the Humane Society or specific pet shops. CATsNAP, being on a smaller budget, does not have great outreach within the community. Adopters might not come to CATsNAP simply because they do not know it exists. As previously mentioned, the organization should definitely focus on getting word out about their existence in the community to attract pet enthusiasts. CATsNAP should focus on creating a sustainable comparative advantage (SCA) to distinguish themselves from other community non-profit organization partners. There are four main areas of SCA – customer excellence, locational excellence, operational excellence and product excellence. CATsNAP can develop their SCA using both customer and product excellence. Product excellence is mostly achieved since the organization provides great services for potential and existing adopters. CATsNAP is yet to create a solidified customer care division. As a small step, the non-profit can allow for customer complaints section on their website to be able to address unhappy clients. Moreover, they should also have a specific customer care phone number rather than the generic front-desk landline. An established customer care department will give customers the solace that their complaints will be heard and eventually addressed. Additionally, sick cats will slowly deplete CATsNAP’s resources. CATsNAP should consider launching some fundraisers or leveraging volunteers to get income from other sources. When CATsNAP is active about gathering funds for their organization, the community will notice them and join them to help their cause.

Online Presence: CATsNAP’s social presence is limited to Facebook and Twitter. Analyzing Facebook – CATsNAP does a phenomenal job of regularly posting about the new cats they take in. The staff posts pictures along with description about the cat’s information and the link to the official adoption page on their website. Facebook is not a website; therefore, there should not be an information overload.

Visually appealing pictures of cats attract visitors and the provided website link can guide them to further details. Another neat feature of Facebook posts is the “share” option – allowing friends of the followers to view the posts if shared. Hence, the staff’s job becomes to not only update Facebook but also engage their followers to share the posts as it acts like a virtual word of mouth advertising. Facebook is not just to attract potential adopters, but also recognize the current ones. CATsNAP very enthusiastically posts when a cat finds a permanent home on their Facebook page. An improvement CATsNAP can make to enhance their Facebook presence more is to have more interesting captions to their cat pictures. Instead of simply putting the cat’s name, if they put interesting facts about the cat or provide a twist, then visitors are more likely to look forward to their posts. CATsNAP’s Twitter, on the other hand, is full of links to their Facebook page. Since all tweets need to be less than 140 characters, links are a great strategy to gather online traffic and then direct them to either Facebook or their official website to provide more formal, in-depth information . It has been concluded that links are re-tweeted thirty times more than tweets without links! To brighten their twitter page, the staff can also add pictures of their cats like they did for Facebook . CATsNAP should also utilize Twitter’s claim to fame: hashtags. Hashtags will allow their posts to be searched using common hashtags and attract more visitors. With similar intentions, the staff should add their twitter feed on their official CATsNAP website. The live twitter feed gives a sense of constant updating rather than a static website – proving to consumers that the organization puts effort into putting together their online sites. As a wrap up, CATsNAP’s social media is very relevant to their brand image and very rarely, if not never, goes off-topic. Both Facebook and Twitter are inter-linked and give a clear idea of what the organization is about. With some minor improvements and expansion to Instagram and Pinterest, CATsNAP’s social media will be great in bringing in the much-needed community attention . Revisiting the website, while pictures and virtual tour videos will help brighten up the user experience, it is noteworthy that simplicity is good . We do not want to bombard the customers with a lot of information such as unnecessary advertisements. Finding the right balance between aesthetically pleasing and visual pollution can be hard, but very rewarding once achieved .

CATsNAP on the University of Illinois’ Campus: To leverage all of their available assets, I previously mentioned that CATsNAP can partner up with the university to spread a word around about themselves. I still believe that starting a program to provide extra credit or something similar with students in animal-related major will help tremendously . However, there is another way too involve student – registered student organization (RSO) or clubs.

CATsNAP already has an RSO, namely CATsNAP Student Chapter. The student organization can provide a lot of resources to the organization and the full-time staff should most definitely showcase the club’s existence on their website . The fundraisers mentioned above can happen through the campus club, and the university also has football games that the club members can volunteer at to earn around $300 per game. Students can also directly volunteer with the organization and can be potential foster homes for the kittens until they’re adopted full-time. Getting the club involved does take care of a lot of the organization’s concerns. Lastly, the RSO can be a great way to organize events and get the events calendar all filled up again! The full-time staff can target Champaign county’s residents while the RSO can gather all the students to ensure a good attendance turnout. The club can also reserve rooms in campus buildings so CATsNAP does not have to worry about location or space within their office .

General Recommendations: Website: A solid addition to the website will be to clearly spell out their vision and mission instead of a generic goal. The website does do a good job of spreading their overarching goal, but an organization that has a well-established mission statement is more attractive . On the same note, it would be very effective if CATsNAP post their organizational goals on their website – through meeting minutes or annual reports. After the year is over, CATsNAP can proudly boast achievements of those goals. This develops a sense of accountability and reliability for the organization as a whole . The customers will also be able to understand the internal workings of the organization better and can provide help accordingly. Under the organizational objectives, CATsNAP should focus on showcasing numbers that support their existence – how are they making difference in the community? How many animals have they saved and provided a permanent home for ? Quantitative data gives a means to measure the success of a non-profit organization. Potential donors would want to know how their money is going to be utilized and there is no better way than providing supporting data.

Social Media: While both Facebook and Twitter are in sync for CATsNAP, it is a good idea to diversify one’s posts to be able to attract more online visitors. As of now, CATsNAP is simply linking everything they post on Facebook on Twitter, but they should try to add a variety on Twitter to provide something unique to their followers on all the different platforms. This is a way of market segmentation for the

organization as well to be able to target, or research about each segment, and position, or communicating, in the most productive way. A social media plan can be developed to understand the full scope of how to use Facebook, Twitter and other potential sites to expand CATsNAP in the Champaign County neighborhood. A social media plan defines and clarifies what should and should not be on social media, the target groups, how to stay updated with new social media and having good justification for posting any content online. The world is increasingly becoming digital – it is significant to spend a good amount of time in preparing to launch an organization on the World Wide Web. Creating a social media blueprint ensures that everyone in the organization is on the same page and there are no discrepancies in the tone or voice of the uploader online. How to find a “target” audience? Different types of social media appeal to different audiences. Facebook user’s usual characteristics are 40% male and 60% female . Only about 80% have higher education and two-thirds are above the age of 35. On the other hand, Twitter is more evenly split with 55% male and 45% female. Two-thirds have college education and 50% are above the age of 35 . In conclusion, Facebook has more females and an older audience than Twitter . Therefore, care should be taken about the tone used on both platforms – Facebook should be more formal than Twitter posts. Twitter is good to find what is trending currently and Facebook is great for customer communication and engagement . Audiences are also segregated based on their year of birth or more commonly – their generation. Here are the definitions of the generation cohorts to keep in mind when designing the content of one’s social media presence – a) Seniors (born before 1946): known to be brand loyal b) Baby Boomers (1946 – 1964): leisure is important to this generation, individualistic c) Generation X (1965 – 1976): do not trust ads, lower income than their parents d) Millennials (1977 – 2000): Tech savvy, less physical interaction e) Generation Z (2001 – present): Grew up with technology, multi-tasking As we can observe, people born after 1977 are becoming increasingly tech savvy, and any step taken towards marketing needs to take into account this shift in lifestyle . Therefore, CATsNAP can find a target audience based on the age and what kind of social media they prefer to use .

Conclusion:

CATsNAP’s mission and vision are great – the adoption service seems like their biggest service and investment in terms of both time and finances. To spread the word about their great services, the staff should leverage their assets to their full extent. Firstly, CATsNAP should make partnerships with departments on campus to recruit a steady flow of volunteers from University of Illinois, and make sure that the campus club, CATsNAP Student Chapter, is actively hosting events to get more students involved directly with the non-profit. Furthermore, introducing newsletters will be beneficial to rope in local townspeople . The organization should also look into changing up their posts on Twitter and making it different from their Facebook posts to diversify their content and by extension, their audience . For the website specifically, CATsNAP should add more visual aids to excite potential adopters. They should also add the live Twitter feed to brighten up their websit...