The Challenges of Working in Not-for-Profit

I felt good about getting a placement at Cancer Support WA because it meant that in my 20 days not only would I be able to gain valuable experience in the Public Relations field but I would be able to lend a hand to an organisation that relies heavily upon volunteers.
It wasn't until about half way through my placement that I really saw the implications of this reliance.

While there are 15 paid staff employed at CSWA there are around 65 volunteers and 10 interns every year that make all of their programs and events possible.
Specifically in a PR context there are only two staff dedicated to marketing and communications.

It appears that a number of the volunteers helping out are involved in the organisation due to a personal connection - being touched by cancer in some way and wanting to give back to the organisation that helped them through a hard time.
This means that their volunteers are very passionate and willing to put in significant time and effort to ensure the organisation can continue to provide its valuable services.

I found an article on the topic that put it quite nicely by saying "the ability to attract, maintain, and develop human resources, places ongoing strains and stresses on the constancy of programme and service delivery for not-for-profits".
The organisation doesn't have the time or resources to thoroughly train all of its voluntary staff nor is it feasible for them to be constantly monitoring their work. Having to trust their work without quality control is a risk that leaves potential for a lot of errors and without any monetary incentive it is harder to set expectations and deadlines.

On the other hand, due to tight budgets the paid staff have both limited resources and very high expectations. They work incredibly hard to better the organisation but as there are so few of them their work load tends to be very big and they can't help but rely on their volunteers to get everything done, so the challenge is being able to strike a balance between paid staff and volunteers.

That's it for now, thanks for reading.

Kelsey

The Art of Making News Relevant

The Art of Making News Relevant 

The main projects I have been working on at the Department of Sport and Recreation have been news stories, eNewsletters and Media releases. These have been about new programs and events which are on. Whilst this work sounds very routine, I have learnt something new from it. At uni we are taught about all communications material needs a message, which was easy enough as I could make up my own message. Out in the workforce, you have to capture someone else's message and aim for their program they made. Again this may not sound as hard as you may think, but because not everyone works in communications, not everyone knows how to write a message. 

This is where my learning begun. I had to learn how to read in between the lines. I get given the information, and from that I need to try to understand what it is they are really trying to say. I really learnt the importance of making something exciting to your audience. One of the stories I was working on was development programs for volunteers. This was very exciting news at the Department of Sport and Recreation, as it was another great way to support community sport. The issue was how I convince a volunteer, who already has a job, has kids and needs to do the food shopping, to give up a night to come to a development program to benefit their sports club they volunteer for on the weekends. I suddenly realised just because it is free and benefit the volunteer, I still need to convey the development programs worth. 

At first I struggled a little with wrapping my head around all the different programs, and who I should be targeting. I had to do a lot of research and really learn what the programs were about and what they were trying to achieve. Once I did this, I spoke to my boss to clarify that the aims and messaging I had come up with, matched what the intended benefits of the programs were. In the end we worked together on it for a little bit and came up with a clear message for each target group. This is a link to the general news story promoting the online page promoting the new events.

Community Volunteers Project
This has been a very valuable lesson as it is important to be able to communicate to your target market the value in your news.  

GGF WORRIORS- Ready march to Royal Show!

ALOHA fellow interns!

How have you all been doing?

Who LOVES the Royal Show?

Since it is the tuition free week at Curtin, why not come to Royal Show and say Hi to us!

YES the GGF team aka. GGF WORRIORS will be there selling yummy delicious meat ball subs and chicken rolls!

This year GGF is also partnering up with Canon Foods to set up a stall like last year in the Jim Webster Pavillion to help the organisation raise funds to set up education centres beyond crisis care for all people affected by domestic violence.

One of our interns, Ciara, is in charge for this year's Royal Show food stall project. She has been searching and contacting interested individuals to get them actively involved with our GGF's Project Butterfly Team as volunteers to help out at our stall at the Show.

Check this out: Volunteers get to get a FREE pass to the Show! How awesome is that?!

As for myself? Of course I took this great offer.

My shift was on Sunday from 10am - 1pm, I took a friend of mine to go along with me, She was also looking for experience and some volunteer work so i suggested her to come along as a volunteer for GGF.

After getting briefed on the instructions by one of the Canon Foods staff also assisting us on the day, we got started straightaway!

It was a busy 3 hrs of work, however it was a really good experience.

There were so many competitiors around us, such as the Browns Milk stall there were constantly giving out free samples of their new Minty flavoured chocolate milk to the customers. Therefore we had to do our best to compete with the others around us, using the microphone voacally promoting the stall to attract more attention.

We tried giving out free meatballs on a toothpick, however it was a BAD IDEA.... people started to crowed around our stall, queuing up for free meatballs, we had to stop because people only came for the free meatballs instead of buying them...

So, drop by the Canon Foods stall in the Jim Webster Pavillion and grab a delicious swedish meat ball sub with sauces of your choice or a hot chicken roll for $3.50 each, all proceeds will being going to the Global Good Foundation, so come on down and also grab a flyer with details on our GGF Gala Ball at the Hyatt Regency in Perth, invite your family and friends to attend a night of fun and glamour.

Together, Let us all support a really great cause!

Find us at Royal Show everyone!

Every dollar counts and we need your support!

BECKS
From the GGF Team sign out.

Volunteers on board for the Global Good!

I’m lucky that I don’t have as many contact hours at Curtin this Semester, so I can afford to come into the office 3 days a week and really get the most out of my time here at the Global Good Foundation. This decision has proven to be really beneficial, as I can work on set projects and make more progress on a more constant basis! One of the main projects that the GGF communications department have been focused on lately is the lead up to the Global Good Gala Event, which is a large-scale ball to be held at the Hyatt at the end of October.

The main task I’ve been working on in regards to this is devising strategies to sell the remaining tickets to the ball! Which is much easier said than done, especially because the ticket purchasers largely belong to a specific market of the corporate world. The strategies that I’ve been putting into action have been based on social networking, corporate partnerships and the direct tactic of handing out flyers to the public. I’ve been organising days in Perth CBD, Cottesloe and other Western suburb areas for flyer handouts, which has included writing run-sheets, schedules and recruiting volunteers.

Recruiting volunteers has been a massive task, where I have reached different groups of people via the internal database of GGF, my personal contacts, word of mouth, online volunteer websites such as SEEK volunteer and call outs to universities such as Curtin and UWA. I have also managed to find a number of companies that pay their employees to do one day’s work a year volunteering for a charity organisation, such as Westpac, GE Money and Ernst and Young. It’s been really worthwhile contacting these companies, as many have shown interest and now there are a large number of Ernst and Young employees volunteering at the upcoming Royal Show on behalf of GGF!

The progress I have made with recruiting volunteers has really paid off. There are so many disheartening ‘nos’ in PR, particularly within the non-for-profit sector, but I’ve learnt that you just have to keep trying and when you finally get a ‘yes’ all the hard work is worth it! I feel that my work has been appreciated, as I was asked to be the project manager for GGF’s activities at the Royal Show this year, which involves having a sausage sizzle in the IGA tent and general promotion of the upcoming Global Good Gala Event. Some things I’ve been doing include coordinating the volunteers, devising a schedule and allocating shifts, compiling an information package and conducting training phone conferences with all the volunteers. The amount of responsibility I have been given and trust that GGF has in me has made a big difference to my self confidence and motivation. I’m looking forward to what looks to be a very busy week at the Royal Show next week and getting out the office to have some real-life event involvement!

On a final note, there are still a few shift spots left to volunteer on behalf of the GGF at the Royal Show from September 25 – October 2. You’ll get free entrance and be helping raise funds for GGF and awareness of domestic violence in the community by holding a sausage sizzle in the IGA tent. Time slots run from 10am-1pm, 1pm-4pm and 4pm-7pm. Please contact me via ciara@ggf.org.au or on 0412 303 080 if you’re interested!

P.S. I am looking forward to getting my hands on a Beertie Beetle showbag and not having to pay my little brother to get it instead for the first time in years...