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Campaign title: Walk a Mile for Autism

Client: Autism Society of Cumberland County (ASCC)

Campaign team: JulieAnna Carsen, Mellisia Clarke, Matt Greene, Allison Griffin, Kim Stepp

Faculty advisor: Dr. Dandan Liu

SITUATION ANALYSIS

The Autism Society of Cumberland County in Fayetteville of North Carolina was focused on offering support forfamilies with children and/or adults living with an autism spectrum disorder. One of their biggest challenges for theorganization was inadequate funding. The organization had held several fundraising events such as the annual golftournament, a Vera Bradley bingo tournament, and dinner at Joes Crab Shack, with a moderate level of success.The ASCC wanted to increase funding and community awareness of the support offered to its individuals andfamilies.

RESEARCH

Initial research was conducted to clarify the client's mission, prioritize the client's needs, and discover the existing

efforts to meet the needs. The team conducted both primary research and secondary research to gain in-depthknowledge about the issue of autism in general and the status of this issue in North Carolina in particular. The teamalso collected information to design and refine strategies for their own campaign. Primary research includedinterviews with four local organizations associated with the issue of autism, such as the Special Olympics ofCumberland County (SOCC), the Exceptional family Member Program at Fort Bragg (the military base nearFayetteville, NC), the Health Occupation Students of America, and the Director of Social Works Department atUNC-Pembroke. Secondary research was conducted through web-based research on key statistics on the issue ofautism in North Carolina and how similar organizations raise funds in their communities.

Research showed that many organizations held run/walk events that involved families and community membersfrom various organizations and businesses. The team learned that, although popular within Cumberland County, norun/walk events were ever organized solely to benefit the causes related to autism. Research also helped the team toidentify and redefine the audiences as the statistics highlighted the particular needs of military families, which took a

great portion of the population in Fayetteville, NC.

PLANNING

The campaign plan closely correlated with the findings through both primary and secondary research. The teamplanned the main event of the fundraising campaign, a non-competitive run/walk, in addition to two promotionalactivities prior to the event date. The rationale came from the following research findings:

Run/walk events were effective to draw a large crowd, especially in the spring months. April happened to

be the National Autism Awareness Month.

Successful run/walk events received the greatest number of entries due to early registration, either through

online or in-person submission. The non-competitive run/walk attracted family members of all ages.

Successful run/walk events all focused on local issues and tailored the messages to local target audiences.

The overall goals were to bring awareness to the local community about the ASCC's services and improve theorganization's financial status. The main objective of the campaign was to raise at least $500 for the ASCC fromJanuary to April 2012.

The target audience consisted of:

Families of children and/adults living with an autism spectrum disorder

o Military families

o Non-military families

Cumberland County Schools

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Local businesses

The campaign strategy was to create an interactive event for the target audiences and promote the event through acombination of multi-media channels and interpersonal communication. The team tailored the messages to the targetaudiences according to research findings and took an aggressive approach to publicize the main event (the run/walk)through information tables at a popular local clothing retailer, dinner night at a local restaurant, radio interviews,

press releases for newspapers and magazines, customized flyers for public schools, military families, and localbusinesses, Facebook postings, Scribd promotion of the registration form, and personal visits to the localcommunity.

The team had a zero budget at the start of this campaign and covered the expenses through early registration feesand donations.

EXECUTION

The team successfully executed the plan to organize the main event of the fundraising campaign, a run/walk, inaddition to implementing the pre-event activities. The outcome was very successful as the campaign exceeded theobjective and raised $1293. In general, all activities flowed smoothly as the team strategically set up the publicitychannels and worked hard to solicit sponsorship and donations from local businesses.

Tactic #1: Information Table & Early RegistrationThe team set up an information table, with a donation jar, at Old Navy for both the Easter weekend and the militarypay weekend. Both weekends were the peak sales periods at this popular local clothing retailer. A large crowd wasexposed to the flyers and posters about the ASCC and the upcoming run/walk event. Early registration forms weredistributed at the store.

Tactic #2: Buffalo Wild Wings Dinner, Eat Wings for FundsThe team also teamed up with Buffalo Wild Wings to develop a customer coupon validating 10 percent of thecustomer receipt as donation toward the ASCC. Two dinner nights honoring the coupon were set up close to therun/walk event day so that customers would be aware of the event.

Tactic #3: Walk a Mile for AutismThe main event was held at 8:00 am on April 15, 2012. The team made extensive efforts to publicize the event

through both multi-media channels and interpersonal communication. The SOCC co-hosted the event with theASCC and provided the location and the activity materials. At the beginning of the event, the team was a bitoverwhelmed by the turnout of the participants and had to quickly set up the site to respond to the crowd and adjustto the situation when they ran out of the 50 free t-shirts for the participants. The event day included activities forkids, gift-bags, t-shirts, snacks, a one-mile walk around Reid Ross Track, and a raffle drawing. The team alsocollected registration fees, donations, and raffle ticket payments, and surveyed the participants.

EVALUATION

Through diligent research, planning, and execution, the team exceeded the campaign objective.

Objective: Raise $500 for the Autism Society of Cumberland County within three months.Outcome: The campaign raised $1293.

The team also conducted a survey during the event to assess the participants experience and receive 36 responsesout of 100 participants. Survey results showed that the publicity efforts reached over 65% of the respondents whilethe remaining respondents learned about the event from word of mouth. Survey results also found that 19% of theparticipants surveyed said they received their registration form Facebook, 31% were directed to the ASCC websitefor official document downloads, 3% signed up at the Old Navy promotion, 16% received the form from a series ofemail blasts to organizational members, and the remaining 31% registered the day of the event. The generalconsensus of those surveyed was that, they were extremely satisfied with the event and felt strongly about futureevents of this nature.

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Campaign title: Walk Mile For Autism

Client: Autism Society of Cumberland County (ASCC)

Campaign team: JulieAnna Carsen, Mellisia Clarke, Matt Greene, Allison Griffin, Kim Stepp

Faculty advisor: Dr. Dandan Liu

SUMMARY

The non-profit Autism Society of Cumberland County struggled with funding and public awareness for theirservices and support for families with children and /or adults living with an autism spectrum disorder. Publicrelations seniors from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke conducted a fundraising campaign, Walk a Milefor Autism, for the ASCC during the National Autism Awareness Month in 2012. The campaign successfully raised$1293 and boosted the awareness of the ASCC's services with extensive publicity in both traditional media andsocial media outlets.