Developing a Public Relations Plan - Essay Example

? Developing a Public Relations Plan, Part Organization: mission and purpose The American Red Cross is a non-profit organization that works for thehumanitarian causes of the society. The organization provides relief to the people of the society under the situations of emergency. The victims of disastrous events who need emergency relief and shelter are looked after by the American Red Cross who takes immediate action in providing them the required relief. The aspects of education, food and basic needs of life are provided to the helpless people in the conditions of emergency. The American Red Cross is the US affiliate to International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The organization does not have business profits as its motive of operation. On the other hand, the mission of American Red Cross is to help and save the people of the society by providing them shelter, food, education and basic amenities of life during the conditions of emergency. The purpose of the American Red Cross is to lend a helping hand as life support to the destitute and people affected because of disasters. The disasters may be natural as well as man-made. American Red Cross serves the noble cause of supporting the section of the society who are helpless and are in need of basic amenities for existence. Facts and rationale: event that created negative publicity The American Red Cross elected its seventh CEO, Gail. J. McGovern amidst scandals involving their former CEO in 2007. Post election of the seventh president, the American Red Cross lay off around one thousand employees from its operational work force. The job cuts imposed by the senior management was brought about in order to restore a balance in the financial condition of the non-profit organization in a situation of crunch in the fund raising activities. The squeeze in the donation receipt in the denominations of dollar as sources of funds for the organization led to the job cuts of around one thousand workers. The decrease in dollar donation to the organization was majorly due to the slowdown of the US economy that created a situation of liquidity crisis. This event created a negative publicity for the organization as they carry out activities of supporting the society. The occurrence of lay off in the number of jobs impacted the aspect of public relations. The public relation between the organization and the society is extremely important for carrying out their welfare activities. Thus negative publicity due to this event laid to the public relations crisis. Goals of campaign: rationale behind choosing these goals The goals of the campaign are to reduce the caused damages due to the occurrence of public relations crisis. The specific goals include sustaining the public image of the organization that has developed over the years, maintain the confidence level of the public on the operations of the organization and also maintain a continuous flow of donations to the organization as a major source of fund for its operations. The reason behind choosing these goals is to maintain a healthy public relation with the society which is the key to effective operations of the organization. The organization provides relief, shelter, food, education and other basic amenities of life to the helpless people of the society and to the victims of disasters. These are funded majorly from the donations of the public. The organization conducts fund raising campaign in order to raise money from the people. Thus, healthy public relations are required to be maintained by the organization with the people of the society. In order to restrict the damage due to the situation of public relations crisis from the job cuts imposed, these goals have been chosen as a part of the damage control campaign. Steps to achieve the goals The steps to be taken in order to achieve the goals are to be designed in a calculated manner. A crisis communication plan needs to be set up by the organization. As a part of the crisis communication plan, the content of communication with the public needs to be prepared by taking into consideration the sentiments of the public, the extent of damage of the public image of the company, the degree of negative publicity that has taken place due to the job cuts and the expectations of the people from the organization. The reasons behind the actions taken by the organization that led to the public relations crisis need to be explained by the organization. The communication should be held with the public on a one to one basis as far as possible in order to reduce the effects of intermediate opinion and misguided consultation. The workforce in the field plays a major role in delivering the message of the organization to the public (Beckwith, 2006). The ground work force should be able to justify the actions of the organization and explain the underlying causes that led to the event. The public concerns of the organization need to be articulated and the message should be passed that the company is trying to avoid such events in near future. The employees should be trained to point out the inflated portions of the news published by the media and emphasize on the actual facts of the event for awareness of the public. Evaluation plan: ways to assess the outcome of the campaign The plan to evaluate the outcome of the campaign aimed at limiting the effects of the public relations crisis has been discussed below. Periodic surveys need to be conducted in the market to take feedback after the initial steps are undertaken as a part of the campaign. The responses of the people to the social activities undertaken by the organization need to be recorded. The amounts of subscription received as a part of the fund raising activities are also recorded by the field staffs. The recorded responses are then analyzed to determine the market sentiments. This would help in understanding the status of current public relationship of the company. The amounts of fund raised from the people as part of the campaign are also indicators of the outcome of the campaign. These indicators are helpful to evaluate the outcome of the campaign held to control the situation of negative publicity of the non-profit organization. Reference Beckwith, S. (2006). Publicity for Nonprofits: Generating Media Exposure That Leads to Awareness, Growth, and Contributions. USA: Kaplan Publishing. Read More