Growing Power

Public Relations Planning and Strategy Plan

6/26/15

Michael W.L. Mott

Green Target

ContentsSituation Overview:.....................................................................................................................................2

S.W.O.T. Analysis of Growing Power:..........................................................................................................3

Potential Organizational Goals and Objectives for Growing Power:............................................................5

Audiences (Stakeholders):...........................................................................................................................5

Competition Analysis:..................................................................................................................................6

Tactical Strategy:.........................................................................................................................................7

Campaign Measurement:............................................................................................................................9

Sample Press Release................................................................................................................................10

Situation OverviewIntroduction to Growing Power:

Mission Statement: “To grow food, to grow minds, and to grow community”

Growing Power is a nonprofit community organization and land trust which helps better people and their respective communities by providing balanced and equal access to “healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food.” Since the founding of the organization in 1993, Growing Power has continually help develop, transform and ultimately improve various communities by developing “Community Food Centers” to help bring whole communities fresh and whole foods.

The efforts made by Growing Power have helped combat against major food sustainability issues such as the contemporary epidemic of food deserts found in mostly minority communities. Growing Power also gives hands on training, instruction and assistance and formed whole community relationships by teaching others to help grow, process, market and ultimately distribute their own food in order to help promote an increasingly sustainable environment.

According to experts such as Jerry Kaufman, a professor emeritus in regional and urban planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Growing Power has been incredibly successful in their endeavors: “Growing Power is probably the leading urban agricultural project in the United States… Growing Power is not just talking about what needs to be changed, it’s accomplishing it.” Will Allen, the founder of Growing Power who remains very active within the organization and all its internal and external activities believes that those who are at a disadvantage from a socio-economic perspective need help by learning about the benefits of fresh and healthy foods: “Low-quality food is resulting in diabetes, obesity, and sickness… Poor people are not educated about nutrition and don’t have access to stores that sell nutritious food and they wind up with diabetes and heart disease.”

Growing Power also has a separate entity called the Growing Food and Justice Initiative; a network consisting of about 500 individuals whose common goal is to fight against what has been classified as “food racism”, the structural exclusion of healthy foods to poor Latino and African-American neighborhoods. Currently, Growing Power has set up urban farms within urban areas to help increase access to freshly grown food, for example, in Chicago, Illinois Growing Power has farms in Grant Park in the central downtown area and in Altgeld Gardens on 132nd street.

S.W.O.T. Analysis of Growing PowerStrengths:

The organization has an established brand image on a national scale as they are known by people across the United States

GP is a pioneer organization regarding their diligent work in the community as well as the multiple types of urban farming, including vertical farming and aquaponics

Have an established following and have made a meaningful impact in various neighborhoods, communities and urban areas in the Midwest

Founder Will Allen designed a unique aquaponics systems, which only requires around $3,000 to build, instead of the usual $50,000 cost for a normal commercially built one

Offers tours to groups which gradually increases “word-of-mouth” brand awareness, helps lead to an increase in brand loyalty over the long term

Horizontally integrated into selling its products grown on their farms to restaurant, could use this for advertising/marketing purposes to increase fundraising opportunities

Has established “Youth Corps” in Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL, programs for youth which engages hundreds of youth to help educate them on food sustainability- this is a great advantage for reaching stakeholders and target audiences for GP- the youth

Weaknesses:

Lacks any form of multimedia shortform video content such as Vine, Instagram etc. thus GP is not able to reach its target audience of youth, who represent the future of society and food sustainability

The last publicized grant GP received was in 2012, for $5 million from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Has not established a secure following; do not have an established popular market; are not widely known or publicized at all

Has not vigorously gone after and targeted key influencers e.g. local aldermen, City Council, or powerful individuals with influence in Chicago

Has not made consistent efforts to go out and actively engage others outside of the targeted communities, in order to raise awareness the outside communities need to be informed about GP’s mission, purpose, and organizational goals and objectives

Opportunities:

GP can use multimedia shortform content such as Vine videos and Instagram to showcase work and attract a following; video components can help GP gain more popularity

GP can tap into where the young audience is e.g. summer music concerts, they could try to sponsor specific small, local events to raise awareness

GP could also create an info graphic to pass out at events, a form of shortform communication with URL/link to website tagged on the bottom

GP could host information forums or networking events where they could team up with local sports teams e.g. the Chicago White Sox or Chicago Bulls or even a local popular venue where a portion of the ticket proceeds could go to ticket proceeds

Create an official YouTube account with which GP can be directly affiliated with; create a unique hashtag solely pertinent to Green Power e.g. #GPFoodOasis

GP could run and launch an integrated campaign to help promote their brand

Threats:

Perception of impropriety is a threat to all nonprofit organizations, simply meaning GP should continue to stay active in all the communities it operates in

There is a need for expansion, so the brand of GP can spread to truly be operating on a national scale instead of a regional scale

If the economy suffers, this would not only greatly harm the communities GP works in on a massive scale, however it would also make the work GP does even more challenging; people are less comfortable to donate to a nonprofit when the economy is weak

Potential Organizational Goals and Objectives for Growing PowerOrganizational Goals:

Increase overall awareness of Growing Power on a much larger scale Increase the number of youth who intern or attend programs hosted by Growing Power Increase the amount of grants, donations and donors themselves

Organizational Objectives:

Create an information graphic to hand out at local popular summer events Create a professional Vine, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube account Share success stories not only on website but also via various social media channels

Audiences (Stakeholders):

Primary target audiences:

Minority youth who are underrepresented/living in a disadvantaged are or living in low income neighborhoods

Adults (young adults-senior citizens) who are living in or grew up in these same neighborhoods

Secondary target audiences:

All youth in general, from elementary school to high school seniors, who are interested in the environment, sustainability and the a more fair, just and balanced world and society

Young adults- adults, from 18-36, who are socially active and who are also interested in the environment, sustainability and a more fair, just and balanced world and society

People of influence, e.g. celebrities from Chicago, or people with high profiles and influence who live in the Chicago land area

Potential donors to the organization

Competition Analysis

Although there is not explicitly direct competition to Growing Power, there are many established organizations which are potentially taking away major donors, grants and fundraising opportunities for Growing Power.

A possible potential rival to Growing Power is Urban Farming, a global non-profit organization which operates on an international scale. Their mission is “to create an abundance of food for all in our generation.” Urban Farming also has two key advantages over Growing Power: first, they operate on an international scale, meaning they are more well-known than Growing Power; furthermore, a simple name such as “Urban Farming” also has an advantage because people will immediately have an initial knowledge of what the organizations work entails. Secondly, Urban Farming has a much more expansive social media presence than Growing Power as they have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube account meaning that there brand is far more accessible to the general public than Growing Power.

Surprisingly, despite Urban Farming’s international presence, Growing Power has the advantage over Urban Farming as 467 more people are actively talking about Growing Power. In addition, Growing Power has 9,974 more total page likes than Urban Farming. However, Urban Farming has more New Page Likes this week, but both organizations are decreasing in the amount of New Page Likes they are receiving this week.

Tactical Strategy

Tactic Notes

Social Media Social media audit Create a Growing Power official Vine,

Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts to help establish a young following of people who are possible stakeholders (people who have interest in the activities of what GP is doing)

Post regularly to these social media accounts with high quality images and relevant, grammatical correct and pertinent tweets

Start a Volunteer Social Media Corp; create Facebook groups associated with GP, or a Google+ group

Host Monthly Google Hangouts or Website Podcast where representatives are able to communicate with the public about their latest successes and projects and also show interest in the public and those who can help donate to their cause

Vine: post regular videos of activities e.g. feeding the livestock or videos of you watering the crops; post regularly, at minimum 5 times a week; include link to website as well as other social media profiles

Instagram: post high quality pictures every other day of activities GP is engaged in; make sure to showcase youth as well as a diverse population of employees and people involved; use hashtags such as #GrowingPower, #Sustainability #FoodOasis, etc.; include link to website as well as other social media profiles

YouTube: post PSA style video style; also post possible interviews videos with Will Allen; create short documentaries with possible deep success stories of how GP changed a youths life to help show potential donors the difference GP makes

Tweets: tweet links to social media profiles, or YouTube where success stories would be posted; tweet at minimum 5 times a week, always with a hashtag to help attract a following; consistency and professionalism is key to help attract a major following

Raise Increase Awareness and Broaden Visibility of Growing Power

Establish a young following by tapping into where they are: e.g. music concerts – try and partner up or join in, help sponsor popular events such as Lollapalooza; create a social media graphic to help pass out at these events

Host information forums and networking events e.g. try to partner with local celebrities and organizations e.g. contact Noah’s Arc Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by popular Chicago Bulls player Joahkim Noah, would be a great opportunity for Growing Power’s work in Chicago as Noah’s Arc Foundation helps South/Westside communities and the youth of these communications

Media Relations Write press releases about major events GP is engaged in and send to reporters, pitch ideas on specific articles to write about GP

Try and attract donors via media outreach, contact magazines such as the Chicago Tribune and Crain’s business magazine

Campaign Measurement Overall Marketing Campaign for Public Image and Growth:

Remain active on all established social media accounts Reach out to other organizations such as Noah’s Arc Foundation to help increase

awareness as well as to connect with youth Try to sponsor a local event and hand out social media graphics to the general public at

various social events Write press releases to attain “earned media” and have articles written about Growing

Power to attract possible donors

Social Media:

Create Vine, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube accounts and remain active by posting regularly

Analyze metrics of the website, and trace hits on website to help improve it as a whole Track social media presence, using qualitative and quantitative data e.g. graphs

analyzing amount in correlation to likes and followers gained and feedback on surveys

Fundraising:

Launch a fundraising campaign while continually trying to attract donors using social media, website as well as earned media

Sample Press Release

Contact: Michael Mott, Greentarget 312-806-8391 mmott@greentarget.com

For Immediate Release

Growing Food & Justice for All Initiative to be held in Chicago

Chicago – June 26, 2015 Growing Power, a national non-profit organization dedicated to the welfare of those who lack access to healthy, safe and affordable food, and also one of the leading urban farming organizations in the nation, announced today that it will be participating in the Growing Food &Justice for All Initiative (GFJI), an event to be held in Chicago, IL on September 25, 26 and 27.

GFJI is aimed at “dismantling racism and empowering low income and communities of color through sustainable and local agriculture.” The GFJI annual conference will be an opportunity for multiple different organizations to share vital information and strategies to create a more ethical, equal and sustainable future.

About Growing Power:

Growing Power is a non-profit organization and land trust dedicated to supporting people and their communities by helping to provide access to healthy, safe, high-quality and affordable food.

To learn more about the organization, visit www.growingpower.org or contact mmott@greentarget.com.