PR Campaign Book: SOAR365

Ashley Johnston, Andrew Baldacci, Olivia Hix, Sheriden Osei & Madison Lotano

Executive Summary

This report will detail our team’s plan to help the non-profit organization SOAR365’s

current communication problem. Through research of the company, we have learned that 35% of

their staff members do not have access to email, which makes it difficult to send them necessary

company information. We have created a two month plan starting on March 1st, 2022 that will

implement our objectives, strategies, and tactics into their company in a successful way by April

30th, 2022. To guide us throughout the campaign, we created the communication goal of making

SOAR365’s employee information more accessible to the staff. Everything implemented was

made with this goal in mind. This started with our objectives, which include increasing

awareness of new information resources for all employees by 75%, making this information

more accessible to 100 employees, and having the company engage with the staff by 75% more.

This report will go into more depth on how we plan to accomplish these goals through strategies

and tactics, as well as what needs to happen for them to be successful. We have provided a visual

tree and a calendar that detail our overall goals for the campaign and our day-to-day plans for the

two month cycle. Throughout the entire campaign, we will be evaluating the success of our plans

to gain a deeper understanding on why things meet or do not meet our expectations. After the

campaign, we hope to leave SOAR365 a better and more efficient organization with a better

system for communicating with their employees.

Research & Diagnosis

SOAR365 has an internal communications issue, in which a majority of the staff does not

have access to email. Most of how SOAR365 communicates with their employees is through

email, so it presents the situation of finding and creating a plan to help reach these internal

audiences. To provide some background, 35% of staff members don’t have access to email,

presumptuously due to the nature of their job. SOAR365 is a very hands-on non-profit

organization, so many of them may not complete a lot of their work on a computer, which could

be the reason why staff can’t be reached by company email. Many of the internal audiences

receive their information from word of mouth and/or bulletin boards posted in lunchrooms. This

has become a major problem for SOAR365 because it’s affected the retention of important

information, which is a high priority for the organization.

SOAR365 is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded by volunteering

families in 1954. This organization specializes in providing services for families and individuals

that are affected by the challenges of living with a disability daily. There are many programs

designed to help those of any demographic; these programs include children & youth programs,

adult programs, summer camp, pediatric therapy, PARK 365, etc. SOAR365 prides itself on its

ability to provide life-fulfilling opportunities for individuals with disabilities, per their mission

statement. The employees of this organization are highly trained and have tons of experience.

SOAR365 is a program that serves individuals with disabilities which gives them

different audiences in certain situations. The primary audience in this campaign is the employees

at SOAR365. As Soar365 explains in their mission, their programs are designed for individuals

with a wide range of disabilities. This requires SOAR365 to employ many differently skilled

individuals to keep the organization going. The employees are significant to the organization
because they care for the individuals with disabilities which is why SOAR365 is successful. The

employees at this organization are there for support not only for the individual with a disability

but also the families. This is a great aspect for them to have since families are typically the ones

searching for extra help and care for their loved ones. The secondary audience in this campaign

is people in the community that know about SOAR365. This organization may have secondary

audiences if someone is looking to get information for someone else about the program. Many

people may be interested in what SOAR365 does and how they help those with disabilities even

if they are not directly affected or involved. It is important to target the secondary audience at

SOAR365 to bring more success to the organization.

Two ways primary research approaches can be useful in this situation are with surveys

and observation. For SOAR365, reaching their internal audience can be difficult due to certain

circumstances but can be better understood using these types of approaches. Surveys can be

given to the staff which can provide information about what resources each person has access to

and how information can be more easily accessed. This can help the organization know what

they can do in the future to allow them to succeed. Observations can also be a good way to

understand what information is known throughout the organization and what needs to be better

communicated. Gathering data through observation allows the organization to look at human

behavior which can be recorded to make a better plan for communication to staff in the future.
 SWOT & Situational Analysis:
Strengths
● SOAR365 programs are specific to
different age groups.
● Volunteer opportunities are available as
well as community outreach programs
● PARK365 was voted the 3rd best
playground in the central Virginia region
in 2021.
● SOAR365 receives strong funding from
both the federal and state government
($5.5 million).
● 90% of their funds go towards programs
to help better their organization and
assist the community.
● Skilled and experienced staff that are
able to accommodate children with
disabilities needs
● Many spirited volunteers and active
donors that are good for promoting
through word of mouth
● Use of social media channels that
promote SOAR365’s causes and
programs
Opportunities
● 147,832 people in Central Virginia have
a disability, meaning that 12% of the
population could potentially benefit from
SOAR365's programs
● Could work with a local charity to raise
awareness about a specific disability,
such as throwing a gala event
Weaknesses
● 35% of the staff doesn’t have access to
email, which is SOAR365’s main
communication source
● Employees rely on bulletin boards for
employee information rather than a wide
variety of media channels to reach out to
employees.
● Currently, only one location in central
Virginia.
● Current lack of adequate social media
exposure to expand SOAR365’s network
and bring more volunteers and
employees in.
● Employees have difficulty retaining
messages in order to achieve company
fluidity and ensure that everyone
receives important information.
Threats
● Schools located in Virginia who use
disability programs may undermine the
importance of SOAR365 programs.
● COVID-19 shutdown several of their
programs and limited the amount of
face-to-face interactions.
● Disagreements within the government
about how to allocate funds properly.
 ● Unemployment rates in our country ● Less people are likely to volunteer due to
allow for more people in SOAR365's the threat of COVID affecting their
Business Solutions to get hired for jobs decision of helping out in person.
● Could get celebrity/politician ● Arc is now an unacceptable word to use
endorsements to gain more traction on within this industry field.
social media channels
● Will likely receive more donations for
SOAR365 because there are more
employees entering the workforce since
COVID

Goal(s) & Objectives

Our main communication goal for this non-profit organization is to make SOAR365’s

employee information more accessible to staff. According to the Barcelona Principles 3.0, setting

goals is a prerequisite to any form of communication planning, measurement, and evaluation. We

wanted our goal to reflect the organization’s values, while addressing a more immediate problem.

This communication goal gives us the opportunity to help SOAR365 understand why our efforts

are needed in this communication plan, as well as what we want to accomplish moving forward.

James and Larissa Grunig write that, “The goal-attainment approach holds that organizations are

effective when they meet their goals.” We believed setting goals that are obtainable for the

organization was an important step to ensuring that SOAR365 can reach their full potential as a

company..There are three objectives that further explain what we would like to accomplish for

this non-profit. Our first objective is to expand awareness of new information resources to

SOAR365 employees by 75% by April 30th, 2022. SOAR365 is undergoing a struggle with their

internal communications, making it difficult for them to relay information to staff members. It’s

ultimately affected the organization’s retention of information as a whole. Our second objective

is to increase accessibility of new SOAR 365 information to 100 employees by April 30th, 2022.
By increasing the accessibility of new information, SOAR365 would seemingly increase the

reach of employees through attempting different forms of communication. Instead of relying on

word of mouth and bulletin boards for company information, the strategies and tactics used to

implement this objective would allow employees to be reached by SOAR365’s messages. Our

last objective for our communication goal is to increase engagement with SOAR365 employees

by 75% by April 30th, 2022. Employee engagement is extremely important, especially when

dealing with a non-profit organization such as SOAR365. This will help increase company

morale, boost productivity, and improve work quality, all of which would benefit the way

SOAR365 communicates with their employees. For this campaign, we wanted to ensure that our

goal was broader, while keeping our objectives far more attainable and specific.

Strategies & Tactics

The implementation of providing information to employees through the act of meetings

will allow an increase of awareness of new information resources to SOAR365 employees by

75% on April 30th of 2022. By holding mandatory meetings once a week for all employees and/

or volunteers, each person will be told the new information for that upcoming week during that

time. This tactic will allow the employees and/ or volunteers to become more aware of the

information since they will all be hearing it together and not relying on the information just to be

seen or trickled down. This tactic is, also, more reliable since it will be advised by the person in

charge so everyone is hearing the information directly from the source. Another tactic to support

the strategy of providing information to employees through meetings would be to hold a meeting

between shift changes. These meetings would consist of the shift leader and/ or manager along

with a small group of workers and/ or volunteers who are coming into their shift at SOAR365. In
these meetings the leader would address any new information that the employees and/ or

volunteers may need to know along with a small run down of the day or anything that may be

considered important. This tactic will allow everyone to be on the same page each day that they

come into SOAR365 and for things to run more smoothly in the environment. In doing this each

day, it would ultimately increase the awareness of new information to SOAR365 employees.

By employing the strategy of finding alternative ways to communicate with employees

through controlled media, it will increase accessibility of new SOAR 365 information to 100

employees by April 30th, 2022. Strategic communication, according to Shayna Englin, entails

"communicating the best message, through the right channels, against well-considered

organizational and communications-specific goals (Luttrell, 2021)." It was critical for us to be as

strategic as possible while formulating our campaign in order to properly target our audience and

achieve our objectives. Because the email option isn't working for SOAR365, it's crucial to think

about other media channels that can be more effective with the audience. Because SOAR365 has

an older workforce working for them, it may be far more effective for them to rely on controlled

media. This controlled media consists of paper being handed out by the company to its

employees. By giving out daily handouts to each employee that they are required to sign off on,

will allow us to increase the accessibility of information to employees. The sign off will prove

that the employee has received this information to ensure everyone in the company is receiving

the vital information. This hand out could even be something like a handwritten post- it note to

save the company money, since it is something that requires paper to be used every day. If the

employee is coming in frequently then they probably won’t even need more than a sticky note to

refresh the information or learn new information for that day. Another tactic that could be more

cost efficient would be the act of sending newsletters home with the employee’s paychecks.
These newsletters would educate each person of the new changes or important information that

they would need to know for the next two weeks, until they receive their next paycheck. In doing

this, the employee would also have the ability to refer back to the formal letter throughout the

next two weeks. In using these tactics it would be possible to employ the strategy of

communicating to employees through controlled media which would further increase the

SOAR365 employee’s accessibility to the new information.

By implementing a two-way communication to ensure SOAR365 employees’ opinions

are being heard will allow for an increase of engagement with the employees by 75% on April

30th, 2022. This two-way communication will be conducted through more of a paper and

face-to-face interaction due to the lack of internet access among current employees. By providing

a drop-box with pens and paper, the employees and/ or volunteers can voice their questions and/

or concerns. The drop-box will be accessible to everyone in a relative area that is easy for them

to approach. The people can write anonymously if wished, too. This tactic will make sure that

everyone in the company is satisfied with how things are doing even if they don’t feel

comfortable enough to say something in person, or even if a supervisor is just not present at that

time. By allowing the people in the company to voice their opinions in the drop-box it will allow

an increase of engagement among the SOAR365 employees and their company. Another tactic

that could ensure two-way communication to make sure the employees are being heard, is

conducting surveys for the employees to take that asks for their overall opinion regarding the

current company’s communication infrastructure. In doing this, the employees could suggest any

changes that need to be made for a more clear and positive communication. This could be more

costly than the other tactic that supports this strategy but it would allow for change to occur more

quickly and that change could make for a more positive work environment. Both of these tactics
will allow for the strategy to be more successful and avoid any urgent situations between a

member of their company’s team. Urgency is “when that relationship or claim is important or

crucial to the stakeholder” (2006, Rawlins). An employee is an important relationship to any

company, who is also the stakeholder. In allowing the employees to voice their opinions they are

creating more of an engagement and a more positive relationship.

Demonstrative Tactic
Visual Planning Tree
Message Strategy

For our message strategy, we have a primary message of helping SOAR365 communicate

its goal of communicating with the staff within the organization more efficiently. We want to

have more meetings instead of email communication to allow more people to know what is

going on within the organization. Less communication through technology and more face-to-face

meetings can help the staff succeed in what they do at Soar365. With these new communication

methods such as sending newsletters, giving handouts, and holding meetings, we can get closer

to achieving the goal of communicating more efficiently with the organization.

In this campaign we evaluated that many employees at SOAR365 did not have

accessibility to email. This caused a lot of issues with people knowing important information

which is why our primary message is so important. Giving the employees a voice with surveys

throughout this campaign can show the organization what ways communication has been

successful and what else needs to be communicated to them which also helps achieve the

primary message. Through the new communication methods the organization will become

stronger as a whole because employees will all have the same accessibility to information that

pertains to SOAR365.

Primary messages are so important to organizations and specifically to this campaign

because it helps narrow down what is important to SOAR365 and how it can be improved.

Secondary messages help give credibility to the primary messages which also help the end goal

to be accomplished. With a primary message of creating more efficient communication within

 SOAR365, the organization will be more successful and overall a better understanding of each

other in the workplace. The secondary messages help give reasoning behind this main message.

Planning Calendar
March

1 Monday 2 Tuesday 3 Wednesday 4 Thursday 5 Friday 6 7

(Week 1) -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -Open up notes from dropbox. Saturda Sunday
-Send a newsletter with a -Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between -give daily handouts y
paycheck. shift changes shift changes shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift
-give daily handout changes
-Hold meeting in between
shift changes

8 9 10-give daily handouts 11 12 -Open up notes from 13 14

-give daily handouts -give daily handouts -hold mandatory meeting -give daily handouts dropbox.
-Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between on new information -Hold meeting in between -give daily handouts
shift changes shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift
shift changes changes

15 16 17-give daily handouts 18 19-Open up notes from 20 21

-Send a newsletter home -give daily handouts -hold mandatory meeting -give daily handouts dropbox.
with a paycheck. -Hold meeting in between on new information -Hold meeting in between -give daily handouts
-give daily handouts shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift
-Hold meeting in between shift changes changes
shift changes

22 23 24-give daily handouts 25 26 -Open up notes from 27 28

-give daily handouts -give daily handouts -hold mandatory meeting -give daily handouts dropbox.
-Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between on new information -Hold meeting in between -give daily handouts
shift changes shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift
shift changes changes

30 31-give daily handouts

-Send a newsletter with a -survey employees on
paycheck. current satisfaction
-give daily handouts -Hold meeting in between
-Hold meeting in between shift changes
shift changes
 April

1 Monday 2 Tuesday 3 Wednesday 4 Thursday 5 Friday 6 7

-Send a newsletter with a -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -Open up notes from Saturda Sunda
paycheck. -Hold meeting in between -hold mandatory meeting on -Hold meeting in between shift dropbox. y y
-give daily handouts shift changes new information changes -give daily handouts
-Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between shift -Hold meeting in between
shift changes changes shift changes

8 9 10 -give daily handouts 11 12 13 14

-give daily handouts -give daily handouts -hold mandatory meeting on -give daily handouts -Open up notes from
-Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between new information -Hold meeting in between shift dropbox.
shift changes shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift changes -give daily handouts
changes -Hold meeting in between
shift changes

15 16 17-give daily handouts 18 19 20 21

-Send a newsletter with a -give daily handouts -hold mandatory meeting on -give daily handouts -Open up notes from
paycheck. -Hold meeting in between new information -Hold meeting in between shift dropbox.
-give daily handouts shift changes -Hold meeting in between shift changes -give daily handouts
-Hold meeting in between changes -Hold meeting in between
shift changes shift changes

22 23 24 25 26 27 28
-give daily handouts -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -give daily handouts -Open up notes from
-Hold meeting in between -Hold meeting in between -hold mandatory meeting on -Hold meeting in between shift dropbox.
shift changes shift changes new information changes -give daily handouts
-Hold meeting in between shift -Hold meeting in between
changes shift changes

30
-Send a newsletter with a
paycheck.
-give daily handouts
-Hold meeting in between
shift changes

Evaluation Plan

Our organizational goal for the campaign is to make SOAR365 more accessible as a

non-profit/human service agency. Before the campaign began, we evaluated that 35% of all

SOAR365 employees did not have access to email. This hindered employees from learning

information they needed to know. That is where we formed our communication goal to make

company information more accessible to the staff of SOAR365. To accomplish this, we set up

objectives including making employees more aware of company information, increasing the

company’s engagement with employees, and improving the accessibility of information. These

objectives will need to be evaluated through careful understanding of how successful our
strategies and tactics prove to be. We plan to evaluate before, frequently throughout, and after the

campaign. In her journal Demonstrating Effectiveness in Public Relations Goals, Objectives, and

Evaluation, Linda Childers Hon explains that,“Thus, through public relations evaluation,

practitioners can demonstrate either directly or indirectly public relations’ role in organizational

goal achievement.” This is what we plan to do through evaluation. We want to help achieve the

organizational goal of making SOAR365 a better non-profit organization.

Before the campaign, we will evaluate certain measurables so that throughout the

campaign, we can get an estimate of how much we are improving towards our goal. Tom Watson

and Paul Noble write in their journal, Evaluating public relations: A best practice guide to public

relations planning, research & evaluation, that they believe, “Effective evaluation starts with

effective objective setting. At its simplest, PR evaluation is simply checking that objectives set

have been met.” We used this idea to set objectives that we believed we could accomplish and

measure to see if we were successful or not. First, we will evaluate how SOAR365 currently

communicates with employees and what means they use to do this. We will measure how many

employees are not getting all of the company information that they should be receiving. We also

want to ask employees if they believe their opinions are heard and valued at SOAR365. These

pre-campaign measurements will serve as a baseline throughout the evaluation process.

During the campaign, evaluation will occur to allow us to see our progress. Our first goal

is to increase employee awareness of new information resources by 75%. The tactics that make

this achievable include planned meetings and quick, less formal meetings between shifts.

Throughout the campaign, we plan to evaluate our progress every week by counting how many

employees are in attendance at the meetings and who received information between shift

changes. By evaluating, we will be able to see how many more employees are aware of new
company information than prior to the campaign. Our second objective is to increase the overall

accessibility of important company information to 100 employees. This will be accomplished

through giving daily handouts and sending letters to employees. The letters will be sent home

with employee paychecks, so this will be evaluated every two weeks. For the daily handouts

employees will have to sign off whenever they receive it. This will allow us to understand how

many employees have gotten them and who specifically. Every week, we will look at the signing

sheets to determine how the objective is improving or failing. Our third objective is to increase

the company's engagement with employees by 75%. This will be done through surveys and

drop-boxes where employees can voice their concerns or praises. This objective will prove to be

very important in our evaluation because we can use the information gained from employees to

help us understand their opinions and how we can improve upon the other two objectives. The

drop-box will be open to employees all the time, but we will look through the messages at the

end of every week. Surveys will be given out every other week for employees to fill out. With

the information gained from these, we can properly evaluate during the campaign cycle to see

how employees feel about our efforts. If praises are given, we will understand what we are doing

correctly. If there are concerns and negative opinions, we will know what has to be changed in

the future.

After the campaign has ended, we will be able to look back on our work to see what we

accomplished. The evaluative measures taken during the campaign will help us tremendously

with this step, as we will have a general idea how we are doing before the ending. However, at

the end, we will be able to understand what went right and what went wrong. Our expectations

were to make SOAR365 a more effective company through new means of communication to

make information more accessible to employees. With the objectives set to help achieve these,
we will be able to measure our progress. We will learn which form of accessible communication

worked for SOAR365’s employees, whether that be meetings, paper handouts or both. We will

also now be able to properly engage with the employees and listen to their opinions on the

matters at hand. By evaluating how employees felt about changes, we will better understand

them and be able to use this knowledge for the future when implementing new campaigns.
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