CLIENT RESEARCH By

REPORT Vertis Holmes

III

WMU ALUMNI ASSOCIATION

AND UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT
Client Overview
University Advancement works under the WMU Foundation and helps
raise money for Western. It is an organization that looks to connect the
University through events and bringing together the past and future of
Western Michigan University.
They want to deepen the connection in the Bronco community. UA gives
the community opportunities to connect with each other. Giving past
Broncos the chance to support numerous activities happening here at WMU allows them to build
these connections and form a more sustainable community.
This gives Western Michigan University the opportunity to grow as a university and community.

Mission Statement
"We strive to deepen the relationship between our Bronco Family and Western Michigan
University. We support our students and WMU's mission by highlighting our successes, and the
successes of our students and alumni, by creating opportunities for our alumni and friends to
connect with the University and fellow Broncos."

Purpose of the Report

The purpose of this report is to gather information and formulate a plan to achieve the goals
outlined in this report. This will allow for the overall mission of University Advancement of
deepening connections to be a successful one. Knowing the background of the client and
evaluating the position they are in before moving further along into the campaign boost the rate
of success it will have. This report will allow for hands-on experience in creating a campaign
that meets the needs of a client with a specific objective in mind.

Audiences

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Primary Audience
School of Communications students are a great audience to focus on. Bringing awareness
to them about Giving Day will be mutually beneficial to both of us. Building connections and
networking is a big aspect of communication and reaching out to donors is one way to network.
This gives the audience their own motivations to bring awareness to Giving Day.

Secondary Audience
Fans of Western Michigan University sports is the secondary audience to target. The
WMU hockey team has been performing outstandingly for years now and has even produce a
few NHL caliber players such as Wade Allison and Paul Cotter. The WMU hockey organization
was not a big receiver of funds during the last Giving Day and could bring in many donors to
support their success that’s lasted nearly a decade.

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 SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 The prior success of the
Giving Day event
 The dedication of WMU
Alumni
 Bronco Athletic Fund
Opportunities
 Giving Day occurs at the tail
end of tax season
 The WMU Hockey team is
performing well this season
Weaknesses
 Number of actual donors
compared to funds raised
 Lack of donations in
colleges
 Busy schedules of most
college students
Opportunities
 Inflation throughout the US
 Unengaged Alumni that are
not involved in WMU events
 Low activity clubs and
colleges
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 Goals
Goal 1: Increase awareness on the impact of giving
within the student populace
Goal 2: Nurture giving culture in the WMU
community with detailed information about Giving
Day

Previous Actions
The marketing team provided a "toolkit" which included graphics, photos, messaging, and tips
for promoting Giving Day.
University Advancement hosted virtual trainings.
The client created an in-house goal of reaching 5,000 donors. (Was not reached)
The client created game-like challenges for people to engage in. Allowing winners to give
designated funds to their colleges of choice.

Actions and Their Related Goals

These actions gave the Western community the tools to create and push their own fundraising
goals with easy to access templates. The training allowed for people that were not knowledge
about Giving Day to go and learn more about the event. This would help to create awareness
among the Western Michigan University populace about the benefits of gathering donors.
Having a goal that University Advancement could work towards creates motivation and a
common target. The game-like challenges that

were created allowed for a more inviting and fun experience that the community could aim for.

Objectives & Tactics

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Objective 1: To increase awareness to the importance of giving culture at WMU by 30% by
April 12th
Tactic 1: Client Research Report
This summarizes the information gathered about the client and campaign while breaking down
the strategies that will be used. Giving detailed research will allow for a more successful
campaign and allow the client to fully understand what we are doing and why.
Tactic 2: Fact Sheet
This fact sheet will allow the client to see a quick and brief breakdown of the campaign and
information regarding it.

Objective 2: To increase the number of donors to reach 5000 by April 12th

Tactic 1: Feature Story
This feature story will help to connect the client to our audiences by sharing a bit about the
client. Creating a connection by sharing the motivations and story of the client and humanizing
them. This allows our audiences to learn more about the client and give them a reason to want to
be a part of the event.
Tactic 2: News Release
This news release will be about Giving Day and some of the events that will be held. This will
give some background information on Giving Day and when and where the events will take
place. It informs our audiences of the event we want them to be aware of and gives them more
detailed information.

Objective 3: To recruit 30% more students to bring in donors for Giving Day by April 5th
Tactic 1: Flyer
Flyers will be created emphasizing the major events being held for Giving Day. This is a simple
and effective way to spread awareness of the event and our client.
Tactic 2: Social Media Plan

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Social media is a big part of communicating currently. By using social media platforms, the
campaign can spread its influence and draw awareness more effectively. The student body,
specifically, relies on social media for a multitude of things. This allows us to get the word out
about Giving Day in a more streamlined manner.

Client Speech
Overall, I want to focus on convincing two groups in the WMU community to become more
involved in Giving Day. These groups will be the Comms students and the WMU hockey fans.
This is a large group of untapped donor support and student support. By showing the successes
of WMU hockey we will also be enacting the mission of the UA itself and building connections
with the hockey community as well. Comms students will be going into fields where it is
important to network and build connections with others. This gives them additional motivation
and opportunities to reach out to donors and support not only the future of WMU, but also
themselves.

Conclusion
This campaign will shine a light on Giving Day 2023 and increase awareness among
target audiences. Using feature story and news release, we will connect a face to Giving Day by
going into more detail about the client and their motivations. Then with our flyers and social
media push, the campaign will draw excitement and anticipation out of our target audiences.
Using the SWOT analysis chart from earlier, we will develop a course for Giving Day to
be a bigger success than the years prior. Embracing the love that the Hockey team has been
gaining can increase the amount of connections that can be made with alumni and the
surrounding WMU communities. When people acquire excess funds they are normally more
generous by nature and will be more willing to donate to the groups they support or connect

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with. By bringing together the vast number of students that attend Western Michigan University,
University Advancement can host a Giving Day to be proud of.