MAC Award Submission for BGCA Initatives and Special Events

Boys & Girls Club of Greeneville & Greene County

BGCA Initiatives & Special Events

Meet the Movement

January 15, 2016

Boys & Girls Club of Greeneville & Greene County’s (BGCGGC) priority has been to provide mission-driven programs and activities to both Club members we serve and the youth of the community through outreach activities. The Club has been opening the door to the community’s youth for 17 years as a prominent and well respected youth development organization focused on enabling young people to become productive, caring, responsible citizens. The Club provides a safe, affordable place with caring, adult mentors who engage youth in fun activities, friendship, athletic opportunities and high quality youth development programs during the critical hours after school. With a membership to the Club at only $5.00 per child per year, BGCGGC ensures that every child in the community, especially those who need us most, are able to join.

In order to maintain the level of excellence the board and staff of the Boys & Girls Club provides to its members and the community’s youth, BGCGGC is responsible for raising $650,000 annually. Funds are raised through local, state and federal grants and through the Club’s three special events, Boys & Girls Club Celebrity Auction, Boys & Girls Club Champions Dinner and the Bob Kesling Boys & Girls Club Celebrity Golf Classic. These special events provide an avenue for the Club to raise the funds needed to sustain and grow the organization as more and more kids seek a safe, engaging place to spend their time.

All marketing efforts for the Boys & Girls Club (BGC) are developed in-house and executed by the Executive Director and the Marketing & Grants Director. This highly effective marketing team has been exceedingly successful in promoting the Club’s mission-driven programs, annual special events and youth sports through all avenues.

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Executive Summary

The number one priority for BGCGGC is to observe growth in all areas of the Club’s performance, such as an increase in the number of Club members, a spike in the number of youth served throughout the community and a growth in funds raised through special events, just to name a few. To achieve the primary goal of increasing funds raised through 2015’s special events, a number of objectives were outlined:

Secure media coverage for special events through pre- and post-event press releases

In comparison to 2014, increase sponsorships for all special events whether through in-kind or monetary donations

Increase attendance at each special event compared to 2014 by examining prior sales and attendance

Ensure effective stewardship by sending thank you letters to special event sponsors, donors and volunteers

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Goals and Objectives

After the primary goal and objectives were set, the Club identified the target audience to include potential sponsors, donors or attendants at the 2015 special events. This includes any individuals, businesses or organizations that has engaged with the Club in past events and those who have the opportunity to support the Club through financial means, time or donations. BGCGGC wanted all tactics and strategies to entice or motivate the target audience to at least sponsor, donate or attend the events.

As it is always easiest to reach those who already support your brand, a focus was made to use effective stewardship and awareness tactics on those who BGCGGC has dealt with in the past while also catering to potential individuals, businesses or organizations by saturating the news with announcements of special events, utilizing social media to garner attention and by using word of mouth to spread awareness of the event.

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Target Audience

Objective 1: Secure media coverage

Strategy: BGCGGC wanted to secure media coverage of special events in 2015 across all news mediums. To ensure the objective would be reached, pre-event press releases were sent to Greeneville, Tennessee’s primary newspaper, The Greeneville Sun, and to their sister paper the Greeneville Neighbor, as well as other news sources in the area. Pre-event releases were also sent to Radio Greenville, which includes stations WIKQ, WGRV and WSMG. The releases were displayed on Radio Greeneville website’s news page, http://greeneville.com/news/ and ran on air. In addition to pre-event press releases, post-event press releases were also sent to the aforementioned news sites. Moreover, WJHL – News Channel 11, ran a feature story on our Boys & Girls Club Champions Dinner featuring University of Tennessee Basketball Coach Rick Barnes. In the supporting documents, news articles that featured BGCGGC will be included.

Objective 2: Increase sponsorships

Strategy: BGCGGC’s Resource Development (RD) team spent months preparing for the Club’s 2015 special event season, June through September. The team diligently visited, called and sent requests to local, regional and even national businesses and organizations to help sponsor the special events. During the month of February 10,000 request letters were sent to businesses, celebrities, theme parks, sports teams and more to ask for a donation for the Club’s annual Celebrity Auction or for the smaller auctions at both the Club’s Golf Classic and Champions Dinner. Through the months of March to August, the RD team made personal visits to local and nearby cities’ businesses to ask for sponsorships at the special events or for items to use in the auctions. In addition to the RD team, BGCGGC Board of Directors were also responsible for securing sponsorships at special events.

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Tactics & Objectives

http://greeneville.com/news/

Objective 3: Increase attendance

Strategy: As attendance increases, funds increase. With the focus that more individuals interested in the Club’s special events would lead to an increase in ticket sales allowing for a growth in special event profits, it was the marketing team’s priority to keep the target audience intrigued about the special events. The Club’s social media sites were utilized to announce the upcoming special event, and the sites were branded with header/cover photos to reflect the event, day, time and any other pertinent information about the event to the public. After the event passed, the Club’s social media sites were flooded with pictures of attendants having a great time while also showcasing Celebrity Auction items, celebrity golfers at the Golf Classic and a meet and greet with our Champions Dinner speaker. The idea was for the audience to view these pictures and say one of two things, “I am glad I went to such a wonderful event,” or “I can’t believe I missed out on this.” Flyers were also developed for the 2015 Golf Classic to distribute to interested parties in 2016 to help increase the number of players in the golf tournament. Additionally to help increase attendance at the 2015 event, a social was added to the Golf Classic the night before the tournament to serve as a meet and greet for players and sponsors to mingle with various celebrity golfers (Bobby Majors, Haskell Stanback, Ricky Morton, Steve Forbes and Carl Torbush) whom they would be playing in the tournament with the next day. Additionally, email blasts were sent to spread the word about each special event. Emails were sent to 1,300 individuals for the Golf Classic, Celebrity Auction and Champions Dinner.

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Objective 4: Effective stewardship

Strategy: It is just as important to maintain relationships with past and current donors, as it is to cultivate new ones. To help ensure that the Club continually put its best practices forward, thank you letters were sent to all sponsors, donors and volun-teers. Hand-written thank you letters were sent to major donor event sponsors and volunteers thanking them for the impact their support has on the members of our Club. Moreover, major sponsors were given a plaque with the BGCGGC logo displayed on it to thank them for their support. This also helped our Club gain exposure by these businesses hanging up the plaques in the offices for display to the public. Additionally, typed thank you letters were sent to donors who contributed an item to either the Club’s Celebrity Auction or to the two smaller auctions at the Golf Classic and Champions Dinner. The Executive Director of BGCGGC made personal visits to area businesses or organizations to thank them personally for their support of the Boys & Girls Club mission and the well-being of our Club’s youth.

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To determine if the RD team and Marketing team were successful in reaching the primary goal of increasing funds raised through special events, each objective was observed.

The Marketing team was successful in sending both a pre-event and post-event press release for each special event to The Greeneville Sun, Radio Greeneville and WJHL News Channel 11. Through diligent communication with news staff, the Club’s special events were featured a total of 18 times across newspaper, radio and television. The Club had a little over 10% increase in funds through special events compared to 2014. Additionally, the BGCGGC increased its quality and quantity of items in the annual Celebrity Auction from 2014. This in turn attracts a larger audience to the event with big ticket items, as well as entices them to spend more on higher quality items. In 2015, BGCGGC lost two large sponsors due to these businesses closings; however, the Club picked up an additional 26 smaller sponsors to not only cover the gap but to help produce an additional $5,000.00 over the 2014 amount.

In the supporting documents, you will find special event announcements and photos utilized across social media, as well as newspaper articles and email blasts sent from the Club.

To ensure that effective stewardship was achieved, hundreds of thank you letters were sent to sponsors and donors of varying levels after each special event. Moreover, personal visits were made by the Executive Director to give a further personal thank you message of support.

After an evaluation of the objectives, the primary goal was analyzed. Through our evaluations of the Club’s objectives, the primary goal was reached with a record breaking $197,695.00 raised through special events.

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Results & Evaluation

The following Supporting Documentation is included:

Newspaper articles from The Greeneville Sun and WJHL—News Channel 11

Social Media posts centered on special events

Donation Thank You Letter

Bob Kesling Celebrity Golf Classic Flyer

Champions Dinner Announcement

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Supporting Documents

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Supporting Documents Social Media Posts

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