Market Plan for non-profit organization focusing on community and school gardens.

1. 2011

2.  In more than one time in US history have people had to work
together to provide food and community support during difficult
times . Our mission is to help people to do exactly that. We can
overcome difficult times and come together as a country and as
communities and we can help each other to do this. Our
organizations mission is to offer educational, financial and
technical support to communities to provide food and other
forms of support with the hopes of improving the quality of life
and health of the many people that are in need.
 The mission of our marketing plan is to involve as
many people possible and to share our message
through outreach and conversation. The best
way to advocate is to have conversations
directly with the public.

3. We are entering a new and exciting part of execution and opening of the organization. As a team we
will be working to succeed ion our goals and have a great season. We want everyone in the
organization on board and on the same plan. I want to extend myself to everyone in this busy time
and be of help for all the departments and staff. As a part of our organization the method to success is
organization and communication and that is what I feel will help us accomplish our marketing goals.
This plan will be the starting point for all of us to come together and collaborate. The main idea of this
plan is to introduce and gain support for the organization. We are trying to make connections with our
communities, parents and business owners. We are introducing our organization to donors and
philanthropists while gaining support from volunteers and local companies.
 Our market includes the lower and middle class communities that have even taking a brutal fall
during the last ten years. Our target market of supporters are people who believe in the recent
push in sustainability, environmental awareness and support. The supporters believe that
education can lead to great positive changes for people and communities while keeping the
needs of the people in mind.
 We want it make long standing connections with communities, members and donors and gain
friends through social media.
 The ultimate goal of this marketing plan is to introduce the public to the organization. We want
to make the public aware of our mission, our programs and want to get involved.
 The plan includes launching social media pages, posting all important info, setting up the web
page with links to our social media sites. Also, there should be a series of press releases focusing
on the reorganization, plans of programs and all events.

4. We are introducing the organization to communities and
media for the first time. We all know that first impressions are
lasting and are very important. To make sure that we make
the best first impression possible we have made a plan for the
use of our staff, directors and volunteers. We want our staff on
all levels to be fully involved and informed in the market plan.
Everyone in the organization can contribute to the plan’s
success. We hope to have everyone in the staff collaborating
on a constant basis.
The purpose of this plan is to execute a market plan with full
participation and support of staff. As part of our mission we
want to stay as organized as possible to have maximum
impact and growth. The plan will let everyone in the
organization have a concrete idea of action, support and
reference. This will help to make the marketing campaign and
our organization stronger.

5. Problems Facing the US

6.  The growth of the project will be evaluated on several different
levels:
 Participation from community
 Volunteer Growth
 Membership growth
 Projects and Events Evaluation
 Level of direct participation in the garden by the community
We plan on doing evaluation on a six month & yearly basis. We anticipate a
5 year plan for each garden before it is completely sustainable and run by
the community.
The first two years are more intensive in regards of marketing and training.
Our educational programs and events should be posted, announced and
introduced to the community. After the first two years we hope to start
making stronger connections with the people and gain more support from
the community by networking. The goal at that point would be to start
reducing staff and making more people in the area a part of the garden
leadership.

7.  The people we
intend to serve
include the lower income
and poverty stricken families
in the Chicago land area.
There are currently as many as
 938,744 (11.8%) people living in poverty in IL.
 1,267,381 in danger of falling into poverty.
Extreme Low
Poverty
Poverty income
Chicago 251,502 555,391 92,929
South Cook 92,617 213,448 556,180
County
Lake County 18,226 54,088 71,583

8.  Gardens:  Art and Music Performances
 Food and Nutrition  Fine Art Classes for youth and Adults
 Outdoor Classroom  Events featuring local community artist
 Environmental, Sustainability and
• Educational demos & Seminars on
Ecology Edu.
• Food/ Nutrition/ Cooking
 Native Habitats • Gardening
 Rooftop • Art
 Greenhouse: extend growing season Teacher development and
 Job training, employment and programs
internships • After school and summer
programs for k-12
 Farmer to Market
• Library and resource center for
 Community Service community and outreach

10. Social Capitol
Residents in
the community Economic
Community conditions
Civic becomes begin to improve through
engagement is invested in the organize and management, yo
encouraged. land in their work together uth employment
community. for a mutual and on-site job
benefit training
Assets, like roads, schools, and hospitals, which belong to society rather than to individuals.
2. Based on a concept devised by J. Coleman (Coleman and F. Thomas 1987), the relations
that exist between individuals as located within both families and communities, together with
the educational, cultural, and social resources and expertise of a society. Social capital can
be a benign force for economic growth.

11. Benefits of Art Programs
 Intrinsic
 Public-creation of social bonds
 by participating people begin to
build social bonds through
experience
 Convey message to community
 Association for time in
history/event
 Artists can critique
culture/society
 Bring light to events and
activities from a different point
of view
Economic -Direct: art in economy
Ex: Santa Fe=70% of economy Indirect:
Tourist/local attractions -Where art is available

12. Internal
Strengths Weaknesses
1. Inclusive 1. Hard to make concrete rules
2. Always changing and adapting 2. To reflect diversity and make sure everyone has a
3. Growing and changing voice, it takes a lot of time and patience to come to
4. Open to all agreements
5. Always growing knowledge data base 3. Projects have to be approved not only by
6. Open to all that want to get involved and support the organization and community, may take many
mission meetings and conversations
4. Not always concrete decisions
5. Disorganization- to much info
External
Opportunities Threats
1. Growth 1. Gov., school boards and scepticism
2. Expansion to many different communities, schools and 2. Confusion of mission and goals
programs 3. Not having many rules make it easy to deviate from
3. Create a dialogue between people we serve and plans and mission
organization 4. Can be miss-used in long term, not always will have
4. Education, organization of communities with the result outcome we want as an organization
of many positive results 5. Depends on community involvement for success
5. Job training, support and political and civil 6.
engagement
6. Food for communities
7. Activities for kids and parents
8. School and teacher support
9. Elderly and Disabled support and activities
10. Environmental Education and practice, improving
general aspects of environmental damage

13. College Student
demographic -18-25 years old. M / F, Social and active.
Building skills and experience while still using social skills and a high level
of energy. This group would be ideal for work in youth support, adolescents
and social events.
Parents
demographic- 28-40, M/F, Parents
Busy with family life but want to contribute to the organization. Hard to
make last min. plans and attend many meeting. These people want to get
kids involved and set good example and interact with other families.
Retiree
demographic-M/F 60-80, grandparents, empty nesters- Active,
free time, focused on activity and social interaction, ideal as mentors and
work with kids, teens and adolescents, want a planned time frame. They
want options of activities but ready to make changes in life and community
and want to interact with people in the community.

15.  Increase Nutritional Food Supply ( Vegetables & Fruits)
 Offer a safe and effective form of exercise.
 Increase nutrition education and awareness
 Increase safety and social capitol of community
 Increase support for resources, job training and jobs
 Increase quality of life for community members
 Create sustainable and relationships between community
members, schools and policy makers
 Create sustainable environments for kids to grow and learn
 Promote art and music in each community
 Create an inclusive environments where people from different
cultures can come together to build and sustain their
communities.

16.  The long term marketing goals would include education, awareness of the
organization and also participation on all levels. I would love to have
schools, communities and other organization be aware of our existence and want
to work with the organization. I hope to have media and local radio stations
involved in raising awareness and participating in events. We need to to extend
the organization to work with others across the country and eventually worldwide.
Learning from what others are doing and taking the steps to create programs that
are current. In the future I plan to have different branches of the
organization, each having a specific purpose such as: Ecology, Teacher, K-
5, Art, Music, Nutrition and Gardening. The main goal is to be as inclusive as possible
while spreading our mission to local and national communities.
 Our short term goals would be to start building local support and awareness
through events, local media and social media. First we would start by networking
and working with other organizations, starting to approach communities and
schools about possible projects. .We also need to reach out to local business and
companies to gain support and introduce ourselves to the community.

17. Success Metrics
 First year goals include:
 Gaining a strong friend and fan base on social media
 Gaining support threw membership and donations
 Getting local media and national media’s attention
 Working with several schools.
 Strong volunteer support base.
 Event and Class attendance high.
 Have support planned for the following year.
 Additional year goals
 Several Newsletters, Event Releases and Press releases

21.  Strategy and execution
 Overview of strategy-
 Radio, local newspaper should be main targets.
 Overview of media and timing.
Evaluate all responses to press releases and
inquiries.
Watch how events are presented in the
press, analyze.
 Overview of ad spending

23. April &
Feb. March June& July Aug. Sep. Oct.
May
Launch Blogs Vol. Push. Volunteer Volunteer Events Winter
ALL social should Daily Push- Blogs Blogs Prep
media start requests Events- Events Harvest Volunteer
events and info Blogs Volunteer Push
feedback shares. Events
report. Blogs
Open* Event Invite and Events Vendor Harvest Evaluatio
Introduce release extend Focus Harvest Party n and
Evolve opening further New Party Invite annual
party into Member report to
comm. Party members,
Leaders Vending board,
Start funders
Vending
Contacts
Begin Invite Cooking Begin Harvest Harvest
outreach public. events Vending NY Goals
Invite Job End of Feedbac
local training season k
comm. Arts meeting
leaders

24. APPENDIX
 The official statistics in 2008 showed that
 Food there are approximately 768,839 (14.8%)
 Fringe food retailers in food deserts people, 273,727 (21.1%) of which were
can have a 30-60% markup on children living in poverty in Cook County, IL.
prices, provide a limited selection of According the US Census the amount of
products and a dominant people living in extreme poverty (below
marketing of processed foods. A 10,066 per year) is 344,119 people.
comparison of prices consumers (American Community Survey-Social
pay for similar foods purchased at a
different outlet determine disparities Impact Research, 2008)
in real food prices.  Report states there are as much 46.2 million
 Low-income individuals are more Americans living in poverty, including 2.6
likely to purchase inexpensive fats million children and numbers are rising.
and sugars over fresh fruits and (The US Census Bureau)
vegetables that are more
expensive on a per calorie basis  In cook county 831,998 (17.9%) people are
(Story, Kaphingst, Robinson-O’Brien, without health insurance.
& Glanz, 2008)  In national figures Chicago is #4 in
 Nutritious foods such as whole grain childhood obesity and #26 in adult obesity.
products and fresh fruits and (Trust for American Health & the Robert
vegetables are more expensive
than high calorie junk foods. Wood Johnson Foundation)
“Energy-dense [junk foods] cost on  A National Health and Examination Survey
average $1.76 per 1,000 calories, show that 1/3 Americans are obese and
compared with $18.16 per 1,000 17% of all children ages 2-19. “Obesity is
calories for low-energy but nutritious the # 2 public health risk in this century.”
foods”.

25. APPENDIX
In a 1996 national survey focusing on
community garden activity, cities
reported that:
 67.4% of gardens were neighborhood
Job or gardens
economic
Develop  16.3% were on public housing
2%
Mental Communit
premises,
Senior
Health Center y  8.2, 1% were on school grounds,
Facilities 5%
59%
5%  1.4% were on mental health or
rehabilitation facilities.
 4% were at senior centers, and
 0.6% were part of job or economic
development programs.
The role of community gardens in
Public
community development has also been
Housing
Premesis studied
29% internationally, in countries such as
Canada,23 Mexico,24 the
Gardens in the US United Kingdom,25 Cuba,26 and
Kenya.27ns