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Executive Summary
All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Torresdale was originally established as All
Saints’ Mission Church in 1772. In the past nearly two and a half centuries, All
Saints’ Church has grown to a congregation of about 250 and hosts three services a
week, along with supporting a choir, youth group, nursery, preschool, kindergarten,
and Cub Scout troop. The church writes on their website that they “have evolved to
address the needs of our local community, the greater Philadelphia area, and the
global community”. The strategies and tactics within this plan will help All Saints’
raise the funds they need to subsidize two restoration projects, which will in turn
provide their community with aesthetic beauty, historic tourism appeal, and a
restored place of worship and ministry.
Our team, Chariot PR, has met with members of All Saints’ Church to
understand their problems and desired outcomes. The church asked us to create an
event to address two problems: a lack of funding needed to restore their steeple and
cemetery, and a desire for increased community involvement and awareness of
their church. We have discussed several options and our research efforts have led
to this proposal of the first annual “Spring into Something New” event which will
begin to diagnose both of their problems at once.
This event will host several local businesses at the All Saints’ Church during
one Saturday. Essentially a local business expo, each business will offer sessions to
teach attendees a skill or craft. The Northeast community already has many small
businesses that host their own independent teaching sessions, and the ones who
come together for this event will naturally want to advertise it themselves because
they are invested in our success. “Spring into Something New” will attract business
owners and community residents of all ages and interests to All Saints’ Church.
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Problem Statement
All Saints’ Episcopal Church is a unique and historic landmark that has been
in the Torresdale community since 1772. The church has a historic cemetery as well
as a school, which is celebrating its 100th year this year. Their longevity has brought
a positive influence on their neighborhood for over two centuries, but now they are
in need of support.
Problem 1: Money
All Saints’ is looking for a spring event that will raise money. In the past All
Saints’ has only had one fund raising event that took place in the fall. This event was
a craft sale. Although it raised a decent amount of money, the ladies of the church
insisted that it was getting old, that only their parishners show up, and lately people
had been bringing in their own “junk” to sell. The money is needed to help restore
the cemetery so that the church can host walking tours. The steeple needs to be
supported and the church would also like an electronic sign instead of the one they
have currently, which uses magnetic letters. This sign is problematic because most
companies have stopped making magnetic letters, and the church has to think very
carefully about what they put on the sign because as we were informed by Maggie,
“We might not have enough vowels.”
Opportunity:
All Saints’ has never had a spring event before so that means our options are
wide open. We also won’t have to work around anything else the church is trying to
do. Because we are hosting a spring event there is a better chance we can hold the
event outside and get a higher attendance of people.
Problem 2: Awareness
As mentioned above All Saints’ is a historical church, but it seems at the
moment no one knows that. Outside of parish members there is no knowledge of the
renovations that All Saints’ needs to perform. They are also not part of the
Pennsylvania historical society.
Opportunity:
Because knowledge of the church is minimal we might be able to gather more
attention for our cause because it’d be something new. Also because All Saints’ is
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relatively unknown there appears to be no negative feelings towards them,
therefore making it an open door to tell publics about our cause.
Problem 3: Community Involvement
Currently All Saints’ has a youth group, a day school, and a Boy Scout troop,
but the congregation itself is not made up of many families. All Saints’ feels very
drawn to the community and wants to appeal to everyone. On their website they
say:
“People joining you in the pews come from all around NE Philadelphia.
We are men and women and children. We are young and old. Some of
us our white and some are black. Some have families and some are
single. Some of us are straight and some of us our gay. Some of us our
people of means and some of us struggle to make ends meet.”
Currently the church doesn’t have as much diversity and families as it states on it’s
website. Our client wants more families to know about All Saints’ and for the church
to feel like it is a part of the community
Opportunity:
Torresdale has a big community that it is very active. Also starting a
relationship can be easier than maintaining a relationship and or fixing one. The fact
that All Saints’ is open to everyone is an ideal that can appeal to everyone and gives
our team a lot to work with.
Chariot PR will be working to address fundraising for All
Saints’ while creating awareness and community involvement by
hosting a spring event.
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Work Statement:
Goals
To raise funds for All
Saints' restoration
projects
To increase awareness
and community
involvement in the
church's activities
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Objective 1
Have 100 people attend “Lunch and Bid” fundraising event
Our main event, “Lunch and Bid” is going to be a silent auction held on the church
premises. We will request donations for auction items (valued at $30 or more) from
church members and local businesses. There will be a variety of items up for
auction. The event will have food and music.
Tactics:
- Light up the Night
In order to draw attention to our event we will be lighting up the cemetery
and church with Christmas lights and candles making the whole place “glow.”
Banners will strategically be placed in front of the church advertising our
“lunch and bid” event as well as bringing attention to our campaign. This will
happen a few nights before our event.
- Contact 40 businesses for donations for the silent auction
The list below is a bunch of businesses that we will contact asking for
donations for our silent auction
- Create a sneak preview corner at auction
This corner will depict the renovations the church needs as well as a sneak
preview of their walking tour. This corner will have big pictures as well as
descriptions of the plan to restore the church.
Strategies:
- “All Saints’ Church needs restoration in order to offer tours and remain
a relevant historical site.”
This message is also designed to reach members of the community as well as
business owners. This message is necessary because positioning All Saints’
as a historical site would bring more people into the area, which in turn
provides growth for businesses in Torresdale
- As church members this will be a fun event to participate in and to
bring your family and friends to
This message will be told to parish members encouraging them to donate as
well as come to our auction and bring other people to.
- “Lunch and bid”
This is the slogan and name of our major fundraising event. The intent of this
slogan is to make people view it as a causal fun event where money will go
towards a good cause.
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Objective 2
Have 50 people attend free car wash event
On April 12, the Saturday before our main event, we will host a free car wash at All
Saints’ Church. While we will solicit, but not require, donations, our main cause is to
promote the silent auction event the following day. We will use flyers and
conversation to promote the event. We will also contact the church’s high school
youth group to ask for help running the car wash.
Tactics:
- Host free car wash to advertise our event and solicit donations.
This event will raise donations, help establish a positive reputation for All
Saints’ Church in the community, and advertise our main event by handing
out fliers.
- Place signs on street promoting car wash
These signs will be placed right outside of the church pointing to where our
event will be held.
- Create flyers with information about All Saints’ restoration processes
and events
We will reach a broad local public and gain more participants at our event
through flyers that will be posted in local businesses and organizations.
Community members will also learn about All Saints’ attempts to become a
larger part of the community through restoring their historical site.
Strategies
- Come to our free car wash and see what we’re about
This message is designed for people to be drawn by the idea of free, but to
want to see what All Saints all does.
- Come back to our big event
At our car wash we are going to encourage members to come back for our
silent auction as well as participate in our 50/50 raffle
Objective 3
Achieve news coverage from at least one media outlet
We will distribute press releases to local media outlets for our car wash and
Reconnect Renovate silent auction. We hope to get coverage from at least one local
media outlet, in addition to free postings in event calendars.
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Tactics:
- Create two press releases to send to at least five media outlets.
By sending out the initial press release, we will inform the media outlets
about All Saints’ Church’s historical significance, needs, and plans. By the
second press release, the media outlets will already know about the church
and will be more likely to cover the “Reconnect Restore” event.
Strategies:
- “All Saints’ Church is Historically Significant”
This message is designed to reach the businesses and residents of Torresdale
as well as media outlets that receive our press releases. It is a vital message
because it helps establish All Saints’ as a historical landmark in the Northeast
community.
Objective 4
Draft a proposal to the Historical Society ofPennsylvania
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania gives promotion and resources to historic
sites in southeastern PA. They have an online application for historic sites to
become a member of their organization. Our group will draft a proposal for All
Saints’ Church to become a member.
Tactics:
- Contact Beth Twiss Houting at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to
inquire about membership
Beth Twiss Houting is the contact person for information regarding membership
to the Historical Society. We will reach out to her to identify the necessary steps
All Saints’ Church would need to take to gain membership. We will relay this
information to the Church.
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Publics to be targeted
Local Business
and Organizations
•This public is necessary to target in order to gain their participation in our
event
•By participating in our event, businesses will want to advertise forus
•They are key to becoming more involved in the community
•Message used: "We help you,you help us"
Current
Congregation
•They already know how great their churchis
•This public would be the easiest to convinceto come to our event
•Messages wouldbe spread via their weekly bulletin and announcements
by the pastor
Families in the
Torresdale area
•They are members of the community that would have the most interest in
the church
•Our event is catered to get them so the churchcan be a more united
community
•Messages used "Learn something you'vealwayswanted to try"
Youth Group and
Cub Scouts
•These publics will be targeted to help us run and advertise these events
•Messages used willconsist of telling them how it can be worktowards
earning a badge and or volunteer hours
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Project Management Statement:
Task 2/16-
2/22
2/23-
3/1
3/9-
3/15
3/16-
3/22
3/23-
3/29
3/30-
4/5
4/6-
4/12
4/13-
4/19
Member
Call Businesses X X Ben & Colleen
Make silent
auction sheets
X Rachel
Make floor plan of
auction
X Chas
Determine food
for lunch and bid
X Nick
Create flyers X Ben
Write press
release 1
X Rachel
Write Press
release 2
X Chas
Contact Beth
Twiss Houting
X Rachel
Create signs for
car wash
X Chas & Colleen
Purchase car
wash supplies
X Nick
Host car wash X Everyone
Talk to church
about silent
auction
X Ben
Take photos for
preview corner
X Rachel
Light up night X All
Banner for in
front of church
X Rachel & Nick
Purchase light up
night supplies
X Nick
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Budget
Due to a limited budget, Chariot PR is keeping costs as low as possible. In order to
accomplish this, all of the printing for flyers will be done either at All Saint’s Church,
or on campus through our personal printing budgets. The only funding that we are
asking from All Saint’s Church is:
Car wash tools = $75
o We need to purchase sponges, hoses, nozzles and soap for the car
wash
Food & refreshments for event = $250
o Chariot PR will purchase hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, pretzels and a
variety of beverages in bulk, and will have them prepared at the
church before and during the event. We will sell these refreshments
for a small profit.
In addition, we are asking for an extra $75 in case of an underestimation of total
costs. In total, Chariot PR is asking for $400 to cover all expenses necessary to
successfully conduct this plan.
Evaluation
Businesses pitched and number of businesses at event
We will pitch our event in person to at least 25 businesses in the Torresdale/
Northeast area on March 8th and 15th. We will meet with our contacts at the church
to decide an optimum number of businesses for the event and adjust the number of
pitches accordingly. We may need to contact more or less businesses depending on
the capacity of the church grounds. The number of businesses at the event will be
evaluated based on how close it is to the number the church wants.
News coverage
Our goal is to generate at least one local news story from our press releases.
Attendees at carwash
We will count the number of cars we wash and people we advertise to at the car
wash. Our goal is to wash 50 cars and leave everyone with a flyer for the event.
Attendees at Spring into Something New event
We plan to have at least 100 attendees at our event. One member of Chariot PR will
be in charge of tallying guests.
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Qualifications
Ben Bousquet is a senior psychology major with minors in public relations and
philosophy. His most recent focus has been on his public relations work - both at La
Salle and his internship with the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management’s
External Affairs Division. Ben has worked with several organizations to effectively
craft messages and reach target publics. He looks forward to the opportunity to
volunteer his time and public relations knowledge to a worthy community
organization, All Saints’ Episcopal Church.
Nick Gentile is a senior, public relations major. Through his work through La Salle
University and his internship at Blake Anthony Group, a marketing consulting firm,
Nick has been able to gain experience in organizing and conducting special events,
marketing to the most important markets, and creating visually appealing
publications. Nick’s knowledge will help to coordinate and advertise the “Spring into
Something New” event being held for All Saints’ Church.
Rachel Finkbeiner has well diversified writing skills. As a sports editor of the
Collegian she is familiar with writing and editing journalism as well as being
proficient in Adobe InDesign. Rachel has also taken two writing courses that
involved writing short stories. Her experience as an editor has enabled her to
maintain relationships with media personal and use social media such as twitter
and Instagram to reach an audience. As a collegiate athlete Rachel has time
management skills, as well as leadership experience which she hopes to utilize for
this project with All Saints’ Church.
Charles Berenato for the past two years has been on the fundraising committee for
Sigma Phi Lambda, which has given him experience approaching businesses and
asking for support. The 5K fundraiser Charles helped organize, generated nearly
$20,000 collectively for La Salle Academy in two years. Although he has only
published two articles for The Collegian, Charles’ writing experience earned him an
internship with isportsweb where currently he is a Philadelphia 76ers
correspondent. Charles will use his writing and interpersonal skills to help aid
Chariot PR’s team in their spring event.
Colleen Brand is senior public relations major with a minor in Social
Work. Throughout her four years she has strengthened her work ethic and has
focused on increasing her personal knowledge through group and
individualized experience. Colleen recently was hired by a home
caregiver organization to work part time in addition to helping her
supervisor create various public relations strategies in her hometown. She enjoys
volunteering her time at various nonprofit organizations as well as a yearly mission
trip with La Salle University UMAS. With her experience in event planning,
organizing specific campaigns and advertising, Colleen can help ensure that her
team meets all of their goals for their client, All Saints Episcopal Church.
