pr 324 communication audit

7/29/2019 PR 324 Communication Audit

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Background/History

Sundale Nursing home is a facility that is dedicated to helping elderly patients return to

their home as soon as possible or to at least maintain a normal daily level of functioning. Sundale

provides rehabilitation and nursing care for elderly patients. Its clients include mainly elderly

people. Sundale has been in operations since 1958. The nursing home facility used to be in an

old house on Van Vorris Road but a new center was built on JD Anderson Drive. Sundale has

recently opened a palliative care center which primarily focuses on end of life care. Tennant

states from the article that "It doesn't mean your life is over," she said. "It means we're going to

make those last months as wonderful and comfortable as they can be."

The organization primarily gets fundraising from donations from other groups and also

gets funding by residents living there. With the recent construction of the new wing a lot of

funding came in the form of donations and bonds. Sundale is a local non-profit agency and was

originally established by the Monongalia County Commission as a non-profit organization.

Sundale has the highest population of Hospice patients of any stand-alone nursing facility in

West Virginia. (OAMB)

Sundales current needs are updating its website with new information that is up-to-date.

Ms. Tennant states that time is very limited and sometimes the website never is updated. This is

one task she has asked us to complete. Sundale currently has no social media platforms such as

Twitter and Facebook. The reason for this according to Tennant is because she is afraid of the

comments people may post about the nursing home such as my mom was never turned etc.

Tennant believes there would be more negative comments than positive comments which is true

across the social media platform as many people do use social media to voice their opinions

about a product or service. She strongly feels one day they will be forced to move into social


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media but at this current moment they are very comfortable where they are at. Tennant believes

communication with local media could also use improvement. She wants more publications on

what Sundale already does. Currently Blaine Turner has created a brochure for Sundale that

Donna wants us to possibly redesign. The main issue with the current brochure is particular

wordings. Also she would like to see the donation cards also redesigned. The nursing home

already puts on many events for its clients. We recommended holding another fashion show and

that we would love to help with it. Tennant stated this would be great and even showed pictures

of last years fashion show where they used trash bags to dress up.


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Product/Service Description

The product Sundale currently provides to its residents is nursing and palliative care.

Sundale is a non-profit organization and relies on funding from fundraising and public resources.

Fundraising will be a vital part of our campaign with Tennant. Sundale will be having a Vera

Bradley Longaberger Bingo game on April 28th

and needs sponsors for the gift bags. We will

seek these sponsors from the community. Our target audience will be primarily older individuals

such as children of parents who are now getting aged. Also another audience will be the

healthcare audience. The image we want to convey for Sundale is that it is a nursing home that

wants to treat its clients as if they were truly home.


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SWOT Analysis Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats

Sundale has much strength in that it is a nonprofit organization and is able to provide

affordable long term care for its clients. Another strength of the organization is its professionally

designed website and with our help it will become fully updated. Another strength Sundale has is

it is an assisted living care facility which differentiates itself from the nearby independent living

center. Tennant states if there was a fire itd be her responsibly to make sure every patient got

out safely whereas in the independent care center the responsibility lies on the client to remove

themselves from the facility in the case of fire. Sundale also now has a state of art palliative care

center with fifteen rooms.

There are weaknesses that Sundale must address. The first weakness is while the website

is very professional looking there are many things on the site that need to be updated.

Communication with funeral homes when it comes to where to send donations Tennant would

like to see the donations be encouraged to be sent to Sundale as Sundale was the place they spent

their last few years and is a nonprofit organization. Sundale also faces another weakness in that it


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does rely on fundraising to provide the services it does. Tennant states fundraising is imperative

to receive for Sundale. Another weakness is that Sundale does not want to enter the world of

social media just yet. There are many positives to social media. Twitter may work best for

Sundale since its really not a forum on Sundale but people who follow Sundale on Twitter could

keep up to date on events and activities going on at Sundale.

Sundale has many opportunities that we will address in our campaign. We plan to work

hard with the Dominion Post and media outlets to better publicize events that Sundale does

especially the Hoodie Hoo day which sounds very entertaining as many of us dont like the

coldness of Winter. Tennant also would like us to work on an article for the Dominion Post about

the new chapel. Redesigning the brochure with better wording will allow for better meaning to

be sent across. There will also be different activities we will help organize for Sundales clients.

Sundale does have some threats as an organization. The threat of other nursing homes

coming into Morgantown would have some effect on Sundale. There are also many privacy

concerns when it does come to healthcare in any form.


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Issues

Helping Sundale achieve its fundraising goals. We will also be helping Sundale achieve

its marketing plans when it comes to brochures. By updating the website viewers will know the

company is on top of things. It is also very important for Sundale to achieve better

communication with the publics through different mediums. Hopefully Sundale can eventually

see the benefits to social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Sundale may be more fit for

Twitter right now since there is no wall and you can choose who to follow and etc. Twitter

would also be great for providing updates to activities.

Sundales website has been professionally designed. However, due

to the busy nature of the business keeping the website updated has

been a chore for Tennant. This is one aspect of our campaign that

we will assist Sundale with in getting current news on the website

and auditing the entire website for out of date information.


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Implementation Methods

We will most likely use past methods to implement our plans. We will have to work more

with the Dominion Post to make sure articles do get posted in the newspaper that gives the

community updates and information on what Sundale is doing both for the community and for

the clients it serves. Using the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed Journalism computer

lab we will be able to make revisions to the brochures and donations card. We do have the

resources to use to be able to provide these public relation services to Sundale.


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Evaluation Strategies

Past communications show that Sundale has received media attention. Because Sundale is

a nonprofit organization and because Tennant is a very busy person its always hard to get an

article written up for the newspaper. Tennant is focused on fundraising and the administrative

functions of Sundale. It is very important that we meet each one of our goals set by our campaign

so Sundale can better manage its Public Relations. We also have to show that we can perform

better as students than the firm Sundale has hired for most of its Public Relations.


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References

Sundale Brochure

Donna Tennant

Sundale Website

Guidestar.com 501c & 1099 information


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Analysis

For this semester Sundale should focus on its continued fundraising. Fundraising is

extremely important for the successful operation of the nursing home. We will be able to help

Sundale achieve maximum fundraising this quarter with the implementation of our objectives

and goals. Also continuing to put on activities and events for its client will also be a focus.

Communicating with the media more effectively will hopefully allow more media coverage to be

provided to Sundale. I believe the media strategy will be very important for us in our project with

Sundale. Positive media coverage will only help Sundale excel further in the community

especially when it comes to fundraising and getting the word out.

Auditing the website so that more current information is listed will also be very important

towards Sundale. Tennant would like to see us develop a current news section on the website.

Tennant also wants articles to be submitted to the Dominion Post for publishing about the new

Chapel. Also we will be seeking financial donors for the Longaberger basket bingo which will be

held on April 28th

at the Elks Lodge. Working with funeral homes to try to encourage families to

leave donations to Sundale will be beneficial. It will be imperative to remind the funeral homes

that Sundale is a nonprofit organization and donations and fundraising is what keeps Sundale

operating.

A few fun projects will be Hoodie-Hoo-Day where the nursing home residents will try to

scare winter away then go have cake and ice cream. Also assisting with the Secret Valentine

Project will be very popular among the nursing home residents.

pr 324 communication audit

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