NAPALI 1
National Pacific American Leadership Institute (NAPALI)
Strategic Communications Plan Executive Summary
By
Philip Klinger
COM 605-Content Distribution Processes and Technologies
Professor Van Tassel
National University
National Pacific American Leadership Institute (NAPALI)
Strategic Communications Plan Executive Summary
Analysis of Communication Situation
When thinking of a strategic Communications Campaign, it is important to see what may happen in the future rather than what is happening in the present. What I mean by this comment, is to look to the future for ideas of what may be happening in the future because a lot of times what is happening in the present seems fine and needs no necessary contribution. This is exactly why I chose the National Pacific American Leadership Institute (NAPALI) non-profit organization who is currently receiving funding from the Geneva Foundation. At the first glance towards this organization it seems that all is fine and dandy, but when the contract for funding by the Geneva Foundation to NAPALI is over at the end of this business year Jun 31. 2011, NAPALI will not have any primary source for future funding. The Geneva Foundation is becoming their own nonprofit, and this means that they will not be able to contribute to the NAPALI cause any longer. The most affected people in this situation are the Pacific Islander Americans who participate in the leadership programs. For the goal of this Communication Campaign, the main initiative is to build communication interactions between myself and the two target audiences. The post-goal of this campaign which will be evaluated when this communication campaign is complete will be to secure external finding from Foundations and past NAPALI Fellows. The most likely tangible outcomes that we will be trying to achieve through this Campaign are quality relationships built on strong communication and multiple interactions. This will ultimately allow us to gain credibility and personal relations within the NAPALI organization and hopefully some of the people within outside Foundations.
Definition of Objectives
In this case, our goal and our objectives are the exact same thing: to secure external funding under NAPALI’s new non-profit status to host 2 programs a year with full Fellows scholarships. The change we will be able to observe is how well our strategic dissemination of the NAPALI leadership program messages to Foundations and Fellows are received about their future need for new funding support. What the NAPALI organization and Fellows will be able to reasonably accomplish with this plan; will be to host at least 1 leadership program a year on Oahu in Hawaii. This hopefully will expand in later years to another program on mainland to reach disconnected Pacific Islander Americans.
Who Our Audiences Are
The audiences whose knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors must be changed in order to meet the campaign goal are private and faith based organizations that include non-profits, foundations, and organized grass roots culture-based groups. The secondary audience, who can serve as allies and partners through an alumni association are the prior NAPALI Fellows who have already completed the leadership program in the past 13 years; at present there are 179 Fellows across the Pacific Rim including American Samoans, Chamorros, Fijians, Maoris, Native Hawaiians, Tongans, Tahitians, and others connected with Pacific American cultures.The tertiary audiences who will be affected if the goal is a success are the new and future Pacific Islander Americans from across the Pacific Rim who attend the cultural leadership workshops: the NAPALI cultural leadership program. For this campaign, we are not going to deal with this particular audience directly because they are dependent upon the goals of this campaign being a success and not involved in the goals becoming a success.
Profile of Primary Audience
The primary audience which will be described first in this section will be the Foundations. These foundations are private and faith based organizations that include non-profits, foundations, and organized cultural groups. This audience has a background in funding programs that benefit communities for minority populations, especially Pacific Islanders because:
1)They are a rapidly growing segment of the population.
2)They live in high poverty areas.
3)They are under-educated to be leaders.
The barriers to this audience fully supporting or participating in reaching this goal are political, geographical, and economic due to last years’ global financial disaster on the stock market. The characteristic of this audience is that they are organizations that receive multiple requests for financial assistance from diverse ethnic groups. They spend their time reviewing applications and preparing report portfolios on funded grants. Their gender is mixed. Their ethnicity is Japanese, Chinese, Native Hawaiian, Caucasian, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, Tongan, Tahitian, American Samoan, and Fijian. (Swain, 2010) Their income levels vary, depending on their position within the funding organizations. This audience is well educated with a minimum of a Bachelors Degree. There are 40 indigenous languages within these organizations and their extended employee. (Berez, Mulder, and Rosenblum, 2010) This audience is influenced by politics, economic development initiatives, and community leaders who become champions for local causes. New information is credible for them when they can view a similar model proposed within a grant that has been successful. Individuals who can motivate change or action include the Executive Directors and Board Members at each funding organization.
Profile of Secondary Audience
The secondary audience as described above consists of people who can serve as allies and partners through an alumni association and/or are the prior NAPALI Fellows over the past 13 years. According to the NAPALI/Pacific American Foundation Report (2007) “all of the Fellows report that they are taking on leadership roles in some capacity, either in their workplace, their family life, or their community.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 12) We know that the Fellows have a high appreciation for the uniqueness of the NAPALI leadership program workshops as demonstrated in these quotes:
1)“The Pacific American Emerging Leadership course was the best leadership course I ever attended. It helped me weave together a ‘leadership map’ from both my culture and the Western culture.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 8)
2)“The course raised my awareness of the leadership strengths and weaknesses of Pacific Americans. This awareness in turn, helped me develop my own leadership skills, which have been essential to the success of my law firm.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 8)
3)“I realized it was okay to be a Pacific Islander and an American. You do not have to leave your Pacific Islander identity behind to be an American.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 7)
4)“The program helped me to understand that my work in our Pacific Islander community is a continuation of a journey (or journeys) that set sail long ago, and it is my generational and cultural obligation and privilege to be part of this amazing journey.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 5)
5)“After attending the Pacific American Emerging Leadership Course, I had a far better understanding of our culture, and its relationship to modern society. Previously I had thought Hawaiian culture was about the past, but since taking the course, I have learned that culture is continuous; how we connect our culture to our everyday lives is what Hawaiian culture is about.” (NAPALI, 2007, page 4)
There are a few barriers that affect this audience supporting or participating in reaching the goal/objectives of this Campaign. First, the NAPALI Fellows are spread out over a large geographical area, ranging from the State of Washington to Hawaii to their individual islands across the Pacific Rim. This is a large barrier because communication is unstable and may not be readily available even with modern technology through satellite service.
In addition, the economies on the smaller islands are very poor, thus making it difficult for the Fellows to raise money instead of chickens. The benefits will be that they will be able to send other emerging leaders from their islands to build community and political capacity. An additional benefit is that as the Fellows collective capacity for leadership grows across the Pacific Rim, it increases their voice in American Government.
Characteristics of Fellows
The characteristics of this audience are displayed by their occupational fields (NAPALI, 2007, page 12):
1)Business 22.9%
2)Education 37.1%
3)Health 5.7%
4)Government/Law/ Politics 17.1%
5)Military 2.9%
6)Engineering 2.9%
7)Non-Profit Culture-Based Organizations 11.4%
This audience spends their time working within diverse organizations that are corporate, governmental, educational systems, trade, and agriculture. The following information has been retrieved from the NAPALI Foundation Report 2007:
There are 179 Fellows: almost equally balanced between male and female. Their ethnicity was already described above in the audience for this section: however, the four largest groups are Native Hawaiian (85 individuals), American Samoan (39 individuals), Chamorro (18 individuals), and Tongan (20 individuals). This audience’s income level ranges from poverty level up to middle class; one of the Fellows has advanced from poverty and prison to becoming Mayor of Hilo, Hawaii (Big Island). This audience has been educated from several sources: Kamehameha School, faith-based schools, and traditional public education. The audience’s language considerations have to take in the fact that there are 40 indigenous languages across the NAPALI Fellow groups. This audience is influenced by their peers within their own cultures and the leaders at NAPALI. New information is credible for them only when it is delivered to them by someone they trust, and elder (Kupuna), or they see the results first hand for themselves. All change in action comes from their Chiefs and elders; that is why this leadership program is so important, because it is designed and delivered by the NAPALI elders.
Ways this Campaign Will Reach both Foundations and Fellows
For this Campaign, there are many different ways that we could reach our target audiences. Unfortunately, due to time constraints we are looking for the best possible way to assure that the audiences are reached strategically. The channel we are going to start with is a Direct Media outlet known as email since most people involved in the target audiences have access to email in their daily lives. This will also allow us to make up a few pieces of outgoing mail that can be sent to many without much time or money involved. We will use Listservs as our main activity in this email campaign, hoping to reach more target audience members based on what we know about others relations to each other. Some main source of materials we will use in this email Campaign will beNews releases, Fliers and brochures, Bookmarks, Public service announcements and Video presentations. Next we will reach these audiences with Web pages, trying to push messages across the World Wide Web for their feedback. Lastly, we will use mobile phones as a part of the campaign; this may be able to reach the Foundations, but is really to secure communication and interaction with the Fellows. Some actions that may take place in using cell phones to send these messages may be text messaging, video messaging, or even phone calls.
Select Communication Channels
Communication channels that will be used to reach the primary audience of Foundations vs. that of the secondary audience of Fellows will be a bit different based on their social relationships and their lifestyles. This would also include what seems to have affected the audience based on past history.
Primary Audience: The Foundations
This audience gets information from:
- Web sites
- Social Networks
- Email campaigns
- Community non-profit offices
Credibility to this audience is limited to the professional relationship the Foundation has with the people involved in these communication channels. The Executives and their staff of Foundations that we would like to reach are generally engaged in social networks that are supported by the other communication channels listed above. An email campaign might be highly effective to gain their attention as well as editorials in newspapers and public service announcements on websites. We believe that this will have a high effectiveness rate if the titles to the emails as well as the message involved there in are strong and have interesting material to the Foundations tasks. In order to do this correctly with the highest amount of effectiveness, it will take a lot of time to sort out what is important to each of these Foundations individually and to relay this information in the emails. That is, for this particular project, we are going to use an Email campaign and information mirrored on a website to reach this target audience.
Secondary Audience: The Fellows
This audience gets information from:
- Mobile phone calls
- Email campaign
Credibility to this audience is limited to the personal relationship the Fellows have with the people involved in these communication channels. This audience spends most of its time in their churches, community centers, and schools, and recreation centers. This audience is most likely to give you attention at their churches and community centers. The communication channels we would recommend to reach this audience of Fellows are Churches, community centers, schools, and recreation centers.
Establish Partnerships
Establishing Partnerships is a very important aspect to who will respond with future contributions based on their knowledge of who is already taking part in the project. Here are a few different ideas we have for establishing partnerships between the NAPALI organization, The Fellows, and outside Foundations. These ideas for partnerships are solely based on our research and identifying what each of these Foundations contributes towards or have contributed towards in years past.
Foundations - Allies or partners:
NAPA
Pacific American Foundation
Hawaii Community Foundation
Hawaiian Airlines
Campbell, James and Abigail, Family Foundation
Cooke Foundation
First Hawaiian Bank
Bank of Hawaii
Hawaiian Homes Commission
Queen Lili'uokalani Trust
Office of United States Senator Inouye
Fellows- Allies or partners:
Foundation for Global Awakening
Kellogg, W.K. Foundation
Krieble, Vernon K. Foundation
MacArthur, John D. and Catherine T. Foundation
McInerny Foundation
Pikake Foundation
Watumull, J. Foundation
Pacific American Foundation
Hawaii Community Foundation
Hawaiian Airlines
Campbell, James and Abigail, Family Foundation
Development of Messages
Barriers:
There are two major barriers to the Foundations acting on our issue; large groups and accountability. Foundations for the most part are interested in larger groups and maintaining a strict accountability to their Board of Directors. This means that they must keep in close contact with their Grantees, making sure that the money which is given is used in the exact way that the Grantees explained in their proposals.
There are two major barriers to the Fellows acting on our issue. The first is that many of the Fellows come from impoverished island communities where exchange of commodities is not necessarily currency. The second is that asking for money makes them feel uncomfortable because in their cultures, they are givers and not takers.
Benefits:
The Foundations: The benefits to this audience are intrinsic; they are helping indigenous people learn how to lead themselves in a modern world.
The Fellows: the benefits to this audiences acting upon this issue is that there are 179 Fellows with community connections across the Pacific whose organizations provide small community grants. With this type of support the NAPALI leadership programs could be offered several times a year in different locations instead of only once a year in Hawaii.
Foundation Messages – Good & Bad
The Foundations: messages that work:
- We need to invest in the future of Pacific Islander Americans, because it is also our future.
- We all share the responsibility for each other; these new leaders from the Pacific Rim bring traditions and cultural values that have been forgotten by the modern world, yet are desperately needed now to ensure our collective survival.
- We are all family; how can we overlook our brothers and sisters from the Pacific Islands as new leaders?
The Foundations: messages that won’t work:
- Funding this program will build awareness of your name in the Pacific Islander community.
- Your support helps one individual at a time.
Fellow Messages – Good & Bad
The Fellows: messages that work:
- Fundraising gives everyone a chance to give.
- We have to rely on ourselves; we have to do this together.
- God helps those who help themselves; we help God by helping each other.
The Fellows: messages that won’t work: