Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta Proposed Marketing plan

1. Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta Proposed Marketing plan James J. Herndon PADM 7040 October 20, 2005

2. Current Membership of the Clubs • There are currently over 3,000 Boys and Girls clubs in the United States. • There are 23 Atlanta Metro clubs in 23 counties. • The Boys and Girls clubs serves an estimated 30,000 children each year. • No one is turned away for membership due to a lack of funds to pay the $25 membership fee. • New clubs are based on the projected membership capacity of the community and whether a true need exists in the community for the club to exist. The clubs try to make sure their services are not duplicated elsewhere before moving into a new community.

3. Mission of the Clubs • According to the Clubs it’s mission is “To provide a quality developmental program which empowers metro Atlanta youth, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to become productive adults”. • The boys and girls provides after school programs in structured environments for kids of all ages. • The club is a place where kids can feel safe and participate in sports and other activates at little to no cost to the member. • (Boys and Girls club website)

4. Funding • The Boys and Girls Clubs of America is tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. It is eligible to receive contributions deductible as charitable donations for federal income tax purposes. • Source of Funds • Contributions 38,366,604 • Government grants and contracts (net) 19,913,832 • Unrealized gains on investments (net) 7,261,432 • Member organization dues 7,040,946 • Realized gains on investments (net) 6,777,481 • Fundraising events 5,092,527 Investment income (net) 2,632,839 • Income from funds held in trust by others 1,024,748 • Other 930,900 • Total Income$89,041,309 SOURCE: http://charityreports.give.org/Public/Report.aspx?CharityID=440

5. Programs: 75%  Fund Raising: 6%  Administrative: 19%  Total income $89,041,309  • Program expenses$50,440,793   • Fund raising expenses3,857,606   • Administrative expenses13,136,962      • Total expenses $67,435,361  Income in Excess of Expenses 21,605,948 Beginning net assets 203,199,656  Ending net assets 224,805,604 Total liabilities 22,635,513  Total assets $247,441,117  SOURCE: http://charityreports.give.org/Public/Report.aspx?CharityID=440

6. Volunteering for the Club • The Clubs offer many ways to volunteer in a structured environment To volunteer you must pay a $2 fee to help with the background check cost which are required of everyone working in or around the club. • The Executive track of volunteering allows volunteers to help make executive decisions along side of executives in the business and non profit world. • The Mentoring track allows volunteers to participate in programs that help youth with reading, coaching and life skills • The club also allows volunteers to become mentors and help in other non traditional ways based on the limited time commitments of some volunteers. • The club also allows corporations to sponsor clubs and help organize fundraisers such as golf tournaments and road races held each year in metro Atlanta. • Volunteers from the club come from virtually all walks of life, everyone from parents of club members to boardroom executives volunteer for the clubs.

7. Getting the Volunteers • The local clubs do not do a good job at asking for volunteers. They do not have access to funds for local advertisement and they do little to recruit new volunteers except by “word of mouth” at the local level. Local advertising would be beneficial to attract new local members to support the club. • The clubs needs the most volunteers in its mentor program which covers everything from tutoring children to coaching sports. While many claim they would like to volunteer it does take a large time commitment to volunteer to tutor or coach a sporting team which some people simply do not have. • The clubs should target those particular sects of the community in which it serves. For example if a club has a large Latino base then the clubs should target the Latino communities for more volunteers. I would suggest that the clubs use more funding to target persons in the Latino community of the Atlanta area by advertising in cultural specific and Spanish speaking media sources such as newspapers and local Spanish speaking television.

8. Obstacles and Problems • It seems that most volunteers in the Metro Area are those who seek the club out to for volunteering opportunities due to them not being well publicized. • I found that in my research the websites of the clubs were very well put together. BUT upon my asking for information for volunteering 10 times over a 40 day period I received not one response via my email requests. I never had one telephone call returned for volunteering requests. Twice in my phone calls I received information when I spoke to persons at the main office. Most local clubs told me to come in and fill out an application but had little knowledge of the process. I received the most information from staff members when I showed up in my Deputy Sheriff’s uniform after work one day to ask questions about the volunteering opportunities. Sad, but true. • Communication was poor. Staff should be educated to refer questions to the right persons in the organization if they do not know the answer.

9. Obstacles and Problems • Another problem I found is addressing those who want to volunteer and want to participate in the clubs but do not speak English and those person who have a very limited amount of time. • In recent years the Hispanic population in the metro Atlanta area has exploded. I do not believe the clubs are doing enough to address the problems at this time. The clubs do acknowledge this is a problem and are taking steps to advertise on Hispanic radio and television in the area. Money is always an obstacle for the club. The individual clubs compete for funding from the national organization. The national organization does an excellent job at fundraising, as well as the money it receive from the U.S. congress each year. • The clubs should advertise the opportunities for volunteering. The should show potential volunteers the small time commitment that it takes to help out in the community, whether it is once a week or once a month they should show that there is room for the volunteer no matter their time commitment.

10. Competition • The clubs do a good job in that they make sure that their clubs have the least amount of competition as possible before they open a new club in an area. They strive to provide a club in areas not already providing their services. These are in mostly in middle to lower income areas. • This helps the club to receive more funding in the areas that it serves but also hinders the clubs in that they do not expand into more affluent communities due to competition. • The three organizations that the club competes for funding against most often are: Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Girl Scouts of the USA Boy Scouts of America National Council

11. Strengths • The clubs provide many valuable programs unique to the clubs. The National organization organizes and implements new programs and sends the programs out to the local clubs to activate. These programs have been very successful. • Funding is provided and directions are given for use of the funds and supplies. This gives each club a starter kit that is virtually foolproof for each club. The clubs offer everything from gang intervention, tutoring, sports to personal hygiene classes. • Local Clubs receive on average about 50% of their funding from local donors and businesses. The clubs have personnel specifically assigned to research individuals and organizations noted for their philanthropy to achieve an higher percentage of donations from these individuals. • The rest comes from foundations and funds from the national organization which accounts for about 40% of the funding. The rest of the funding (10%) comes from direct mail, phone calls and fund rallies organized by the local clubs.

12. The local clubs provide services that are not duplicated in the particular community they serve. • The local clubs are staffed and operated by local club community members which provides for a strong bond with the local community. • Branding of the clubs during the last 10 years has been extremely successful. Nearly every American knows who the Boys and Girls Clubs are, who they serve and what they do (to an extent). • The clubs have expanded from 1,000 clubs in the early 1990’s to 3,000 nationally in 2001.

13. Weaknesses • The clubs do a very poor job of telling the public what ALL the do. All the public sees is the commercials of kids playing sports in a gym. The sports program is a very small element of what the club does for kids. • Local participation is not encouraged enough. • Local advertising is non existent. They have little restriction on local fundraising and should purse this option more often. • Local fundraising should be aggressively pursued. Any funds raised locally STAY locally. These funds can be used for “upgrades” and additions specific to the community and its needs. • The clubs offer TOO MANY programs. So many They are not even all listed on their national websites. The number of programs fluctuate depending on large donors requests for programs. • The clubs do not do enough to build up local memberships in the existing clubs. • Due to the clubs not expanding into areas that provide completion the clubs appear to be restricted to lower and middle class areas. The clubs do little to expand into more affluent areas due to completion.

14. Recommendations • The clubs provide a valuable service to a segment of the community that truly needs the service but fails to really advertise the clubs in the communities that they serve. • Public does not know what the clubs do besides sports activities. • The club should start by researching their current club members, who they are, where they come from etc. in able to determine who it is that they serve. • The local clubs need to assess why they exist, is there still a need for their services, are their services duplicated in the community and why their services are better than others whom are considered competition. • This could be done by explaining to the local community what they do, what services they offer, and why their service is important to the community they are trying to serve. This could be done at local PTA meeting, a newspaper ad or direct marketing via telephone or other method.

15. A marketing campaign that is simple and effective could start the progress. One place to go would be the schools. If the pamphlets indicating what the clubs do, their hours, the cost and what the do were passed out into local schools it is nearly assured that there would be some benefit to the club with little cost. • The national organization has done an excellent job at branding the Club, the local community clubs need to do the same and they can be even more successful. • Local fundraising must increase to help erase some of the disparity that exists between clubs in different communities. • The clubs already do an excellent job of branding and getting the public somewhat involved. The key is to involve the local community more and maximize funds locally to improve the metro area clubs. • The clubs are locally partnered with Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves but they do little to exploit this opportunity. The use of local celebrities should be maximized when available to increase the exposure of the clubs locally to target audiences. This exposure is at usually minimal cost to the clubs and is usually published in the media for free. • The clubs nationally partner with other organizations such as Crests tooth brush program for kids. Locally they have partnered with Coca-Cola in the past. The local clubs should use more of these partnerships to their advantage. Local clubs do not appear to have persons capable of cultivating such partnerships. It would be helpful to have such person on staff or available for consultation.