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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

References
Sundale Brochure Donna Tennant Sundale Website Guidestar.com 501c & 1099 information

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.