Background

A. Origins & early history

Childrens Charities Association (CCA) was formed to organize fund-raising projects collectively for 6
charities that benefits children, in 1966 by the founding chairman, Mr Francis Thomas. At first it was an
unstructured group of charities. However, CCA organized a first successful Christmas Fair in 1965
located at the Victoria Memorial Hall which gave the final push to create this formal organization. In
1972, CCA became an Institution of Public Character. The current chairman today is Prof Ho Lai Yun.
The member charities are Singapore Childrens Society (SCS), Singapore Association for the Deaf
(SAdeaf), Spastic Childrens Association of Singapore (SCAS), Movement for the Intellectually Disabled
of Singapore (MINDS), St Andrews Mission Hospital for children (SAMH) and Association for Persons
with Special Needs (ASPN). (CCA,2014)
These member charities have shared objectives of giving assistance to the physically, mentally and socially
disadvantaged children in Singapore. CCA has been awarded 2 National Day awards in 1996 and 1996. It
has reached out to at least 15,000 children annually and had raised more than $700,000 from their 4 fund-
raising events (Halimah Yacob, 2011).
B. What the organization does today
1. Chinese New Year Hong Bao
Chinese New Year Hong Bao appeals will be sent to schools and corporations during the Chinese New
Year period. In 2013, it raised a sum of $3,483. (CCA, 2013)
2. The Donation Draw
The public can purchase tickets priced at $2 each from April to June. 20 prizes will be given away during
the draw in June, including cash prizes, electronic gadgets, household items or vouchers. Sale of tickets
are targeted at organizations or individuals. (CCA, 2014)
3. FLAG DAY
Held on 11 June 2014, at least 2,500 student and adult volunteers from organizations assisted in the
annual Flag Day. Partner organizations are invited to sponsor $10,000 to lower expenses of organizing the
event. (CCA, 2014)
4. 9th CCA CHRISTMAS FAIR & WALKATHON
Held in December 2014 at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza from 8.45am to 6pm. Participants will walk 1.5km
along Orchard road with children from the member charities. The cost would be $25 for each individual,
$60 for a family of 4 and $2000 for corporate participants. At 11am, there will be the opening ceremony
of the Christmas Fair, conducted by Patron of CCA, Mrs Mary Tan. Participants can volunteer to set-up
food, games or handicraft stalls where the sales made will be donated to CCA. (CCA, 2014)
5. Ben & Jerrys Free Cone Day
Held in April 2014, Ben & Jerrys partnered with CCA for the first time to help raise awareness and
increase support through donations on Free Cone Day. Ben & Jerrys also invited bloggers to spread the
awareness and at least $5000 were raised from this event. (Unilever, 2014)
C. Numbers and types of key publics, with demographics
i. Corporate Sponsors
According to Spire Research and Consulting (Spire, 2014), getting corporate sponsors is commonly
achieved through referrals and nominations. They will accept it to fulfil corporate social
responsibility and promote team-bonding among employees. However, appeal letters and emails are
the least effective and organizations are unlikely to respond.
Most will donate directly to specific fund-raising projects instead of a master fund to ensure
transparency of their donation. 83.6% gave donations in cash. Median donations in cash is $12,000
in 2011. It is important to note that 44.1% regards the past performance of a Non-Profit
Organization (NPO) through their publications the most important consideration before giving
(Spire, 2014).

ii. Volunteers from organizations
Most organizations are likely to give only once or twice annually due to time and scheduling
constraints. They believe direct contact with beneficiaries is more significant than donations. 65.6%
employees volunteer (Spire, 2014).
iii. Volunteers from schools
Current students are born in 1981-2003. There are 175 primary and 154 secondary schools, 15 mixed
schools, 13 Junior colleges and centralized Institutes (MOE, 2013). 48% of students were volunteers
in 2008. (National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre [NVPC], 2012)
iv. Donors
The demographics of donors has increased across age, income and education levels, and now 9 in 10
people donates (NVPC, 2012). The lower income gives more of their income at 1.8% compared to
the higher income which donated 0.5% of their earnings. The full-time employed donates the most
at 93%, while 91% of part-time employed and 88% students are donors (NVPC, 2013). Women are
more likely to donate (Childrens Aid Foundation, 2013). This group believes that there should be
transparency in how their donations are used (NVPC, 2012). They also feel that a gracious and
thankful tone in asking for donations is essential (NVPC, 2013).
Organizational Philosophy
A. Mission: To assist Member Charities to raise additional funds to supplement their daily
operations. (CCA, 2014)
Vision: To enable Member Charities to help educate, train and assist the children in their care to become
independent, useful citizens who can play their role in our nation. (CCA, 2014)
B. Organisational goals and/or objectives
Goal: To organize successful fund-raising projects enough to fund the 6 member charities annually.
Objectives:
To receive hongbao donations of at least $4,000 from schools and organizations in 15 days during
the Chinese New Year season.
To sell at least $200,000 from sale of tickets to the public in 2 months from end April to June during
the donation draw.
To obtain corporate sponsors to sponsor the prizes for the donation draw and printing $6,000 worth
of tickets from April to June.
To recruit at least 2,500 volunteers to raise $50,000 on Flag Day on 11 June 2014.
To obtain sponsorship of $52,000 by organizations to defray expenses of organizing Flag Day and
the CCA Christmas Fair & Walkathon.
To raise $200,000 from the public sale at the Christmas Fair on 6 December 2014.
Organizations Website Versus Competitors
A. Components liked on the site
Appropriate type and leading used to ensure readability of text on the website and the long runs of copy
are broken up for easy reading. There is maximum contrast between the text and the white background,
thus easy to read and understand the message. The website also uses complementary colours of orange
and blue. The orange can be seen in the logo, donate widget, menu bar, and Latest News and Corporate
Partner while blue was seen in the photos used and the logos of member charities. People associate the
colour orange with a good value. (Morin, 2014) Orange in this case represents enthusiasm, happiness,
determination, success and encouragement, which is apt for a charity meant for helping children.
B. Components disliked on the site
The navigation that leads to call of action i.e. donate is not significant enough and seems to be of the
same importance as the other navigation tool bar on the left of the website. The latest news box on the
right side of the website is also not fully utilized.
C. Competitors website
Mainly I Love Kids (MILK)
One element that can be learnt from this site is their dynamic banner. The banner keeps changing
into various photos to ensure the website is not too monochrome and static. Another significant
element is the use of triad colour scheme of yellow, red and blue, which looks quite attractive.
Club Rainbow (Singapore)
The call to action is visible with the use of images to easily identify the action and is placed
strategically on the left where research has shown people will look there the most. (Laja, 2012)
Public Relations Opportunity or Problem
A. Problem or opportunity: CCA seems to have few outreach efforts to increase awareness of the
events. There are not much publications done to review the event, even on the website itself. So,
the communication with the public is irregular.
One opportunity might be to use publications to build long-term relationships with donors and
sponsors.
B. Key publics most affected: corporate sponsors, corporate volunteers, donors
C. Priority Publics: Corporate sponsors & corporate volunteers. By targeting them, that same
organization can both sponsor and volunteer, which achieves a few goals at the same time. While
donors can be easily found on the spot during the event itself because the events are held in
public areas, sponsors and volunteers need quite some time to look for before the fund raising
events starts and for the event to be successful.
Strategic Plan
1. Flier
Fliers can be posted up at the organizations workplace to increase interest and encourage the employees
to volunteer as full-timers are likely to donate and volunteer. It will include the most important details
only like the event date and location and what CCA hopes to get from the event, to make it easy to read.
It needs to be bright and attractive enough. This will be done by maximising colour theory and
illustrations to evoke emotions. The illustrations will be a high quality, crisp image and sends a very
obvious message from one glance. The flier will also be of high contrast to make it stand out against a
plain wall. Moreover, the type used will be bold and eye-catching. If possible, asking unexpected
questions or using a provocative phrase can be inserted to make the flier stand out even more. Once
interested, the flier could refer to the brochure which would provide them more details to make that call
of action a reality.
2. Brochure
A brochure would help answer the corporate sponsors and volunteers questions about CCA. This is
based on the fact that 52% requested for more volunteer and donation needs by the NPOs (NVPC,
2012), thus a brochure would bridge this information gap. If the organizations sees that CCA have the
same values as theirs from the brochure, it would also help build a long-term relationship. The brochure
would also include messages that show CCAs history to increase their trustworthiness so people would
be willing to sponsor more. To stand out from other possible charities, the brochure will emphasize what
makes this charity significant and how is it unique from the rest of the charities. The use of effective
colours and illustrations, combined with the type used will help make the brochure look attractive.
3. Website
Once the brochure has perked their interests, the website will provide even more comprehensive details
that they may want to know about, to fully reach out to them. For example, 35% wanted a best practices
manuals on corporate giving (NVPC, 2012). This could be updated in the website for those that are
interested and would prepare the volunteers to what is to come during the actual event. Moreover, the
donate button will be big and colourful to attract attention. It will also include information about how
donations are used to ensure transparency and the request to donate would be a polite- please donate,
followed by a short appeal. I would try a triad colour scheme for its website as seen by its effectiveness on
MILK. I would also include more photos in the website to help users identify and visualize the people
theyll be helping if they donate or sponsor. Another strategy would be to put the mission at the home
page to let users know straight away what the website is about. If possible, I would also add a box to
replace the latest news on the current website and change it to the amount of donations collected so far
for various fund-raising events that they hold.




References
Children's Charities Association (2014, January 1). About Us. Retrieved September 3, 2014, from
http://www.childrenscharities.org.sg/aboutus.html
Halimah Yacob (2011, October 15). The Children's Charities Association of Singapore (CCA) Annual
Presentation. Annual Awards and Cheque Presentation ceremony. Singapore.
The Childrens Charities Association of Singapore (2013, April). Audited Financial Statements For the
Financial Year Ended. Retrieved
https://www.sggives.org/CheckAccess.aspx?url=/attachments/charity/c5476788-7ff6-46cc-964b-
6239a6280680.pdf
Unilever (2014, April). Celebrate the Ben & Jerriest Day of the Year with Free Ice Cream on 8 April [Press Release]
Retrieved from
http://www.unilever.com.sg/aboutus/newsandmedia/pressreleases/Ben_Jerrys_Coned_Free_Cone_Day
.aspx
Spire Research and Consulting Pte Ltd (2014). Bridging the Expectations Gaps in Corporate Giving. Retrieved
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port%20-%20Bridging%20the%20Expectation%20Gaps%20in%20Corporate%20Giving_FINAL.pdf
Ministry of Education (2013). Education Statistics Digest 2013. Retrieved from
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/education-statistics-digest/files/esd-2013.pdf
National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre [NVPC] (2012). Individual Giving Survey 2012 Media Briefing.
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http://www.nvpc.org.sg/Portals/0/Documents/Research%20and%20Publications/IGS%202012/IGS
%202012%20Media%20Briefing.pdf
NVPC (2013). Individual Giving and Subjective Well-Being Survey Report. Retrieved from
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ve%20Well-Being%20Slides%20(IGS%202012)_27%20Sep%202013.pdf
Childrens Aid Charities (2013). World Giving Index 2013- A global view of giving trends. Retrieved from
https://www.cafonline.org/PDF/WorldGivingIndex2013_1374AWEB.pdf
Morin, A. (2014, April 2). How To Use Color Psychology To Give Your Business An Edge. Retrieved September
5, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/02/04/how-to-use-color-psychology-to-
give-your-business-an-edge/
http://www.milk.org.sg/milk/programpartners.php
http://www.clubrainbow.org/
Laja, P. (2012, March 6). 10 Useful Findings About How People View Websites. Retrieved September 5, 2014.