Table of Contents1. Situation Analysis2. Problem Statement3. Target Audience4. SWOT5. Objectives 6. Strategy

a. Tactics7. Evaluation

Appendix1. Meta Data2. Evaluation

a. Post-video survey (adopters)b. Post-video survey (video viewers)

   

Situation Analysis

The San Diego Humane Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to

enriching the lives of animals who are taken into one of its shelters. Its mission is simple,

“To promote the humane treatment of animals, prevent cruelty to animals and provide

education to enhance the human-animal bond.”

On March 10, 1880, George W. Marston and George W. Hazzard founded the San

Diego Humane Society. Since this date more than 135 years ago, the San Diego Humane

Society branched into three main campus locations: Escondido, Oceanside and San

Diego, with additional smaller locations throughout various cities in San Diego County.

With this many locations comes an extremely high amount of animals in the

organization’s care and a hefty expense to keep the doors open. According to the San

Diego Humane Society, about 903 animals are in their care daily, averaging out to a daily

cost of $46,210.

Additionally, the San Diego Humane Society is committed to ending euthanasia

among treatable animals who come into its facilities. This campaign, called Getting to

Zero, officially went into effect on July 1, 2015. According to the American Society for

the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, about 2.7 million animals are euthanized each year.

With Getting to Zero, the organization hopes to bring these numbers down, even

marginally.

The San Diego Humane Society’s ultimate goal is to get the animals in its

facilities adopted and into loving homes. The organization averages about 11,615

adoptions per year, whereas the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Rancho Santa Fe

facilitated 3,272 adoptions in 2015.  

Internal factors:

The San Diego Humane Society, led by President and CEO Dr. Gary Weitzman,

operates with 66 percent of revenue coming from fundraising. They rely heavily on the

support from donations, in which depending on the economy, cannot always be counted

on. These donations range from smaller individual one-time gifts to larger corporate

donations. The other 34 percent of the revenue comes from adoption fees, contracts and

vehicle donations, among other things.

External factors:

    The San Diego Humane Society has the likeability factor on its side. Many people are

interested in animal welfare and ensuring their ethical treatment; this is evident in the

organization’s 5,000 plus volunteers and San Diego County laws which protect animals

and their wellbeing.

    However, many breeder animals are still chosen over shelter animals. According to the

ASPCA, 28 percent of dogs in homes come from breeders. Although these

Problem Statement

The San Diego Humane Society is a non-profit organization specializing in

animal rescue in the San Diego county region. The society aims to lower the amount of

stray animals in the greater San Diego area having three separate locations in the county.

There are also nearly 400 homeless animals that are available for adoption on all three

San Diego Humane Society campus locations. Though the organization does not believe

in euthanizing its animals, since the humane society is a non-profit, funds are limited and

it cannot support the animals forever. That being said, the organization needs to further

communicate that people need to adopt from shelters more often, rather than purchase

from breeders or exotic pet shops.

Target audience

Although the San Diego Humane Society is seeking anyone who is willing, able

and responsible enough to adopt a pet, we chose to focus on a young family as our target

audience. Ideally, the family would have young children whose excitement to own a pet

would prompt the parents to adopt. The parents can be classified as an active public,

since they recognize this issue as relevant to their interests and are taking the action

towards owning a pet. This family has never owned a pet before and is choosing to adopt

instead of shop because they also seek the gratification of giving a sheltered pet a new

home. Additionally, this family has a steady income as they belong to the upper-middle

class and can support whichever pet they choose to adopt.

SWOT

Strengths Strong name recognition Have multiple locations throughout

San Diego Large team with plenty of

volunteers Offer a wide variety of services Present on multiple social media

platforms Strong presence in print and

broadcast media Host multiple events each year Sponsored by numerous

corporations

Weaknesses As a non-profit organization, they have a

limited amount of funds Animal overcrowding Expensive to keep animals in shelter,

especially for a prolonged period of time

Opportunities Appeal to a wide audience The humane treatment of animals is

important to many people, giving them a strong and loyal following

Recent state and local laws passed which protect the humane treatment of animals, further pushing their mission

o For example, California Penal Code 597.7 which prohibits owners from leaving their pets in cars under dangerous conditions and protects those who remove animals from motor vehicles when the pet is at risk

Threats Many people prefer to shop for pets

instead of adopt from shelters Stigma surrounding sheltered animals Local organization not affiliated with any

other local, state or national partners Face intense competition from pet

breeders, pet shops and other shelters

Objectives

1. To increase awareness of the San Diego Humane Society by 5 percent by June 2017.

2. To increase adoption rates by 5 percent at the San Diego Humane Society by June

2017.

3. To increase the sponsorship (having a donation fee of an animal paid in full by a

person who necessarily cannot adopt but would like someone else to) of the animals in

the shelter by 5 percent by June 2017.

Strategy

Promote awareness of the San Diego Humane Society to the general population

that can afford to adopt a pet as well as change the attitude of the general population

associated with the San Diego Humane Society.

Tactic

Create a video with the call to action of having the viewers make an effort to

adopt a pet from the San Diego Humane Society.

The video will be posted on Youtube. The premise of the video shows viewers

what life is like for animals at the San Diego Humane Society. Through the video,

it will show how well the organization treats its animals, however, it will compare

the feeling of a pet being adopted and how being with a family is better than

living at the facilities.

The video will be on the official home page to deliver the call to action to anyone

that visits the website.

The video will be shared throughout the San Diego Humane Society social media

outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The video will be shared by the volunteers who work at the San Diego Humane

Society to generate buzz around the organization.

Evaluation

One way we will measure if there was an increase of adoptions or sponsorships at

the San Diego Humane Society is by looking at the number of pets adopted or sponsored

from the time before the video is released in comparison to this year after the video is

released. We can also measure the increase of awareness of the organization by counting

the number of views the video has either on the Youtube views section or by using

Facebook insights to see how many times a person shared, liked or commented on the

video. To see if there was an attitudinal or behavioral change of the target audience, there

will be two surveys given to the two demographics. The first survey will be placed in the

biography section of the video for the viewers (first demographic) of the video to take

and the second survey will be handed out to people (second demographic) that are

adopting a pet at the humane center.

Meta Data

TITLE Tag: Adopt from the San Diego Humane Society

Meta description: Find your furry best friend at the San Diego Humane Society! Adopt an

animal today to change a life.   

Keywords: San Diego Humane Society, dogs, cats, adopt, humane society, animals

Post-viewing survey (for adoptees)

Post-viewing survey (Video Viewers)