Non-Profit Message Creation

Graduate

Intermittent Non-profit organizations support a multitude of causes ranging from the arts to animals to the environment to health care to human rights to scientific research to many great causes in between. Non-profits achieve their missions by advocating on behalf of their organization's cause, raising public awareness about issues surrounding their cause, and fundraising to make their advocacy possible. In this course, students will select a local, Pittsburgh-area non-profit to examine and produce materials based on the organization's needs. Over the course of the semester students will research the organization's persona and values via interviews with chosen organization's staff and analysis of existing communication channels and different forms of content currently used by the organization. Students will use this research and analyses to inform and shape a final project that should meet the specified, needed deliverables from the selected non-profit. Previous example projects include: Revising a newsletter and specifying future best practices for an organization; developing new format and copy for an organization's website; developing a social media campaign for an upcoming event; developing a grant proposal for an organization's project; among many others. Students will have a wide selection of organizations to choose from and know projects associated with the organization at the beginning of the semester, as these will be organized by the professor. At the end of the course, students will have a portfolio ready material and an increased understanding as to how non-profit organizations advance their causes. Course Website: http://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/index.html