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Promising Pages

Team Y

Karen Chen

Sherridan Fulbright

Nicole Johnson

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Imagine these are your own children

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[HOOK PT. 2] And now this is a different group of children. Compared to the first group of kids, these kids live in a city with many public libraries, so they have access to many books within walking distance. As a result, they can read at higher reading levels, have better reading comprehension skills, and a larger vocabulary than other kids their age. They grow up remembering all the books they had in their childhood and teach their own kids to appreciate books.

Our research aims to explore how Promising Pages, a nonprofit based in Charlotte, can work to expand beyond Charlotte to not only spread awareness of book deserts and its impacts, but also reach children like the first group who don’t have easy access to books and therefore are at a much larger academic disadvantage compared to this group of children.

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Background

Problem: Promising Pages is a Charlotte-based nonprofit with a small but established executive team and very efficient system, but they are looking to expand beyond Charlotte.

Secondary research

Strengths and Weaknesses
Opportunities and Threats

[Read overall problem]

For our secondary research, we conducted a SWOT analysis. We found that a major strength of Promising Pages was in its support from the community, whether it was through volunteers, partnerships, sponsorships, etc. Promising Pages always has a lot of support. A major weakness is that the executive team is small, so if Promising Pages were to expand, they would likely need more leadership to maintain what the organization is doing in Charlotte, while working to build their cause outside of Charlotte. We believe that while it is important to recognize this weakness, it will not be that big of an issue if Promising Pages was able to establish a team outside of Charlotte, because their sponsors and partners are often not limited to just Charlotte but from North Carolina as a whole e.g. Duke Energy, Wells Fargo, etc.

One of the biggest threats is potentially competition from other nonprofits in North Carolina with goals that are similar to Promising Pages, but this threat can also be an opportunity for collaboration, since at the end of the day, both organizations have the same goal of spreading awareness of book deserts and providing books to communities that don’t have access to it.

From our secondary research, we decided that we needed to gather more information about what people’s thoughts were on donating to nonprofits like Promising Pages and their knowledge of book deserts and the importance of books in academic achievement.

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#1 - Childhood role models, parents, and the environment they are raised in often impact not only what individuals look for in nonprofits, but also their views on the impact of books on academic achievement.

One participant from interview report:

“My parents have always donated to the Urban Ministry, and so food insecurity, which is the primary issue the nonprofit tackles, is something I’m very passionate about. I even started a community garden at my elementary school.”

Survey: 43.84% chose friends, family, acquaintances, and coworkers when asked “How do you find nonprofit organizations to donate to?”
For the participants that identified as minorities or grew up in underserved communities, they were all also very interested in giving back to underserved communities

[Read insight] We came to this insight based on the information we gathered by conducting interviews, ethnographies, and surveys. From one of our interviews, one of the participants said” [read what they said]. The interviews were conducted with 3 college-aged students and 3 adults. For all of the sample, we asked the same set of questions, which basically went over what they usually donate (money, time, resource, or other), what causes they donate to and why, their opinions on the importance of books in children’s education, impact of book deserts, etc.

Another finding was that the environment in which the partic ipants were raised in had an impact on their views on nonprofits. Some of the participants in the interview identified as minorities and talked about donating to the underserved communities as one of the causes they are most interested in.

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Another participant from interview report:

“The most memorable memories from primary school are reading times: the teacher brings out a book and reads it to the class… Some books such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? still remain with me and are unforgettable.”

Observations from ethnography: participants were very enthusiastic as they filtered through the donated books that they remembered from their own childhood.

Survey: Education was one of the causes that the participants were more likely to donate to compared to other causes such as animals and religion.

Measured on a 4-point Likert scale: Very unlikely (1), somewhat unlikely (2), somewhat likely (3), very likely (4)

M = 3.15, SD = 0.68

Another finding was that the participants across multiple methods had good memory of the books they read or were read to in their childhood. One of the participants from one of our interviews said [Read interview quotation]. This same idea was seen when conducting our ethnographies. At an in-person book drive and cleaning service event hosted by Promising Pages, our team observed that as the participants filtered through the donated books, they were very enthusiastic when they came upon books from their own childhood. This enthusiasm fostered relevant conversation about books and classrooms. Finally, data from our survey report brought all of these findings together. When asked how likely they were willing to donate to a cause, education was one of the most highly rated. On a 4-point Likert scale of very unlikely (1), somewhat unlikely (2), somewhat likely (3), and very likely (4). From a sample of 80 total participants, education had a mean of 3.15 (SD = 0.68), which suggests that people were somewhat likely to donate to education rather than unlikely. Based on our findings, we found that books, which are closely-tied to education and the attainment of knowledge, is very important to many participants, especially if their parents and role models exposed them to books very early on.

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#2 - Social interactions and the chance to develop relationships serve as a motivating factor in an individual’s likelihood to interact with the organization.

One participant from interview report:

“I am more willing to give my time because it gives me an opportunity to create relationships with people and organizations in my community.”

Observational research proved that participants enjoy events and programs but on organizations where they have the opportunity to engage in conversation.
Promising Pages’ “book parties” and similar events will provide a chance for potential volunteers to socialize and feel more connected.

[Read insight]

Throughout our research we saw the importance of human connection when it came to involvement in a non-profit organization. In an interview a participant shared that they "more willing..." This directly correlate our findings that people prefer to donate time over money and we feel as if that is because of the personal connection that can be made. A financial donation while beneficial can feel less impactful and potential participants value the direct impact they feel like they can make at in person events. In our observational research we saw just that as participants enjoyed their programming more because of the opportunity they had to engage in conversation simultaneously. A supervisor at the service project also informed particpants that "book parites" and similar events where participants are able to interact with other volunteers and the children in need of assistance.

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Survey results included:

56.7% of participants were likely or very likely to participate in online groups or discussion boards to communicate with like-minded people
64.2% of participants were likely or very likely to join clubs or groups in person in their community or on their campus
70.1% of participants were likely or very likely to work with the organization directly

Interview participant mentioned that they were more likely to donate to an organization that would help them "further their professional interests and give them networking opportunities."

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#3 People are more likely to support an organization if their work directly impacts their local community.

One participant from interview report:

“Every year I donate money to Iredell Smart Start, United Way, and American Heart Association... I donate to these places based on their need and who they help in the community.”�

Survey: 55.13% chose time when asked “What are you most likely to donate?”�
Observations from Ethnography: People were more likely to donate when they saw exactly who they were helping. Locals donated time and money.

[Read Insight] We came to this third and final insight based on the research we have conducted during the course of this study. From our interviews we found that people were more inclined to donate when they knew their money was directly helping their community. One interviewee stated; ““Every year I donate money to Iredell Smart Start, United Way, and American Heart Association... I donate to these places based on their need and who they help in the community.”

A second finding comes from one of the surveys we held. When asked “What are you most likely to donate” 55.13% of participants stated “time” in comparison to roughly 33% choosing money and 11% choosing resources. By choosing time we can see that people want to work with organizations in their local communities.

A third finding comes from an ethnography observation. When observing one Facebook Group, one trend picked up on was that people were more willing to donate money when they saw exactly who was being benefited from the donation. We know these donations were local grown because of the premises around the online group.

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Survey: 43.84% chose “Friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances” when asked “How do you find non-profit organizations to support?”�

Other choices being: social media, the general internet, campus affairs/interest meetings, and other. �

Another participant from interview report: �

“I like to see where my money goes. I want to know that my donations really make an impact on the community"

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Conclusions

Local community

Childhood roles models, parents & environment

Social interactions & relationships

Going back to our research question about whether or not Promising Pages can succeed if they expand beyond Charlotte. Our main takeaways were that participants were very likely to donate and interact with nonprofits if they directly impacted their local community, if there is social interaction involved, and if their parents/role models instilled those values in them. Book deserts are often found in low income neighborhoods, so participants will more likely work to give back to their community. We believe that Promising Pages can succeed, because book deserts directly impact the local community—by combatting it, it works to provide more educational opportunities for the children in these communities. Social interaction and networking will be possible if Promising Pages plans events like the "book parties" that were mentioned, group book drives and cleaning service events, and other networking opportunities.

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Implications

A

B

C

Social Interactions

More events centered around socializing and networking.

Resources

Utilize reputable partners and sponsors with country-wide connections

Social Media

Take advantage of Instagram and Facebook and the different audiences they gather.

Based on our key takeaways and findings we feel as if implementing a stronger social media presence, increased opportunities for social interactions and utilization of Promising Pages current resources will allow for successful expansion.

When it comes to social media, we feels as is Promising Pages would benefit from taking advantage of Instagram and Facebook where they can establish groups, discussion boards and pages to advertise and allow for communication. Additionally, social media will help the organization target the young adult audience which will be helpful because of their interest in social issues, presence on social media and status of being parents primarily of elementary school children.

Promising Pages already seen results from events and programs allowing for socializing and networks. We have found that it will be important to increase the number of "book parties", cleaning events and donation prgrams to allow for those relationsnhips to be made. The organization could benefit from slowly starting to hold these events in cities surronding Charlotte and slowly begin to go further out.

We have also seen Promising Pages currently has well known partners and sponsors such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Duke Financial, Habitat for Humanity, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, and the Boys and Girls Club. We know that these are cuntry wide orgnaization and companies that will allow for easier access into markets outside of charlotte as we utilize their connection. We also want to encourage communication with these sponsors and partners so they can get more invlolved in social media posts, in-person programming and word of mouth marketing.

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Reflections

Overall Success of Research �
Our Highs and Lows �
Final Thoughts

Overall during the course of this research study, we had a lot of successes within our research. We were able to get ample amounts of both qualitative and quantitative results from our interviews, surveys, and enothgraphy observations. While some of our methods were more successful than others, we were able to pull of them together in the end.

One of our lows during our research was the low participation rate in the second survey compared to our first. We were able to get the first survey out to about 4 times as many people as the second survey. While this was a minor set back, it showed us the importance of outreach and how the smallest things can help increase survey participation. One high from this process was getting to talk with people first hand and seeing how their donation, whether it be time, money, or resources, made them feel. Having real people give their insight on our study really enhanced the outcome. A second high was being able to see Promising Pages in action. Since Nicole lives in the Charlotte Area, she was able to get out in the field and observe some really amazing points for our research at a service project event.

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Thank you!

Questions?