Proposal for Children’s Books Fundraising

About United Way of America

The proposal has been developed for United Way of America. It is one of the largest
non-profit organizations in the US by donations. It partners with non-profit organizations
across the country to fundraise and then use the fundraised resources to identify and
implement solutions to some of the most pressing problems in the community (United Way).
One of the organization’s key focus is education which this proposal also focuses on.

3

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 4
Objectives 4
Description 4
Target Audience 4
Resources 5
Budget 5
Statement of Benefits 5
References 7

4

Executive Summary

An early love for reading has been found to be a key factor in the success of children
in school and, therefore, life. Apart from building literacy, it also promotes creative thinking,
confidence, and key skills that children need in order to succeed (Capotosto, 2020).
Unfortunately, many children from low income families do not develop a love for reading at
an early age. As a result, many of them fail to build effective literacy skills and, therefore,
end up failing in school, dropping out of school, and, struggling to find work. Providing such
children with age-appropriate books is likely to spark a love for reading that will help them
succeed in class and life. Therefore, this paper presents a proposal for a social media
campaign to raise funds for buying books for children. The campaign seeks to raise funds that
will buy 25,000 books which will be given to 5,000 children. The beneficiaries will primarily
be children from underprivileged backgrounds in day care facilities whose parents or
guardians cannot afford to buy them books. The campaign will take two months and will be
conducted using electronic mail and online social media platforms. These platforms are
Twitter and Facebook. There will also be a GoFundMe account where people and
organizations can make their donations.

Objectives

The campaign has three objectives:

1. To raise funds that will buy 25,000 books that will be given to 5,000 children from
   low-income families. Each child will be given 5 age-appropriate books. The 5-books
   per child was chosen so that the child can choose the book/books that interest them
   rather than being forced to read one book that they do not like.
2. Increase self-confidence and literacy levels of children for success in class and life.
3. Raise awareness about the lack of age-appropriate books for children from low-
   income families.

Campaign Description

The campaign will be called Five-Book-Child campaign. It will be carried out on
behalf of United Way organization. It will be a two-months campaign that will be conducted
primarily on social media sites, particularly Facebook and Twitter. There will be a five-book
challenge to spark interest in the campaign. In this challenge, Twitter and Facebook users will
be asked to list their five best children’s books. The winner will be the person who whose list
will have the most likes on the platforms. A winner will be declared on each day. There will
be no present for the winner but funds raised through the campaign will be used to buy the
books listed by the winner.
It is hoped that such challenge will significantly spark interest in the campaign and,
therefore, help in the achievement of the campaign’s goals. The challenge will, however, be
secondary to the main goal of the campaign. This goal is to raise money for the buying of the
books. Persons will be engaged in the campaign on Twitter and Facebook will be requested to
donate either a book to the Five-Book-Child campaign or donate money to the campaign’s
GoFundMe account. A link to this account will be provided on both Twitter and Facebook
where the campaign will be conducted. Another link that will be provided is that of the
campaign’s website. The website will have all the information about the campaign and links
to the campaign’s social media sites and GoFundMe account.
Electronic mails (e-mails) will be also be used in the campaign, although on a smaller
scale compared to the two social media sites. The e-mails will mainly be used to reach out to

5
corporations and high net-worth individuals to support the campaign. Such organizations and
individuals require more personalized communication compared to the general public.
Since the campaign is not just about raising money to buy books for the children but
also to raise awareness about the general problem of lack of reading among children from
low-income families, the campaign will provide information about the need to invest in
children’s books for low-income families. For instance, it will cite statistics that show that
close to 80% of children in fourth-grade children from low-income families in the US lack
reading proficiency (Capotosto, 2020). Partly because of this lack of reading proficiency,
around 26% of them end up dropping out before completing their high school education
(Capotosto, 2020).
The two-month period that the campaign will take is appropriate because the first few
weeks will mainly be used for popularizing the campaign so that as many people as possible
become aware of the campaign. Having attracted a large number of people in the first month,
the campaign to see the most money and book donations taking place in the second month.

Target audience

The campaign will target three groups. The first group will be the general public. The
campaign will use Twitter and Facebook to reach this group. They will be asked to donate as
little as $1 to the campaign’s GoFundMe account. They also be asked to donate children’s
books.
The remaining two groups that the campaign will target are corporates and high net-
worth individuals. Using emails, the campaign will reach out to corporations that may be
interested in supporting the Five-Book-Child campaign through their corporate social
responsibility initiatives. In addition to corporations, the campaign will also target high net-
worth individuals who are capable of making large donations to the campaign. Like
corporations, these individuals will be reached using emails rather than social media sites.

Resources

The campaign will use social media sites, emails, and a website. Facebook and
Twitter were chosen for the campaign because of their large reach. Since, many people have
access to these sites, it is easy to reach a large number of people for spreading awareness and
seeking donations for the campaign. Emails, on the other hand, are an appropriate tool for
reaching out to corporations and high net-worth individuals to support the campaign. Apart
from the medium being more official, it also supports personalized communication better
than social media sites. The website will be used to provide all the information regarding the
campaign. Anyone who wants to know more about the campaign will be directed to the
website.

Budget

The campaign’s budget will have two items. The first one is creation and maintenance
of the campaign’s website and the second one is promotion of the campaign’s Facebook and
Twitter accounts. It is estimated that $1,000 will be needed to create and maintain the website
of the campaign while $500 will be needed to promote the campaign’s Facebook and Twitter
pages through Facebook and Twitter ads respectively.
Statement of benefits

The campaign will have two key benefits. First, it will help to improve literacy levels
among children from under-privileged backgrounds. Improving their literacy levels will not

6
only improve their self-confidence but also improve their chances of succeeding in class,
staying in school longer, finding a well-paying job and succeeding in their work. The second
benefit of the campaign is that it will raise awareness about the problem of low literacy levels
among children from low-income families. Such awareness may attract the attention of local,
state and federal governments and force them to address the problem in a comprehensive
manner.

7

References

Capotosto, L. (2020). Do third grade students from low-income families have access to ‘just
right’ books? Results from a home visit study. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy,
1468798420911132.
United Way (n.a). About Us. https://www.unitedway.org/about#