Fundraising in the Jungle-Miami, FL

Fundraising in the Jungle

MIAMI, July 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nonprofits stressing over the sinking economy are thinking out of the box these days. In the for-profit sector you find that many companies are struggling much in the same way except that their funding comes not from donors but consumers. So the Institute for Child & Family Health (ICFH) and Jungle Island decided to collaborate to attract patrons to visit the animal theme park while donating to charity. On Saturday, July 18th patrons can enjoy Jungle Island while contributing to a great cause.

"With proposed shortfalls in state and local funding we are looking for all avenues to avoid shutting down any of our programs," said Alina Plasencia, Director of Development & Marketing for ICFH, "we know that people are looking for places to take their kids for the summer, we hope the fact that they are donating to a charity will be an added incentive."

Katie Rhodes, Mother of two is looking forward to the event saying "the girls have been asking to visit the park for a while and I thought what a great opportunity to give back to the community." They will be attending Saturday's event along with other family and friends supporting the cause.

Credelis Media Group will also be participating in this Saturday's event providing interactive media games for the kids. "Recognizing a potential synergy between our products and non-profit events, we decided to dedicate resources to address the unique requirements and budgets of non-profits," said Edwin Rivera, President of Credelis. The Non-Profit division was created in order to provide NPO's with proven interactive platforms that will help not only engage users at events but also bring greater return on investment to all the NPO's sponsors.

The public is invited to participate in this fundraiser by attending Jungle Island on Saturday, July 18th from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. They can purchase tickets at a discount by obtaining coupons from the ICFH table on-site. There will be a raffle for an Elemis spa gift certificate worth $200 and a scavenger hunt for the kids. The winner will be awarded an annual pass to Jungle Island. For more information on this promotion please visit www.icfhinc.org or call 305.722.5322.
The Institute for Child and Family Health (ICFH) is a private, not-for-profit organization that has been providing health, behavioral health, educational, and prevention services to the children, adolescents, and families of Miami-Dade County for over 60 years. It is one of the oldest and largest community health centers exclusively dedicated to the well being of children and families in the state of Florida. ICFH serves over 25,000 children, adolescents, and families per year. For more information about ICFH, please visit the organizational Web site at www.icfhinc.org.
SOURCE Institute for Child & Family Health

Attended a Great Event and Recommend it to You!

You: The Online Brand by Michelle Villalobos
Learn to Own Your Name Online -
A Workshop for Entrepreneurs, Marketers & Real Estate Professionals

Today, I had the privilege of attending a great workshop presented by Michelle Villalobos. It is called You: the Online Brand. I must say that it was so educating, informative and very interactive. I learned a lot in the couple of hours that we were there. I highly recommend it to everyone no matter what line of work you do so that you can effectively sell yourself better on this technology driven world.

For more information visit http://www.mivistaconsulting.com/

I look forward to the next event that Michelle will offer.

Aida in The News!!!!

Measurement is an Integral Part of PR ~

A new international survey of PR professionals has found that more practitioners than ever are measuring the effectiveness of their communications programs. The survey carried out by Benchpoint for AMEC, the fast-growing international Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication and the Institute for Public Relations, was presented at the 1st European Summit on Measurement in Berlin held from June 10-12 and attended by nearly 200 delegates from 28 countries.

The survey was carried out amongst a sample of 520 PR professionals internationally. Key findings were: * The overwhelming majority of PR professionals, 88%, believe measurement is an integral part of the PR process (70% believe this strongly). * While 77% of respondents claimed to measure their work compared with 69% in a similar survey five years ago, the survey results show that the PR profession are still not agreed on the best tools and methodologies. * Measuring ROI (return on investment) on communications is viewed as an achievable goal by the overwhelming majority of professional communicators taking part in the survey.

There is, however, very strong agreement that it is possible to calculate ROI on communications, and that demonstrable ROI would enhance the budgets (and status) of PR practitioners.
* PR Professionals still tend to judge their success criteria more by their ability to place material in the media rather than on the impact such coverage might have on shifting opinion, awareness, or moving markets, although there is evidence that this is changing.
* The survey found that the tools used by PR professionals includes press clippings - still the favorite - closely followed by AVEs (Advertising value equivalent) and more rigorous tools including Internal Reviews, Benchmarking, and the use of specialist media evaluation tools.

Various forms of opinion polling and focus groups also remain as popular tools. The data indicates there are two camps - the output measurers (clippings and AVEs) and the outcome measurers who tend towards more cerebral - and costly- measures (internal reviews, opinion polls etc).

Mike Daniels, member of the Commission on PR Measurement & Evaluation and chairman of AMEC's Business Development Committee, said: "The survey presents a clear challenge to the media evaluation industry that more education is needed within the PR industry to demonstrate the business benefits of proper evaluation rather than continue to rely on clippings and AVE's." For more information at <http://www.amecorg.com>