MSU advertising, public relations graduate students help Crime Stoppers

As a slumping economy leaves nonprofit organizations struggling to raise funds, one local organization has enlisted a group of MSU students to help devise a fundraising plan.

Graduate advertising and public relations students from Advertising 826, Advertising and Promotion Management, have spent the semester creating a marketing campaign for Crime Stoppers, an organization that offers rewards to citizen tipsters who provide information about local crimes.

Cassandra Hues, the group’s founder and president, said the group is finding it increasingly difficult to raise enough funds to pay tipsters.

“Our arrest rate is over 80 percent of the (crimes) we publicize,” Hues said. “We would far prefer to be more successful and have more money and solve more crimes, but we’re fighting against the flood of requests from nonprofits with the economy being as bad as it is right now.”

Kanjana Koovichitsuwan, a public relations graduate student working on the marketing project, said they chose Crime Stoppers from a list of about 30 possible partners. The decision to work with the group came from an appreciation of their company goal, she said.

“This organization is important for the community,” Koovichitsuwan said. “(I want to) help them create the marketing plan because their main goal is to solve crime, which is a good goal to make this community safe.”

The students conducted research throughout the semester on the most effective ways for the group to raise money. They have created a plan for a Web site which they hope will generate funds for the organization from online advertisements and donations. They also are planning collaboration with local businesses to donate a portion of their profits to Crime Stoppers.

“The problem is they don’t have their own official Web site,” said Xue Dou, a public relations graduate student who worked on the project. “They really need a place to distribute information about what this organization does, their history and what they want to do for this community.”

All Crime Stoppers workers are volunteers, so donations to the organization goes toward payments for tipsters, Hues said. The group gives out about $15,000 in rewards each year.

In the past, members of the group’s board of directors have raised money primarily by contacting friends and business contacts for donations. But with the state falling on hard times, those donations are becoming smaller and fewer in number, Hues said.

“We’re doing fine, but it’s truly a struggle to raise money,” she said. “That’s why (the students’ help) was fabulous.”

Published on Thursday, April 24, 2008