ELIZABETH BARBOUR

Welcome to my website! Here, you can learn a little more about me and my work in public relations; specifically, my work through APPLES. Through this organization, I was able to spend the semester helping a local non-profit, Rainbow Soccer.

My Bio

MY BACKGROUND

As I finish my third year at UNC, I've had opportunities to write and run social media for The Daily Tar Heel, freelance for 1893 Brand Studio and interview restaurant owners around the community for my Flavor of the Week column on WCHL's chapelboro.com. My public relations experience has included event planning in various leadership positions in my sorority, Sigma Sigma Sigma, and my work with Rainbow Soccer while helping them fundraise for a new soccer field. You can learn more in my resumé below.

Home: Homepage_about

Portfolio documents

Click here to see my resumé

...and here to see my LinkedIn

MEJO 332 Public Relations Writing

APPLES Client Portfolio

Rainbow Soccer

Elizabeth Barbour

Communication Audit

Background:

Rainbow Soccer is a non-profit organization that was established in 1972 upon the advent of the “Rainbow Project.” This project was started by founder and director Kip Ward and his friend Abe Baggins in response to Chapel Hill residents’ desire for organized soccer in Chapel Hill. Ward was a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate that had been involved with soccer at the University since 1967, both as a player and as an assistant coach. His project that began years ago has transformed into the all-inclusive recreation league that exists today. Soccer experienced a slow start in Chapel Hill, but thanks to Ward and Chapel Hill High School starting their first soccer team in 1971, enthusiasm quickly grew. Ward’s free spirit was ingrained in all that he did and can be seen today through a quick look at part of his summer camp schedule: Exercise to acclimate the body to a full awareness of its lightness, flexibility and grace.

Later in the program's history, Ward’s wife, Vicky Ward, became involved in the management of Rainbow Soccer and took over once Kip left the area. Many people played an instrumental role, such as two of the early coaches, Danny Ariail and Anson Dorrance. Both were stars on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill men’s soccer team. Dorrance went on the coach the men’s and now the women’s soccer team at UNC-CH. Currently, the director is Mike Hickey.

Rainbow Soccer started with the vision of providing soccer in a safe and fun environment to whoever wants to play, regardless of age, gender, race or economic status, and this goal continues to lead it forward. For instance, the league started the first organized all-girls soccer league in the state of North Carolina and recently began another all-girls league with their partner, Chapel Hill United. Its soccer leagues are not just for children, but adults too! It has an all-adults league for individuals over 40-years-old, and a league for teenagers over 15-years-old. Integral to Rainbow Soccer is the belief that their players encompass a “rainbow” of diversity, talent and spirit; their players differ in age, skill level and commitment, but all unite with the same passion and love for the game.

Rainbow Soccer serves more than 1,300 children and over 300 adults each season from the Triangle Area. Rainbow Soccer embraces the multicultural experience that goes hand-in-hand with soccer and loves to integrate this into the local Chapel Hill area through collaboration with local high schools, city organizations and underserved communities. The league has a long history with Chapel Hill, which is seen through the many families which have had multiple generations enrolled in the league. Rainbow Soccer began to meet the needs of Chapel Hill residents decades ago and continues to be the main youth soccer provider in the area.

Rainbow Soccer has three permanent employees: Mike Hickey, executive director, Drew Kepley, director of soccer and Karen Aldridge, director of registration. These part-time employees make up the backbone of Rainbow Soccer and ensure its day-to-day functioning while simultaneously working other jobs. Rainbow Soccer also relies on over 200 parents, UNC, high school and community volunteer coaches. Everyone who helps out with Rainbow Soccer is a volunteer. The staff and coaches help Rainbow Soccer continue to thrive in the Chapel Hill community and bring joy to children's’ lives in the Triangle area.

Rainbow Soccer has a lot of community support, especially from their sponsors. Sponsorships do not only benefit Rainbow Soccer as a whole program, but some also help out individual players who would not be able to participate in this program otherwise. Per season, typically, 30 percent of their fee income is spent on financial aid. Last year Rainbow Soccer granted more than $33,000 in financial aid for players who were in need of assistance. Types of sponsorships include jerseys, banners, tents, features in on the Rainbow Soccer website, balls, articles in Rainbow Soccer’s newsletter and coupons. Sponsors also have the opportunity to sponsor a team. Without the continuous sponsorships, Rainbow Soccer would not be able to bring joy and touch so many lives in the community.

Teams are created depending on the availability, age group and gender preferences of the volunteer coaches combined with when registration is completed and what people put as their preference. During online registration, one has the ability to select their preferred practice days with their preferred practice locations. People also have the option to put preferred coaches and teammates if they would like. Rainbow Soccer has fields at Homestead Park, Rainbow Soccer Complex, Triangle Church Soccer Park and Smith Municipal field. Rainbow Soccer is also currently working on a project with the city of Chapel Hill to build turf fields that can handle heavy rainfalls.

Though Rainbow Soccer does have a huge population participating in their league, they could still benefit from increasing their outreach in the community. They currently have hundreds of subscribers to their email listserv, but those are people who are already part of their organization. They need to put more effort into reaching those not already involved in their organization in order to recruit more members, sponsors or volunteers. In our work for Rainbow Soccer, we created a new photo release form for soccer players. This could be used to help increase how many people allow their photos to be used for marketing, and Rainbow Soccer could use these new visuals in advertising or social media, or to draw attention to requests for donations for their Capital Campaign.

Communication Audit

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

Affordable for everyone.
- If a family wants to get involved with Rainbow Soccer there is a way. This character trait of the organization is admirable and provides an incentive for families to join.
People of all ages, skill levels and socioeconomic levels can join.
Near the college towns of Chapel Hill and Durham
- Makes it easy for college students to get involved in the organization and community. Perfect since many college students don’t have cars and need public transportation to move throughout the town.
The website has a calendar with all events on it for the season.
Organization newsletter has a 33% click rate and a large number of recipients.
Has the heritage value associated with it as it is the oldest non-profit in the area and started the first all-girls league in North Carolina.

Weaknesses:

Social media platforms are rarely updated. They do not have many followers because they are not used.
Do not update their website often.
The calendar is hard to find.
Rainbow Soccer, Chapel Hill United, and the all-girls soccer league, Triangle Area Girls Soccer (TAGS) are all different websites. It is hard to find the TAGS website or realize that Chapel Hill United is where one must go to register for some leagues.
Do not have effective messaging for participants
- Do not always inform them in a timely manner about changes in game information (i.e. inclement weather)

Opportunities:

Post on social media more frequently because it is an easy way to reach your audience. It is easier and more effective to answer one question with a Facebook post that reaches all viewers than to individually email.
Expand on RS’s All-Girls Soccer League (TAGS) and adult leagues.
Engage with UNC-CH students in order to recruit and retain more coaches.
New fields will offer more playing time for players because they won’t be in flood zones anymore. Hopefully, rain cancellations will decrease.

Threats:

Travel teams are a big threat. Rainbow Soccer could be looked at as not as serious because anyone can play.
Simply falling behind; they haven’t adapted to the technology and social media landscape, which could create a negative, outdated impression of the organization.
Some Chapel Hill residents don’t understand they’re a non-profit that doesn't make a profit from player fees. The fees go towards operation expenses and scholarships.

Recommendations

Post on social media more because it is an easy way to reach your audience. It is easy to answer one question on a facebook post than to answer the same question over email because no one saw that it was asked.
Figure out a way to text members of Rainbow Soccer to let them know if a practice or a game is canceled. It is more likely a person will see a text rather than an email or social media post.
We recommend that Rainbow Soccer work to improve their communications with those in their organization. The Facebook page and Twitter are rarely used, and the website is outdated. Small changes on the website can go a long way in helping create a positive impression of their brand to first-time website visitors and can help those who participate in Rainbow Soccer more easily navigate the site. If it is too aggravating to register or find information, people will simply give up and go somewhere else.
With their fundraising efforts, we recommend a push for a more professional-looking GoFundMe and better crafted asks in the community. Their GoFundMe is lacking with a very poor quality photo. They have a compelling message: that the flooding field prevents people from being able to play soccer. But a better photo of old fields and the proposed new ones will resonate better with their target audience. A donation is more likely if viewers have a clearer picture of the problem. Rainbow Soccer could ask for volunteers who may have professional cameras or photography experience to take photographs of the fields and of Rainbow Soccer events.
We also believe a direct mail campaign could benefit Rainbow Soccer. Especially considering many people who may donate are adults and older generations. It is easier for the older generation to work with tangible mail rather than digital communications, while Rainbow Soccer already has the emails of parents with kids playing in Rainbow Soccer Leagues. They’re more likely to donate to something their children can benefit from, and as such, are an easy target audience. Rainbow Soccer just needs to focus on this audience, along with past generations of players, and create a simple, clear and compelling message.

Profile

Updated GoFundMe

Home: CV

APPLES Experience

With Rainbow Soccer

Time Log

JANUARY 2018 - APRIL 2018

Time Log

JANUARY 2018 - APRIL 2018

Reflection

This semester, I’ve been reminded of the struggles of working in the real world. In the academic world, your teacher will always be there and provide you with the resources you need. Their job depends on it, so they will always make time to do what needs to be done. In the real world, however, it’s easy for public relations professionals to be pushed aside for what clients view as more important problems. They may ignore your phone calls and emails in favor of dealing with problems that seem more tangible and pressing. This can be frustrating when you realize how much a public relations upgrade could help their cause, but at the end of the day, if the client doesn’t want your help, you can’t make them accept it.

It is also worth noting that public relations on this small local scale are far different than the public relations we learn about in class. There are no massive mail campaigns or fancy PSAs. Most of what they’re doing at this local level is very small. Though their small operation has worked for them for decades without any PR students’ help, we would like see our contributions help them grow and improve. However, it does require a little extra creativity when you’re working without a budget, and with people who have not worked in public relations before. You have to pick your words carefully and change your ideas to fit the setting you’re in.

It was also interesting working with a group on a real-world project. All of my group work up to this point has been for school presentations, rather than something real and tangible. It makes it feel a little more urgent to do the work and do it well; for example, whereas with just a school project missing a deadline would not have any consequences rather than annoying your group partners and your professor, with this, if you miss a deadline, it may cost your clients thousands of dollars of funding, funding that can help many people in the community. You know that having a good work ethic can actually have real-world effects, and slacking off can hurt those working to make the non-profit organization successful.

While I appreciate the goals of Rainbow Soccer, they did not often take our suggestions. I think the skills of public relations students could be better used in an organization that is willing to let the students experiment and try to apply the skills they’re learning in class. I think volunteers on the soccer field rather than volunteers working on PR behind the scenes would better serve Rainbow Soccer. I’d recommend that Rainbow Soccer be willing to branch out and try new things; the world is changing, what’s worked for you for the past 40 years doesn’t necessarily work now, especially in a technologically-based world. Rainbow Soccer is running fine, but there is still room for improvement, even when your current business model gets the job done.

Overall, while I enjoyed this project because it gave me a taste of what a day in the life of a real public relations specialist is like, it was definitely frustrating. I personally have no desire to work with non-profits because I want to work in public relations on a larger scale, hosting pop-up events, working with celebrities for endorsements, hosting parties to showcase a brand and more. I don’t enjoy the small-scale public relations tactics done on a shoestring budget. While I agree the work these non-profits are doing is vastly important and they deserve our help, it definitely is not the area I want to work in for the rest of my life.