Suggestions

A. In terms of enlisting volunteers and donations:

1. Enhance avenues for donation:

In the questionnaire, we found that 80% of the public do not know about donations or find it inconvenient to donate. We suggest that the Charity Organization should, other than fund transfers and postal remittances, hold fairs, benefit sales, or even work with other charitable organizations in united donation collection; diversification of avenues for donation can increase actual income.

Fire prevention subsidy
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

2. Give service certifications:

Recommendation and screening at many universities requires students to provide service hours. If it is possible to use this to attract young people to build bridges at work sites, it would be excellent. When the Charity Organization is facing the problem of lack of young blood, if a small number of young people can become interested in this and are willing to join the Charity Organization, it would be very helpful to passing down the Organization’s legacy. In fact, after research, we believe that the “meaning” of building bridges at work sites is far greater than “what is actually done.” For most people, even if they cannot continue, as long as there is “fire” left in their hearts, it is enough that they no longer ignore other benefit organizations.

3. Strengthen the organizational operations of members:

According to local people, at a certain location, when a collector quit, the place no longer had a collector; it is suggested that the Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization should enhance organizational operations of members, have accurate grasp of organization membership, movement, and collection conditions.

Praise the Charity Organization
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

B. In terms of professional technique:

1. Bridge-building – cooperate with the related local university departments:

SWOT analysis conducted by this study found that the greatest threat to the Charity Organization is that it lacks qualified architects. If it is possible to cooperate with Chung Cheng University or Chia-yi University, to absorb experiences of the academia and technical realms; it would be helpful to Charity Organization in obtaining real assistance.

2. World wide web – enlist virtual volunteers and enhance administrative personnel

Currently, the most serious lack of Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization is internet technical personnel. Many links on the official website are outdated. If there are virtual volunteers who can update and maintain it without restriction to time and space, or have the administrative personnel learn web page techniques to help themselves, they would no longer be separated from the internet world.

C. In terms of social image:

The new bridge is completed
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

1.Clarify to the outside the reasons for Organizational split:

Even though in Organization Law, the three organizations (Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization, Ho Ming-de Charity Organization, Chia-yi Charity Organization of Republic of China) are completely unrelated, and there is good interaction between Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization and Ho Ming-de Charity Organization, but with media reports, most people do not understand the split of Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization and its reasons, and frequently discuss the three organizations as one. Additionally, in our questionnaire, some people answered “what is the reason for split of the Charity Organization” to the question “If you understand Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization, why do you not participate in related activities?” Thus, we believe that it is necessary to clarify reasons for split of the organization into three, as well as the current relationships.

2.Establish professional domain e-mail addresses:

The moveable toilst in the building site
(Source: photographed by the team)

Currently, the email of Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization is: dogood@mail2000.com.tw. We suggest that the Charity Organization should Romanize it to chaiyi@dogood.org.tw, with a specialized domain name. This can not only enhance the recipients’ impression of the organization name, but can also have a promotional effect.

3.Note the turnaround time for e-mail correspondence:

Until now, Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization Taiwan does not have a website. When needed, such affairs are conducted in the homes of members. They have lost many opportunities to deal with related problems. Furthermore, if members of the public send emails and do not receive responses for a long time, they would certainly have bad impressions of the Charity Organization; we suggest enhancement of related internet equipment.

D. In terms of social marketing:

1.Add elements to the web pages for better interaction with people:

Some people will wear a helmet when building bridges
(Source: photographed by the team)

At this time, the website of Charity Organization has elements of introduction, results, and details of collections. We discussed and think that items such as “provide sponsorship,” “promotion,” and “volunteer for service” can be added. Additionally, the financial reports sent out every quarter could be digitized, and add elements such as invitations, promotions, opinion surveys, and fundraising. Digitizing reports would decrease the mailing costs, and increase the number of people it reaches.

2.Use techniques to move search results upward

After our experiment on February 18, 2008, we found that if we type ” Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization” into search engines, both Kimo and Google showed the website in the first five hits, and one can get to the official website quickly. However, if people used their first instincts and only input “Chia-yi Charity Organization,” Google placed it at Number 32. If people do not have patience, they would have the impression that “Chia-yi Charity Organization” has no official website. In light of this, we suggest that the Charity Organization can connect with other non-profit websites, and use the simplified content or keywords designated by meta elements in the original code of the website, in order to rank higher in the search hits and truly realize the aspect of “public good.”

3. Widely print and disseminate advertisement and manuals:

Vice president LU takes part in the ceremony
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

Currently, aside from the term reports of Charity Organization, there is only one publication by the Organization. Even though there is comprehensive information, there is a weaker sense of design, and this does not tend to elicit browsing interest, or to use it to understand information on the Charity Organization. We suggest revisions to make it more aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, it should utilize the advantage that the good deeds have been published in children’s textbooks by publishing children’s versions of the publications. Other than usage in teaching, children can also donate 100 NT each term to the Charity Organization. Through this participation process, the seeds of “good will” can grow in their hearts.

4.Film commercials for public good:

According to Public Notice Number 06133 of the Government Information Office, commercials with themes of “maintenance of public safety and care for minorities” that promote public benefit can have airtime. In other words, as long as the starting point is “building bridges for good,” and it does not advertise any specific group, it can use the public good commercial airtime for free in basic television networks. Specific regulations would require further study and consideration by Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization.

E.In terms of bridge-building by volunteers:

The building condition in the rain
(Source: Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization)

1.Transportation:

We suggest that another transport car should be purchased or somehow acquired for Chia-yi City. After all, the volunteers are generally between 50 and 70 years of age, and cannot bear the crowdedness. If they are on mountain roads, there may be safety concerns.

2.Food:

After on-site observation, we found that the utensils of the food team are mostly old, and we suggest getting new ones. Also, since bridge-building locations tend to be in remote areas, it is inconvenient to get water. However, the Charity Organization should still attempt to obtain clean sources of water to ensure hygiene and safety of foods and utensils.

3.Safety:

We suggest that other than construction safety measures, related safety measures be implemented. We found that a work site bathroom was constructed over a cliff rising nearly 20 meters, and there was no lighting within the facility. If there is anything that goes wrong, it would cause enormous regret.

F.Conclusions

After study, this team has consensus in believing that, perhaps it is because the ages of members in Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization tend to be higher, they are more conservative with social marketing and fundraising. They believe that they should do big things without making big money, but they forget that suitable marketing is needed in an era of information overload and rapid social changes in order to promote their faith and acquire more connections and sponsorship. Thus, we suggest that Chia-yi City Chia-yi Charity Organization should employ more proactive and open attitudes, actively contact the commercial world and even other non-profit organizations for support; this would result in more goodwill and practical responses from the public.

(Reference resources: Written by our group after the research)