Internship reflection

Hi everyone.

This is my last blog and as I put the finishing touches on my report I am able to reflect on my time spent at Kanyana.

My internship has not been without its ups and downs. When I first started, I was given the opportunity to plan the official opening for the new Kanyana centre which was planned for November after the move had been completed. However a lack of volunteers and other unforeseen circumstances delayed the move and therefore the opening. To my disappointment the official opening has now been moved to March 2010. Being given the opportunity to plan the official opening of the new centre was one of the reasons I agreed to take the position at Kanyana. Not only would it have looked great on my resume, it would have also provided me with many challenges I have not yet encountered in public relations. Needless to say my internship started off rather disappointingly. However I was able to prepare a few things in anticipation for the opening, for example media releases, fact sheets and backgrounders. I also put together a target media list as Kanyana did not have one on hand.

As Kanyana does not have a public relations team in place and all public relations efforts are looked after by the office administrator, there were a few basic items Kanyana did not have. I was able to produce templates for their media releases and fact sheets, construct a target media list and assist in the production of their newsletter. Doing these exercises meant I was refreshed on some of the things learnt when I stared university three years. In doing so I felt a sense of accomplishment as I was able to implement some new public relations techniques at Kanyana and build on their existing public relations efforts.

By no means do I feel my presence at Kanyana was not needed or unappreciated. On many occasions I was asked to produce a media release when an unusual circumstance occurred. For example Kanyana's education team along, with some of the animals, were flown over to Merredin to visit a primary school for an education visit. A media release was sent to the local newspaper and was published that weekend. Because Kanyana does not usually have someone with the time to write about such situations, they were happy to pass these on to me and were therefore able to received some extra publicity.

I do however have one complaint in my choice of place for internship. As I am already a volunteer at Kanyana I feel this was a hindrance on my ability to learn new things and missed out on the opportunity to see how other organisations use public relations. Because my supervisor was already aware of my capabilities, I found I was left to my own devices a little to often with little encouragement and did not face many new challenges. If the opening at the new centre had not been pushed back things may have been different.

The good news is I plan to continue volunteering at Kanyana and will therefore get to continue my efforts for the official opening.

Ria

The importance of PR in a not-for-profit organisation

Hi everyone,

Well I am nearly at the end of my internship with Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and plan to use my last blog to sum up my time spent there. Today I want to talk about the importance of public relations in a not-for-profit organisation.

While researching not-for-profit organisations for my internship report I came across a lot of information indicating just how important public relations is to a not-for-profit organisation. Without public relations, an organisation, such as Kanyana, would not have volunteers, would not receive donations and would not reach their aim of rehabilitation because people would not know where to bring sick, injured or orphaned animals.

Previous to my internship I volunteered four hours a week at Kanyana and after spending two days a week there for eight weeks I have seen many more public relations activities taking place. While I do volunteer in a public relations capacity I am unable to produce as many public relations activities as I have been during my internship. I believe this is due to a few different things, one being that I am more aware of what is happening in the office as I am there more so have a better idea of what can be sent out in a media release, and people wanting information have a point of contact. The second being Kanyana taking advantage of having someone in the office on a regular basis with a direct public relations focus. This can be seen the amount of media release I have written in the past eight weeks compared to when I volunteer. Kanyana are now able to say 'Ria such and such happened yesterday are you able to follow this up for us'. Before these things were not attended to as they were either forgotten or put aside as no one had the time to follow this up.

While Kanyana does receive some media attention on the odd occasion, in the last eight weeks Kanyana has seen an increase in visibility causing an increase in donations and people wanting to volunteer. I know feel I have a better understanding of just how important public relations is to a not-for-profit organisation.

Cheers
Ria

Writing for Public Relations V's Journalism

Hey Everyone. I hope you are all enjoying your placements and for those of you who have finished well done!

I thought I would take this opportunity to discuss one of the troubles I have come across during my public relations placement. As I mentioned in my last blog, I am going my placement at Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, a not-for-profit organisation, who deal with the rehabilitation of sick, injured and orphaned wildlife.

I am a humanities student majoring in journalism. I have found this situation to have both a positive and negative effect on media relations and writing for public relations. My journalism units have shown me what makes good news, a good quote sounds like, and how to put together an interesting and newsworthy story. I now feel I have a fairly good idea about what information a journalist needs to produce an interesting and newsworthy story and this has helped me, from a public relations perspective, when writing a media release. I should be able to produce a media release which can be published as is.

However during my placement I have found this to not always be a good thing. After writing my first media release for Kanyana, I found I was including to many quotes and too many hard news facts. With guidance from my supervisor I was able to write something a little more suited to the situation. While juggling the two writing styles is something I will eventually get the hang of, for know I will have to set aside my hard news writing skills and write like a public relations professional. I also understand that each public relations department have a certain way of writing their release and while this is the way Kanyana prefers another organisation may require something a little more hard hitting.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this or if anyone has experienced the same thing as I know there are a few journalism students studying public relations also.

Thanks
Ria

PR at a not-for-profit organisation

Hi Everyone,

As this is my first blog I thought Iwould share with you all a bit of back ground information on the organisation I am completing my placement with and how it is all going so far.

Since January this year I have been volunteering at a not-for-profit organisation known as Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre. The centre is run by around 120 volunteers who care for sick, injured and displaced wildlife bought in by people from all over Perth. They also have an endangered species program for the Bilby and participate in many education visits to primary schools and other such events.

The reason I decided to do my placement with Kanyana is they are currently in the process of moving to a bigger premises and are wanting to have an opening to advertise the move. As Kanyana do not have a PR team in place, other than Jenny the Office Administrator who has a background in PR, I will become the 'team' as such. While this is a very scary thought, I saw it as an opportunity to put everything I have learnt into practice, and fell comfortable that if I make a mistake Jenny will be only too happy to help me. Jenny was very excited to have a consistant point of contact for the project as too many volunteers would mean too many different ideas and a great deal of organisation and dividing of jobs. The job will have to be started from scratch so this means a lot of planning and a well thought out timeline.

I have come across one problem however. The date for the opening seems to be moving later on in the year and looks as though it will not happen untill after placement is finished. In light of this I have discussed with Jenny the possibility of have as much done as possible so when it is time things such as media releases and invitations will be finished and ready to go, and I can use my usual volunteer time to make sure this happens.

So far so good, however I am sure things will get very busy for me very soon.

Hope you are all enjoying placements

Cheers, Ria.