Challenges and Rewards in Charitable Careers

The career fields open to students graduating with communications degrees are vast. Some possibilities are public relations and marketing, specifically in the charity organization field. Charity organizations work with communities and raise money for their cause. It is a major undertaking to keep your organization in the minds of the public, for in this field, you not only rely on the public but so does your cause. These are lessons learned by the highly recognizable in our community and those new to the non-profit sector.

Charlene Shirk, director of community relations for the PGA TOUR, knows all too well of the challenges and hard work it takes to make non-profits successful. Her focus is to “ensure that the community and corporate sponsors are aware that their support of THE PLAYERS directly impacts more than 100 charities and countless people in our community.”

When asked what her position at THE PGA TOUR entails Ms. Shirk said, “I work with our branding, marketing, sales and charitable department to coordinate the message and events that will offer community exposure. I am also responsible for developing new ways to assist THE PLAYERS in generating additional charitable dollars and sponsorship dollars.” This is quite a huge responsibility for one person, but it is what Charlene Shirk is passionate about. She has faced numerous challenges in her newfound career since leaving First Coast News in early 2007 to pursue a career in community giving.

She says, “Trying to find active and engaged volunteers is always tough. You will often find people who are passionate but also overstretched and can’t devote a lot of time, or people who want to help but don’t make the commitment. Also, the economy is challenged, and finding new ways to fundraise that keeps people and supporters engaged is a struggle.”

Overall, the rewards make it worth the hard work. According to Ms. Shirk, “The rewarding part is being a part of change, seeing projects through to the end, meeting new people, learning new things everyday and seeing your efforts come to fruition. That is, a building is built, children receive services, a life is changed.”

 

Amanda Litchfield

 

These results are what Amanda Litchfield, current student at Florida State College at Jacksonville, hopes to see. She strives to impact the lives of the homeless community here in Jacksonville with the same success that Charlene Shirk and THE PGA TOUR has had on many charitable organizations in the First Coast area. However, Amanda Litchfield has a unique perspective, for she and her immediate family were homeless for a time when she was a child.

“Growing up, I was homeless with my family at age five, age nine and again at age 13. Being a homeless child was a helpless feeling. The City Rescue Mission and the New Life Inn downtown were always there to help.” says Ms. Litchfield.

These circumstances have helped shape her into the person she is now, and she would like to give back to the organizations that helped her and her family out so much when she was younger. Her idea started as a project for her Student Life Studies class, and she plans to run with it full force. To her surprise, FSCJ does not already have a club or student organization in place for volunteering to help the homeless and provide shelter. This is her first lesson in public relations and marketing. She plans to start the club from the ground up.

“At the moment the process has been slow. I am coming up with ideas and presenting my club or organization starter kit in my group presentation on the subject of homelessness and shelter on November 22. I am hoping, after presenting this idea to my class, that I can get enough people to join and then begin planning events and volunteer work from there.”

Ms. Litchfield admits she will face many challenges taking on a project like this.

“Time and student volunteers are the two main things I am worried about. I fear that there won’t be many students who really want to help. I am hoping for a lot, and I want to hear ideas from other students, as well. However, I believe this will happen and be successful because I know I am going to do my best at bringing this idea to life”, she says.

She has already made an effort to organize a group to volunteer at the City Rescue Mission on World Homeless Day, October 10^th, but they were fully staffed at the time with volunteers. This was, admittedly, a last minute idea at the very beginning in the planning stage of this project. However, Amanda Litchfield is determined to put in the effort to make this happen.

“I am hoping to include faculty and students together. This is a project for everyone at the school who wants to help” she says. She is hoping it will be fully accomplished by this time next year, and hopes this interview will bring some attention to her cause. It is a first lesson in marketing and public relations but for something close to her heart.

Grassroots Campaign, Children’s Movement of Florida, Comes to Jacksonville to Put Children First

September 27, 2010

Sarah J. Wiese

This evening, September 27, David Lawrence Jr., president and co-chair of the Children’s Movement of Florida, brought his Milk Party Rally to the Ritz Theater in downtown Jacksonville. Lawrence, former publisher of the Miami Herald and member of Governor Crist’s Children’s Cabinet, founded this movement to make children the number one priority investment to the state legislators of Florida by urging voters to elect candidates who want to put children first and urge elected officials already in office to make children the top priority in the state. Their five initiatives are to develop access to quality healthcare, screening and treatment for special needs children, high quality pre-kindergarten, high quality mentoring programs and support and information for parents.

According to Lawrence, as a state, we are failing our children. Highways, bullet trains, and prisons are just a few examples of items higher on the state priority list than the education and health of Florida’s kids. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, we spend $20,108 a year per prisoner. However, the crowd at the Ritz tonight learned our children only receive one third of that amount towards education funding per student. Ninety percent of a child’s brain is fully developed by the age of five, but Florida only devotes three percent of its budget to early learning. Hundreds of thousands of kids have no access to healthcare, and 30,000 live here in Duval County. As a state, we voted for high quality pre-kindergarten with professionally indicated standards, and the V.P.K. program was born. This program has fallen short by most of the areas indicated to be of high value by leaders in education. This means Florida has invested $375,000,000 into a program that is inadequate. The message of the Children’s Movement is clear. We need to reevaluate and reorganize our priorities in this state to move education and healthcare for children to the top of the list in funding.

David Lawrence Jr. was passionate in his speech tonight, but he was not the only speaker. He was accompanied by Charlene Shirk, former co-anchor of Good Morning Jacksonville and MaliVai Washington, professional tennis player, Wimbledon finalist, founder of the MaliVai Washington Kids’ Foundation and Arthur Ashe 2009 Humanitarian of the Year Award recipient. Putting children first is also a passion of Washington’s. His foundation’s mission is to develop champions in classrooms, on tennis courts and throughout communities. Shirk happens to sponsor a child at the foundation, located in Jacksonville, which has strong community mentoring and peer leadership programs. Both Shirk and Washington drove home the points Lawrence made on a local level. Also present, the Mandarin High School Marching Band and Dance Team performed, with the final performance coming from the Jacksonville Mass Choir, directed by Deborah McDuffie.

The movement is on the last legs of its tour with its final stop in Key West this Thursday, but they are not through with gathering supporters for their cause. To be updated on events, news and volunteer opportunities, you can visit www.childrensmovementflorida.org or text MILK to 5633 to receive updates directly to your phone as they are announced. A debate between the two candidates running for governor, Rick Scott and Alex Sink, has been planned for October 16, 2010 at the University of Miami. Alex Sink has confirmed her participation. They are awaiting a response from Scott.  Lawrence urges the people of Florida to contact Rick Scott at 954-915-3360 and show your interest in his participation in the debate. The Milk Party, a play on the Tea Party, is a non-partisan movement with a grassroots campaign. David Lawrence stresses, “Our only ideology has to do with investing in children and making them the number one priority in Florida.”