Jesse Keating

Prof. Christina DeVoss

CO 399B: Nonprofit Marketing Comm.
Communication Analysis #2: E Newsletter

NPO: LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland

E Newsletter Copy: Mid-January Edition (See PDF Attachment)

Audience

In this newsletter, there seems to be three main audiences, within the LGBT Community

of Northeastern Ohio, that could be identified from analyzing the content and appeals of the

messaging communicated from the excerpts and entries. One of the audiences that this newsletter

appeals to happens to be LGBT Allies. Now the reasoning for this segmentation is due to the

number of programming available for LGBTQ+ within the newsletter. The first program in the

Program Update section was for Transformers, a program that holds discussions for LGBTQ+

youth ages 10-13. Those who would be registering their children would either should be LGBTQ

adults, but more likely Adult Allies that are parents. Another indicator of Allies being a defined

audience is the second entry in the Program Update section, the LGBT Senior Housing, A

Place for Us, Continues to Grow in Occupancy and Local Attention. There is a great percentage

of families that are responsible for placing their parents into senior housing communities. Once

again, Ally families would be investing in placing their LGBT parents in communities like A

Place for Us. Lastly there are quite a few of fundraisers that are either community events or

center related events, in which one can support the Center and/or the LGBT Community; such as

Push Back 2017 and Spares for Hope.

A second audience to key in on is LGBT adults, ages 21 and up. Many of the research

opportunities listed in the newsletter, are only available for adults. These research opportunities
are IRB, associated with an institution, that involve consent. There are a couple SAGE/senior

citizen related entries that are very specific to the elder part of the adult LGBT community. Also,

there are singles mixers and social events and activities like Stonewall Sports. Many of these

require participants to be adults to participate.

The third audience could be considered as a well-defined audience that comes from the

21+ LGBT audience. This audience is comprised of LGBT professionals. There are LGBT

professional social and networking community events like G2H2 and FLARE that are listed.

These types of entries indicate that a great portion of their subscribers are of white collar, middle

to upper class socio economic status. This defined audience also has connections to ways in

which the Center can secure donor ship. The Center Spotlight has a couple call to actions, in

which donating capital is linked within the spotlight entry. Stonewall Sports is another NPO that

is a networking opportunity in which a good percentage of participants are LGBT professionals.

Brand

The newsletter conveys a couple key messages that identify the brand identity of the

LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland. The brand identity of the Center encompasses

diversity and intersectionality, activism, respected community leader. Through inclusivity, there

are plenty of entries in the newsletter that appeal to many people of different races, genders,

sexual identities, and geographic location. The intersection of race and sexual identity is apparent

when looking at Center-Related entries like the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service event

in which the Center, HRC, and Aids Task Force of Cleveland partnered. The same is apparent

for a community event on MLK Jr. Day in which the Netflix Documentary 13th was screened

while NPOs like Showing Up for Racial Justice NE Ohio and Equality Ohio partnered and

contributed to the panel discussion.

 Through an activist brand identity, the Center can procure donations and volunteers.

Many of the community events listed have an activist appeal, like A Night of Hope, Push Back,

3rd Annual Breaking Our Silence, and Humans of Hyde. One of the main goals of the newsletter,

I have could gather from how the newsletter is formatted is that all the entries included, must

have opportunities in which the reader can engage with events and programs to assist in the

progress of acceptance and favorability of the LGBT community of Northeast Ohio. The third

brand identity of the Center is that it is a respected community leader. By first including a factoid

about how the Center is the third oldest LGBT center in the US, sets a precedence for how they

want to be seen. Presenting the newsletter like a giant resource guide reinforces this assertion in

which the Center is an informational hub for a diverse and intersectional community.

Content

The overall major themes of the newsletter are very easy to find. The first theme one

could pick out is that the newsletter is formatted as an information guide to help serve the divers

and intersectional LGBT community, specifically in Northeast Ohio. There are Center related

events and community related events; both categories have a wide range of entries that appeal to

a great number of smaller segmentations within the bigger audience. A second theme that can be

presented after reading the newsletter is that the Center only exists with the help of the public, in

which it loves to serve. The Center Spotlight encapsulates this theme, and the entries under

Center Program.

There was only one major storied covered in this edition of the Centers newsletter,

which can be found in the Center Spotlight. The Center Spotlight story detailed the added

development interest in the Center partnering with various LGBT and Ally NPOs in the region.

The story had a couple calls to donating to the Center, and a call to support Stonewall Sports-
Cleveland. The story also showcased the stewardship of the Center, which made for a brief

touching story. This section of the newsletter is dedicated to thanking and recognizing staff,

volunteers, and donors. There was a small entry in which the Center was looking for a volunteer,

a call to call, for their SAGE/senior citizen program.

The visuals of the newsletter were very average. The photo of the Center Spotlight story

was decent, and brought to life the working relationship the Center has with Stonewall Sports-

Cleveland has. All the other visuals are either logos of the organizations or event being detailed.

There are little to any photos of the Center that shows its programs in use. There are flyers as

well, but they are not much to discuss either. As for the share ability of the newsletter, there are

no options to do so. At the bottom, there are social media icons which link you to the Centers

home pages for Facebook and Twitter, but that is it.

As for the mission, the Center reflects its mission of To enrich the lives of the diverse

LGBTQ community through advocacy, support, education, and celebration. to the fullest. The

newsletter reflects the mission of the Center by the content in which it is providing. The event

and program entries give the readers the opportunity to advocate and support the Center and the

LGBT community of Northeast Ohio. Education can be found in the format content, similarly to

advocacy and support. As for celebration, that part of the mission can found in the Center

Spotlight section.

Purpose

The purpose of the newsletter is to provide information to the Centers audience that can

help educate them on what events, resources, volunteer opportunities are available in the

Cleveland area for the LGBT community. One can assert that the newsletter did more than

achieve its goal. This issue of the newsletter did not have as many captivating entries/articles as
one would expect. Unfortunately, that can leave the reader wanting more in depth information

about what is going on at the Center. There is more information about the community than the

Center.

Points of Praise & Suggestions for Improvement

The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland provided great opportunities for the

subscribers to get involved in not just with the Center, but also with the greater Cleveland area.

Another thing that the Center did well with this newsletter is delivering content that is closely

related to its mission statement. Advocacy, support, education and celebration were all resent in

this newsletter. The last thing that the Center did well with this newsletter is the format and

layout of the newsletter. All of the entries were neatly organized and put into the correct

categories.

The newsletter has a few flaws that need to be addressed. First, the images do not convey

the brand for the Center. Specifically, in the Center Program section, the Center just has logos

and flyers for the programs, but not actual photos that tell the story of the programs. In addition,

the need for more captivating visuals could be applied to every section of this newsletter.

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of updates that involve the Center. The more

insight that the newsletter can detail about their programs and facility updates, the more the

readers will feel involved. The last suggestion I would make is to have the Center Spotlight be

more in-depth. This section of the newsletter could be considered the main story. It would be

advantageous for the Center to invest time in writing an in-depth story to leave the reader with a

sense of knowledge and positive feeling of the Center.