English for Students of Public Relations and Advertising. Rendering. Учебное пособие

B. VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

Read the sentences from the text and choose the correct synonym for each underlined word.

1. Our tradition of philanthropy was dramatically demonstrated in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

3. film, television, and recording stars generated an estimated $150 million in pledges during a two hour telethon broadcast on 35 networks just 10 days after the terrorist attacks;

4. These organizations are part of our country’s nonprofit sector, which is composed of more than 1.4 million tax-exempt organizations that are neither businesses nor government agencies.

5. Cutlip also reported another extraordinary demonstration of philanthropy that testifies to the tradition’s longevity.

6. De Tocqueville was convinced that this propensity was a significant factor in the vitality and success of American democracy.

7. The greatest proportion of charitable organizations—and the bulk of the money given to them each year—have to do with purposes not defined as charity.

C. READING

Read the article.

Philanthropy is a unique characteristic of American society, and public relations practitioners play an important role in preserving the tradition of

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giving and helping. Broadly defined, philanthropy is voluntary action for the public good, including voluntary giving, voluntary service, and voluntary association. Our tradition of philanthropy was dramatically demonstrated in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. Within hours after the terrorist attacks, millions of dollars in unsolicited contributions began pouring into the offices of disaster-relief charities.

In just seven days, donations to such charities and to special funds established to aid victims, their families, and communities approached $250 million. By week three, gifts surpassed $750 million. One month after the tragedy, the total stood at $1 billion. Gifts came from individuals, corporations, and foundations – the three types of donor publics. Listing just a few examples, Chicago firefighters standing on street corners collected $360,000 in one day; film, television, and recording stars generated an estimated $150 million in pledges during a two hour telethon broadcast on 35 networks just 10 days after the terrorist attacks; the corporate foundation for Citigroup gave $15 million to establish a scholarship fund for all victims’ children; the

Coca-Cola Company, its foundation, and its bottling partners gave $12 million to be divided among several relief organizations; the Lilly Endowment, one of the five largest independent foundations, pledged $30 million to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and the September 11 Fund; and the Ford Foundation gave $10 million. About 140 charitable organizations, such as the Red Cross, were involved in collecting and distributing the financial assistance so generously given. These organizations are part of our country’s nonprofit sector, which is composed of more than 1.4 million taxexempt organizations that are neither businesses nor government agencies.

Collectively, their mission is to provide “goods” not provided by the business sector, which is ruled by the marketplace, or by the government sector, which is ruled by the ballot box. The nonprofit sector, also known as the voluntary or third sector of the U.S. economy, is grounded in the First Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to form associations. Nonprofits are the operationalization of voluntary action and serve as a conduit for voluntary giving and service. For example, following the terrorist attacks of September 11, charity officials reported that offers of volunteer help, blood donations, and donated goods were so numerous that they far exceeded immediate needs. Relief organizations were inundated by volunteers. Across the United States, without being asked, people left families, jobs, and their own problems to travel to the disaster sites to do whatever they could. As dramatic as this demonstration was, it should not be viewed as a surprising aberration. A historic and deeply rooted cultural belief in the

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United States is that our country’s social needs, to the greatest possible extent, should be addressed by private voluntary action rather than by government. Americans also eschew a dominant role for churches in meeting social needs, which is prevalent in countries with one state religion. In other words, philanthropy is highly salient in U.S. society because it is linked to such core values as religious freedom, opposition to powerful government, and individualism. In his book on the history of U.S. fundraising, the father of public relations education, the late Scott Cutlip (1965/1990), stated,

“America’s philanthropy is typically American – born of the cooperative and generous spirit bred on the frontier, required by the problems of largescale industrialization and urbanization, [and] made possible by the enormous accumulation of capital wealth” (pp. 530–531). Cutlip also reported another extraordinary demonstration of philanthropy that testifies to the tradition’s longevity and contradicts claims that America’s response to September 11 was unsurpassed in history. During World War I, the American Red Cross War Council raised $114 million in just eight day—an amount that when adjusted for inflation far surpasses the $129 million raised by the Red Cross in the same number of days following the 2001 terrorist attacks. President Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed June 18–25, 1917, as National Red Cross Week, and the amount of money given in that short time represented more than $1 for every man, woman, and child in the United States.

VOLUNTARY GIVING

America’s tradition of philanthropy is the envy of other industrialized nations. Quite simply, individuals, corporations, and foundations in the United State characteristically give away money. In 2002, Americans gave a total of $241 billion, of which 84 percent came from individuals, 11 percent came from foundations, and 5 percent came from corporations (AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, 2003). With only a few exceptions, giving has increased every year since studies measuring philanthropy began. Americans give money for many reasons, but, fundamentally, they make gifts because giving is a customary, admired, and expected behavior in our society. According to Independent Sector in 2001, almost 90 percent of all U.S. households contribute to one or more charitable organizations each year, and the average gift per household is $1,620. Wealthy individuals adhere to a philanthropic standard that is unusual in the modern world. The standard was outlined more than a century ago by legendary philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who proclaimed, “He who dies rich dies disgraced” (1989/1883, p. 108). Attesting to the standard’s continued influence, Microsoft founder Bill

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Gates and his wife, Melissa, have given away more than $25 billion of their wealth since 2000. Approximately 700,000 companies report charitable contributions on their income-tax return every year. On average, these companies give away about 1.2% of their pretax revenues. Independent foundations, unlike the other sources of gifts, are required by law to give away each year an amount equal to 5 percent of their financial assets. Their purpose is to provide support to charitable organizations through grants. There are approximately 50,000 independent foundations in the United States; their combined assets total more than $450 billion.

VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION

The United States has a large and pervasive nonprofit sector consisting of 1.4 million nonprofit organizations, of which more than 900,000, or 63 percent, are charitable nonprofits, meaning that gifts to them are deductible from donors’ taxable income.

This third economic sector allows Americans to collectively promote causes that they believe are important and in society’s best interest. The causes, represented by the missions or tax-exempt purposes of nonprofits, are diverse and wide ranging. They touch on almost all aspects of American life. Naming just a few broad categories, nonprofits are engaged in arts and culture, education, health, human services, recreation, and religion. The United States relies on nonprofits and the services they deliver more so than any other country in the world. Most major social action in the past, such as civil rights, women’s rights, and environmental protection, began in the nonprofit sector. As a former president of Yale University asserted, the United States can be distinguished from all other societies by virtue of the workload it assigns to its third sector. Our propensity for forming nonprofits was first noticed as distinctly American by Alexis de Tocqueville more than 170 years ago. As he noted, Americans of all ages and all conditions constantly form associations. De Tocqueville was convinced that this propensity was a significant factor in the vitality and success of American democracy. Contemporary scholars agree: The nonprofit sector fosters the pluralism on which democracy depends.

CHARITY VERSUS PHILANTHROPY

Scholars have identified two primary but distinctive thrusts in voluntary action: compassion, most closely associated with charity, or helping the poor and needy; and community, concern with civic improvement and social

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change, or philanthropy. Authorities agree that, today, charity primarily is carried out by government through welfare programs. Cutlip said the term charity was replaced by philanthropy after World War I. Philanthropy translates from its Greek origins to “love of humankind.” It is an investment in civilization. In a contemporary context, charity is a part of philanthropy, but only a minor part. The term charitable organization is a legal term; it does not refer to programs dealing with the poor. Rather, the term is used by lawyers to refer to organizations described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code as serving religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes. The greatest proportion of charitable organizations – and the bulk of the money given to them each year – have to do with purposes not defined as charity.

PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS

Public relations practitioners play a vital role in sustaining America’s tradition of philanthropy. Many practitioners specialize in fundraising, or helping charitable organizations attract philanthropic dollars by managing their relationships with donor publics. Other public relations practitioners serve as corporate contributions officers, helping businesses make contributions that are mutually beneficial for the community and the company. Foundations rely on the public relations practitioners to disseminate information on their grant making and on solutions to societal problems that their grants have helped solve. Many public relations firms serve nonprofit clients or advise businesses on their philanthropic giving. Overall, public relations people in all three economic sectors utilize philanthropy to help their organizations succeed and survive. They represent diverse pluralistic voices in the marketplace of ideas and encourage interaction, thereby strengthening our democratic society.

Leeper K.A. Philanthropy. Public relations research // Encyclopedia of public relations / Ed. Robert L. Heath. Volume 2. Sage Publications, 2005. – Р. 617–619.

D. READING FOR THE MAIN IDEAS

Explain in few sentences your understanding of the statement: “America’s philanthropy is typically American—born of the cooperative and generous spirit bred on the frontier, required by the problems of large-scale industrialization and urbanization, .”

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E. RENDERING

1. Give key words and topic sentences for each paragraph.

Part I: Key words Topic sentence

Part II: Key words Topic sentence

Part VOLUNTARY GIVING: Key words Topic sentence

Part VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION: Key words Topic sentence

Part CHARITY VERSUS PHILANTHROPY: Key words Topic sentence

Part PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS: Key words Topic sentence

2.Summarize each paragraph in one-two sentences.

3.Unite sentences using linking devices. Remember that rendering should cover 10-15 % of the original text.

Reading 5.3

ETHICAL CODES OF NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

A. PREDICTING

Judging from the title, write three questions that you think this article might answer.

B. VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

Match the words to make word combinations from the reading.

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C. READING

Read the article.

According to Schmidt (2004) a non-profit organisations should have a clear code of ethics that is based on its values and mission statement. John Seffrin (chair of the Independent Sector Board of Directors and CEO of the American Cancer Society) states that non-profit organisations can use their code of ethics to represent their culture (cited in ARNOVA, 2006) as ethical codes are like a guide for non-profit organisations to manage their activities. Therefore, all nonprofit organisations need to pay attention to their ethical principles because without clear ethical principles, organisations can lose the trust of the community that would in turn damage the entire non-profit sector. This is one of the main reasons why non-profit organisations require public relations so that they can manage their activities and can communicate with their public affectively.

THE ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS IN NON-PROFIT ORGANISATIONS

Non-profit organisations, like any other organisations, need to communicate with its public to survive. This is one of the main reasons why non-profit organisations should establish a set of public relations goals. The success of an organisation in achieving these goals can be understood in the backdrop of roles played by public relations today in nonprofit organisations.

Wilcox (2005) underscores that public relations plays a key role in nonprofit organisations’ success. It helps a non-profit organisation to achieve its goals (Feinglass, 2005) .One of the key goals that it helps an organisation to achieve is to get volunteers. However, public relations helps an organisation to achieve much more than recruiting volunteers as Lattimore et al. (2004) underscores that non-profit organisations have many stakeholders such as employees, volunteers, individual donors and all these people have different public relations needs, and it is not an easy job to satisfy them all. Therefore, one of the first steps in this direction should be to start using public relations internally within the organisation before the focus is shifted to external clients (Dan Barker as cited in Feinglass, 2005). According to Reilly (1981) internal public relations programs must be developed to achieve effective internal communication through periodic meetings, effective supervision, and by creating friendly surroundings that may assist in recruiting

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volunteers and employees. In other words, public relations must motivate volunteers and employees because they need to be motivated to get the work done. In addition, non-profit organizations need public relations activities to improve their image in the eyes of its public.

This is essential because they are accountable to their public who generously support them on various accounts.

Non-profit organisations in sharp contrast to other businesses are not supposed to use advertising to promote themselves. One of the main reasons for this is that use of advertising by non-profit organisations is considered unethical.

Another key reason is that these organisations have limited resources and therefore have to adopt creative means to achieve their goals (Rubenstein as cited in Feinglass, 2005).In practice, non-profit organisations today are using print and electronic media advertising to recruit volunteers and to raise funds.

Feinglass (2005) underscores that public relations make activities more meaningful, sensitive and effective for non-profit organisations. According to Wilcox et al. (1992) effective activities that make news and attract large groups is a way to increase public awareness. Therefore, it is a prerequisite for a public relations practitioner to develop good relationships with the media to achieve their organisation’s goals. In short, public relations plays a key role in helping non-profit organisations to gather support for its mission on the one hand and on the other in communicating with its key public.

Coskun N. Ethical Codes of Non-profit Organisations. The Role of Public Relations in Non-profit Organisations // Importance of Ethical Public Relations in Non-profit Organisations: A thesis of MCS submitted to Auckland University of Technology, 2007. – Р. 36–37.

D. PARAGRAPH DEVELOPMENT – SUPPORTING A TOPIC SENTENCE WITH ILLUSTRATION AND CONCLUSION

1. Examine the paragraph from the article and discuss the questions that follow.

According to Schmidt (2004) a non-profit organisations should have a clear code of ethics that is based on its values and mission statement. John Seffrin (chair of the Independent Sector Board of Directors and CEO of the American Cancer Society) states that non-profit organisations can use their code of ethics to represent their culture (cited in ARNOVA, 2006) as ethical codes are like a guide for non-profit organisations to manage their activities. Therefore, all nonprofit organisations need to pay attention to their ethical principles because without clear ethical principles, organisations can lose

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the trust of the community that would in turn damage the entire non-profit sector. This is one of the main reasons why non-profit organisations require public relations so that they can manage their activities and can communicate with their public affectively.

1.What kind of information does the first sentence provide?

2.What does the next sentence have to do with the first sentence?

3.What does the third sentence have to do with the first sentence?

4.What does the fourth sentence have to do with the first sentence?

2. Give each sentence of the paragraph you have just examined the definitions stated below. Some can be used twice, while others not necessary to use.

the topic sentence of a paragraph; an example to illustrate an idea; persuasive explanations; appropriate statistics;

relevant anecdotes that support the topic sentence; the consequence of the topic sentence;

the concluding sentence, which reinforce the main idea of the paragraph.

E. READING FOR DETAILS

1.Find and write down the main idea of each paragraph of the second half of the article. You may find the topic sentence.

2.When you have found the main ideas, write the key statements in the order they were used in the text.

3.Write the main ideas in your own words without rewriting them from the article.

4.Unite sentences. The first sentence should present the main idea of the article. Then support the main idea with the facts.

5.Remember that rendering should cover 10-15 % of the original text.

6.Write your rendering using linking devices.

PRONUNCIATION

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