Matthew 25 Ministries

Chapter 18 of the textbook “Think: Public Relations” covers three areas in the field of public relations: nonprofit, health, and education (Wilcox 369-387). This paper will examine the organization Matthew 25 Ministries as a case study under the umbrella of this chapter of the aforementioned textbook. Matthew 25 Ministries is a successful Cincinnati-based nonprofit that does a lot of work to help their local and worldwide community, and especially the poorest of poor. Just as with every organization, however, they are not perfect and there is room for improvement; public relations can help with that. Using the list from the textbook of the various types of nonprofit organizations, Matthew 25 Ministries can be categorized as a social service
This means that they try very hard to not waste anything, because in their eyes what some people see as trash may be repurposed into something that is quite valuable to others. Their program begins with monetary donations as well as donations of time from volunteers, which leads to the preparation of containers of goods. These containers are then sent to needy communities in local areas and worldwide (M25M). Recruiting volunteers is a very important focus of public relations professionals who work for Matthew 25 Ministries and other similar organizations (Wilcox 371). Without volunteers, it would be much more difficult for these organizations to carry out what they wish to accomplish; in essence, it would be much more difficult for the containers of goods to reach the communities that need them without the help of volunteers to supply the goods and pack the
One of the trends discussed here was the idea of transparency in organizations, and how this is becoming increasingly necessary in today’s culture (Wilcox 59). Studies today, such as the annual Edelman Trust Barometer, show that there has been a decline in the amount of trust people are placing in businesses and organizations (Edelman). Knowing this, public relations professionals within nonprofits have to work very hard to earn the trust of the public; if a nonprofit organization is not trusted, it will likely not receive much money in return. One of the best ways for an organization to appear more trustworthy is by being more transparent. Matthew 25 Ministries does an excellent job of being very transparent regarding the work that they are doing; their website clearly shows what they are doing with the money they receive and also where their shipments of goods are going