| Course | D384 Marketing Experiential Capstone |
|---|---|
| Task | Task 1 |
| Paper type | Marketing capstone project report |
| Length | About 1,100 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 |
| School | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Program | MS Marketing |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for D384 Task 1
Meet Biscuit: A Marketing Capstone Report on a Twelve-Week Digital Adoption Campaign and Simpler Application for a Composite Nonprofit Animal Shelter
Student Name
School of Business, Western Governors University
D384: Marketing Capstone, Task 1
Course Instructor
Month Day, Year
Meet Biscuit: A Marketing Capstone Report on a Twelve-Week Digital Adoption Campaign and Simpler Application for a Composite Nonprofit Animal Shelter
The Client and Its Goals
Harbor Paws, a composite private nonprofit animal shelter in Tacoma, Washington, takes in about 1,900 dogs and cats a year and depends on donations and adoption fees. It has four paid staff, a volunteer coordinator and about 120 active volunteers. In the prior year, its average length of stay rose from 19 to 31 days, and the shelter was often at capacity, which forced it to turn away animals from partner agencies. The executive director agreed to a twelve-week capstone project from September through November with one goal: increase adoptions by 20% compared with the same three months of the previous year, when 312 animals were adopted.
The Marketing Problem
Marketing concepts apply to nonprofit organizations as much as to firms, since every organization has clients whose needs it must understand and serve (Kotler & Levy, 1969). Harbor Paws' clients are potential adopters, and interviews with staff, a review of website analytics and a short survey of 85 recent adopters and 40 people who had started but not completed an application identified two problems.
First, the shelter's online listings did not help people connect with animals. Each listing had one dim photo taken in a kennel and a line such as Male, 3 years, good with kids. Adopters said they chose animals whose personalities they could picture in their home, and the listings gave them nothing to picture.
Second, the application process lost people. The online form had 46 questions, required a landlord reference before a visit and could not be saved partway through. Of people who started an application online, 61% never finished. Several said they gave up and adopted from a pet store or a breeder instead.
Project Plan
The project had three workstreams with weekly milestones, agreed with the director in a written scope document in the first week.
Stories: train six volunteer photographers and writers to produce a profile for each adoptable animal, with three bright photos outside the kennel, a 30-second video and a short story written in the animal's voice or from a volunteer's perspective.
Channels: publish featured animals three times a week on the shelter's two social media accounts, send a biweekly email to 9,000 supporters and pitch a weekly Pet of the Week segment to a local television station.
Application: redesign the online form with the adoption manager to remove questions that did not affect decisions, allow saving and move the landlord check to after the meet-and-greet.
Work Completed
The campaign was built on individual animals rather than statistics about crowded shelters. Research on charitable giving found that people gave more to help a single identifiable child than in response to statistics about many victims, and that prompting people to think analytically reduced giving to the identifiable child (Small et al., 2007). Each post therefore told one animal's story, such as Biscuit, a seven-year-old beagle mix who waited 94 days, loves car rides and snores, with a clear call to meet him.
Volunteers produced 214 animal profiles over the twelve weeks. The team posted 38 times on each platform and sent six emails, and the television station ran nine segments. The redesigned application cut the form to 18 questions, added saving and moved the landlord check. Because adoption is a behavior change as much as a purchase, the campaign also drew on social marketing, which applies commercial marketing techniques to influence voluntary behavior for the benefit of individuals and society (Andreasen, 1994): it reduced the effort of adopting, not just the appeal of it.
Results Against Goals
Harbor Paws adopted out 391 animals from September through November, compared with 312 in the same period the previous year, an increase of 25% that exceeded the 20% goal. Average length of stay fell from 31 to 22 days. The completion rate for online applications rose from 39% to 64%. Animals featured in a story post were adopted in an average of 12 days after posting, compared with 21 days for animals with only a standard listing. Television segments produced the largest single-day spikes in website visits, and 11 of the 12 animals featured on television were adopted within a week.
The comparison has limits. Adoptions vary by season and by the number of animals available, and a nearby shelter closed for renovation in October, which may have sent some adopters to Harbor Paws. The team could not separate the effect of each workstream precisely, although the faster adoption of featured animals and the rise in completed applications both point to the campaign's contribution.
Recommendations for the Client
Keep the volunteer storytelling team and write a two-page guide so new volunteers can produce profiles to the same standard. Prioritize stories for animals who have waited longest, since they gained most from being featured. Keep the shorter application and review it every six months with the adoption manager. Continue the television partnership, which cost nothing and produced the fastest adoptions. Track adoptions, length of stay and application completion monthly on a simple dashboard the director reviewed during the project.
Reflection
Communication: early in the project, weekly updates went only to the director, and the adoption manager felt left out of decisions about the application form she would have to use. After a tense meeting in week three, I added her to the weekly update and scheduled a short standing meeting with her, and the redesign moved faster once she co-owned it.
Collaboration: working with volunteers meant planning around their availability. Two photographers left in week five, and the plan fell a week behind. Recruiting replacements through the volunteer coordinator and pairing new volunteers with experienced ones recovered the schedule by week seven.
Project management: the written scope protected the project when board members suggested adding a fundraising gala mid-project. Pointing to the agreed goals made it easier to say not now without damaging the relationship. In future projects, I would build a buffer week into the schedule from the start and involve every person who will use a deliverable in planning it, not only the sponsor.
Conclusion
Harbor Paws had animals people would love and a community willing to adopt, but its listings hid the animals' personalities and its application turned interest away. Telling individual animals' stories and removing friction from the application raised adoptions by 25% and shortened stays, and the shelter now has the volunteers, guide and measures to keep the improvements going.
References
Andreasen, A. R. (1994). Social marketing: Its definition and domain. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 13(1), 108-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/074391569401300109
Kotler, P., & Levy, S. J. (1969). Broadening the concept of marketing. Journal of Marketing, 33(1), 10-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224296903300103
Small, D. A., Loewenstein, G., & Slovic, P. (2007). Sympathy and callousness: The impact of deliberative thought on donations to identifiable and statistical victims. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 102(2), 143-153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.01.005
What the D384 Task 1 instructions ask
The D384 capstone asks you to carry out a marketing project for a client organization and write a report on it. The report usually covers the client and its goals, the marketing problem, the project plan, the work completed, results measured against goals, recommendations and a reflection on your own professional skills. Evaluators look for a problem defined with evidence from the client, not assumed. The plan should show scope, milestones and agreement with the client, and the work section should explain why each tactic suits the audience, supported by research. Results need numbers compared with the goals set at the start, including any goal that was missed. The reflection is scored too, so describe a real difficulty, what you did about it and what you learned. Keep client confidentiality in mind throughout.
How this D384 Task 1 example is built
The report opens with the shelter's size, staff, volunteers and the rise in length of stay that pushed it to capacity. The marketing problem section applies marketing concepts to a nonprofit and reports two findings from surveys of 85 adopters and 40 people who abandoned applications. The project plan describes three workstreams agreed in a scope document. Work completed explains the storytelling approach with research on the identifiable victim effect, using Biscuit, a seven-year-old beagle mix, as the example. Results compare adoptions, length of stay and completion rates with the prior year and the goals. Recommendations help the client sustain the gains. The reflection covers communication, collaboration and time management, including a tense meeting with the adoption manager that changed how the project ran.
Where the D384 Task 1 rubric puts the marks
The D384 rubric rates each aspect competent, approaching competence or not evident. A client aspect asks for the organization and its goals described clearly. The problem aspect looks for a marketing problem supported by data gathered from the client. A plan aspect wants scope, milestones and responsibilities. Implementation aspects reward work completed as planned, with each tactic justified. The results aspect checks for outcomes measured against the goals, which the sample does for adoptions, length of stay and application completion. A recommendations aspect asks for next steps the client can act on. The reflection aspect looks for honest analysis of specific professional skills, not a list of lessons. Professional writing and APA sources complete the rubric, and evaluators notice when research shapes decisions rather than decorating them.
D384 Task 1 help: what sends it back
Capstone reports lose marks most often when the problem is assumed rather than shown. Gather client data first and let it define the problem. Some reports describe tactics in detail but never report results against the original goals; set the goals early and measure them at the end. Results that only list outputs, such as posts published, miss the point, so report outcomes the client cares about. Reflections often turn into summaries of the project; pick a real difficulty and describe what you changed. Recommendations may repeat the project instead of looking ahead, so give the client a plan to keep the gains. Get written permission before naming a client, or describe it generally. Last, cite the marketing research that guided your choices.
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D384 Task 1 questions, answered
Must D384 use a real organization?
Most versions require a real client project. The sample uses a composite shelter to show the report's structure, so check your instructions and get the client's permission before naming them in your report.
What skills does the D384 reflection cover?
Professional skills such as communication, collaboration and time management. The sample describes a specific problem for each and what the writer changed, such as adding the adoption manager to weekly updates.
How long is the D384 report?
Long enough to cover every required section with evidence. The sample runs about 1,100 words; follow any length your instructions give, and keep supporting data in tables where it helps.
Is the D384 shelter real?
No. Harbor Paws is a composite created for this sample, and its results are illustrative. The research on nonprofit marketing and charitable giving cited in the report is real.
Where can I find a free D384 Task 1 sample paper?
The shelter adoption campaign report is reproduced above with margin notes. Describe your client and project, and your first custom D384 capstone report can be written at no cost.