|  |
|
| |
If
this message is not displaying properly, click
here to launch your browser.
For a Print friendly version click
here. |
|
|
Sustainability
Keep Growing Those Relationships
February 2009 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
Dear
“Relationship” Colleague,
The recent overwhelming success of the Martin Luther King Day of Service on Monday, January 19 shows how effective we can be when people volunteer for community service. Over a million people volunteered in more than 13,000 service projects…up from 5,000 last year! The next step is to continue to sustain those efforts and hold on to the relationships that were built in order to help them grow. Click on the links on the right to learn how to…
Use Social Networks to Increase Your Outreach
Reach Non-Traditional Audiences
Involve The Business Community
Do you have questions or ideas about keeping relationships fresh? Contact us through Sustainability@CampaignConsultation.com
for more information. You can still access previous
issues of On-the-Go eTA by clicking on the back issues
at the bottom of the page.
Use Social Networks to Increase Your
Outreach
The overwhelming success of the MLK Day of Service showed that good communications planning and the use of social networks is effective when trying to reach large (and small) numbers of people with your message. Here are some ways you can use social networking to promote your programs, raise funds, find volunteers and community partners, and more:
Blog
- A blog, which is relatively easy to create, can be used to update your volunteers, donors, and those who may be interested in your mission.
- You can feature projects, post pictures, share new ideas and write about volunteers who are making a difference. In addition, it’s an excellent tool to hear feedback from your stakeholders and members of the community.
- Once you create a blog, it is important to add new posts on a regular basis.
Facebook
- Facebook is the leading Social Networking site based on monthly unique visitors.
- Supporters can add themselves as fans, write on your “Wall,” upload photos, and join other fans in discussion groups.
- You can send updates to your fans regularly -- or just with special news or opportunities.
- You can use the “Notes” area to import your blog; load and tag pictures; insert your videos from YouTube or any other video site; and share links with useful resources for your fans.
- Click
here to view the MLK Facebook page
YouTube
- Using the designated "Nonprofit" channel on YouTube, you can deliver your message to the world's largest online video community.
- The Nonprofit channel provides the option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout "Donate" button
- It is a way to connect with your supporters, volunteers, and donors when you don't have the funds to launch expensive outreach campaigns.
- Click
here to view MLK Day of Service on YouTube.
Click here to learn about additional
social networking sites that you can use to spread the
word about your program.
Reach Non-Traditional Audiences
Some communities are less often considered when seeking volunteers. Here are some ways to involve three communities of non-traditional volunteers in your programs:
College
Students as Volunteers
College students are often transient, away from
home, and will leave the community after a few years.
They are often overlooked by organizations who think
only in terms of long-term commitments. |
Connect
with campus media. Ask for their insight
and their help. Campus media should be easily accessible
on any college website.
Utilize Organizations. Find groups on campuses and off who already work with your target demographic. Examples: student government, clubs (Key Club, Model UN, NAACP), campus radio stations, fraternities and sororities, athletic teams, and issue based groups.
Connect with faculty who are teaching subjects aligned with your project. Consider courses such as sociology, history, environmental science, freshman experience.
Attend campus events including athletic events, first day of semester/term. Send a street team armed with flyers and signs to attract attention. Put flyers on bike racks, bulleting boards, lockers, outside and inside classrooms. Tell the students what is in it for them.
Do a dorm storm! Align with residence
life and deliver your message throughout dorms.
Ask them! Develop a street team or group of students who are delivering your message on campuses! |
Seniors
and Retirees as Volunteers
Retired people generally have the time to devote
to projects that others may not. Utilizing this
vital volunteer population often provides opportunities
for intergenerational service as well as increased
giving. |
Involve
faith-based organizations. Churches, synagogues
and mosques generally have social action committees
or encourage service to their community. Meet with
clergy and religious leaders and have them announce
their support to their congregation or encourage
them to adopt the program.
Provide diverse volunteer opportunities that appeal to seniors. The older adult population is composed of several generations. Have a wide range of opportunities that utilize their experience and skills, as well as consider their physical limitations.
Invite participation from activity directors at senior housing communities. Activity Directors at retirement communities and 50+ housing developments plan events year-round for their residents.
Reach out to senior service organizations. Make presentations to organizations like your local Area Agency on Aging, veteran’s organizations, local AARP chapters, senior centers, and senior advocacy coalitions. Include them in communication updates.
Recruit retiree volunteers from non-traditional sources. Places to look include civic organizations (Kiwanis, Rotary, Lions Club), lifelong learning programs, professional associations, health fairs, neighborhood associations, alumni groups, and pre-retirement workshops.
Utilize various forms of communication,
e.g. articles in senior and community newspapers;
local cable television shows; flyers, brochures,
and posters in grocery stores, churches, synagogues,
senior centers; direct mail to senior service organizations.
Just ask. Ask current volunteers to recruit others volunteers. Face-to-face recruitment is the most effective means of recruitment among seniors. These volunteers can be your best advocates and recruiters. |
People
with Disabilities as Volunteers
Create an inclusive service environment that proactively
seeks persons with disabilities and weaves access/accommodations
into all aspects of the program. |
Make
it accessible. Paths, doors, rooms, restrooms,
kitchens should meet current accessibility standards
to the greatest extent possible. Accessibility should
be considered when planning events, seeking meeting
space, and evaluating service sites.
Include Visual Images and Accommodations Language. Include images of people with disabilities as service providers in your brochures, videos, and other materials. Insert a non-discrimination clause in your materials and make a clear statement of your willingness to provide accommodations.
Utilize Alternate Formats and Communication.
Proactively let the public know that you will provide
materials in alternate formats.
Create Barrier Free Designs. When placing furniture, equipment and refreshments, give consideration to ensuring the continued ability of persons with mobility, hearing, visual, and cognitive disabilities to be able to use the space independently.
Treat people as individuals. No two people experience disability in the same way. Two individuals with the same disability may have very different perspectives, attitudes, interests, backgrounds and skills. An inclusive service environment sees individuals, not stereotypes.
The above information was taken from Inclusion: Creating an Inclusive Environment (Visit the site for more information on inclusive volunteer recruitment). |
Involve the Business Community
Local
and national businesses and corporations supported local
programs through their participation in the MLK Day
of Service with gifts of cash and gifts-in-kind. Businesses
look for recognition in the community and they hope
that their support will result in new or increased business
for them. Demonstrating your awareness of their needs
throughout the year will result in their positive response
when you come to them again with your needs. Here are
some steps you can take to keep the business community
interested and involved in your project…
- Provide
public recognition that can be used as advertising.
Design and create a plaque or a framed note that can
be displayed on the wall of the company. Publish a “thank
you” in the local newspaper.
- Host corporate sponsor breakfast or lunch. This
provides business leaders a chance to network their
services and products to other businesses.
- Place local business leaders on your volunteer leadership
boards. Their connections can be valuable to you and
they can make connections to other community leaders
who sit on your committees.
- Display their logos in your newsletters, annual
reports, website and other places where they can be
seen. A company’s logo is it’s most valuable
advertising tool.
- Develop corporate sponsorship packages that offer
increasingly greater recognition to a company as their
support to your program grows.
Let
us know
Contact
Sustainability@CampaignConsultation.com
We would be happy to answer questions or to give you
more support.
Thank you for your interest in On-The-Go eTA. We encourage
you to send this and other issues of OTG
eTA
to friends and colleagues who would benefit from the
information. Also, if you’re on information-overload,
you may request email
removal.
Otherwise OTG e-TA will be back soon with another edition.
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Use Social Networks
to Increase Your Outreach (cont.)
Twitter
- Twitter
is a microblogging network that allows you to make a post
of 140 characters of text or less. While it asks you to answer
“What are you doing?”, most use it for a variety
of other mini-posts (some including links).
- Supporters and volunteers can be alerted or informed about
latest developments.
- Twitter users are often hubs themselves and can quickly
spread a message.
- Twitter can be used to have an ongoing conversation with
stakeholders in a decentralized structure. Communicate back
to your grantees and/ or sub-grantees. Update volunteers.
Post the latest happenings. Keep things current and active.
- By posting public “tweets” you can spread
the word about a need, and event, or a project and motivate
people outside of your organization.
- More than 700 “tweets” were posted on the
MLK Day of Service informing readers of projects impacted
by community service.
- Click
here to read MLK Day “tweets.”
Flickr
- Twitter
is a microblogging network that allows you to make a post
of 140 characters of text or less. While it asks you to answer
“What are you doing?”, most use it for a variety
of other mini-posts (some including links).
- Flickr is a popular online photo-sharing community
that allows e to share and organize digital photos.
- Social Profit Organizations can document the impact
of their work through photos that they upload to the organization's
Flickr group.
- Organizations can create an image bank from which
they can select photos for their Web site and blog.
- Utilize their Creative Commons licensing search
feature and find appropriate photos to use for free with
attribution.
- Click
here to view Flickr photos of MLK Day posted on Flickr.
Myspace
- Like
FaceBook, MySpace offers a powerful platform for organizations
to mobilize existing offline members and reach out to a new
audience within the MySpace community.
- If you scroll to the middle of the page, you will see
“Tips for Organizations.” This is a great area
to learn more about how to set up your MySpace profile.
For a more complete explanation of the use of social networking,
tips, and links used for the MLK Day of Service, click
here.
Resources
eOrganizer
eOrganizer is an interactive clearinghouse for the latest
and greatest web instruments of change. This GIZMO shows you
how to maximize free and inexpensive online tools and resources
to mobilize people around issues and within organizations.
Structured around eight categories important to community
organizing, it offers descriptions and provides access to
many of the most current web arenas and strategies for bringing
groups together to create community change.
http://www.campaignconsultation.com/GIZMOs/eorganizer/index.html
The National ASK (Awareness, Skills, Knowledge) to Sustain
Institute, sponsored by Corporation for National and
Community Service, provided by Campaign Consultation, Inc.
1998, 2002.
The CNCS Resources Now! National Institute, sponsored
by Corporation for National and Community Service, provided
by Campaign Consultation, Inc. 2005-07.
Learning
Products and Services
Sustainability:
Sustainability@CampaignConsultation.com is designed
to give information fast on building capacity. Use this
online support for advice from a fundraising professional.
Contact Sustainability@CampaignConsultation.com
VISTA
Campus:
VISTA Campus is an online learning environment for
the VISTA community. The aim is to support you in your development
throughout and beyond your VISTA service. The Campus includes
self-paced tutorials and courses, reference materials, discussion
boards, a campus bookstore and more to help improve your
skills and connect with other VISTAs. To access the site,
go to http://vistacampus.org
and select the “VISTAs” option. You will need
to create an account to access the content and discussion
boards.
The
Chronicle of Philanthropy:
Everyone who comes to a Resources Now! National Institute
gets a free subscription to the Chronicle for a year. Participants
in CNCS Campaign Consultation workshops receive the latest
issue free of charge plus a $20 discount on one year’s
subscription.
Workshops/Clinics:
The Corporation for National and Community
Service (CNCS), through its T/TA service provider Campaign
Consultation, Inc., offers a three-hour workshops and clinics
for those interested.
WebWizard:
CNCS sponsors this new service that
Campaign Consultation provides to assist programs and projects
in maximizing their websites for program, client, volunteer
and fundraising needs.
Online
Courses/Webinars:
Web course delivery of topics pertinent to resource
development such as — Build Fundraising Volunteer
Champions and Cause Related Marketing and
Corporate Partnerships.
Available
through the Resource Center at http://www.nationalserviceresources.org
Read
Back Issues of OTG e-TA
|
|
|
|
|
| |
