How Can We Help?
- Create a PowerPoint presentation: Presenting your project to organizations using visuals aids is engaging, professional, and enjoyable for both the presenter and their audience.
- Utilize social media, blogs, social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Craigslist are great resources. This Bootstrapping Your Social Media Engagement slideshow gives some great ideas on how to increase Facebook and Twitter engagement for your nonprofit. These sites are free, easy to setup and maintain, and reach virtually every age and lifestyle demographic. Ventureneer is a great site for free how-to webinars geared towards, but not limited to, nonprofits.
Go to events and table to get your point across to like-minded people. You can pick and choose different events where you are more likely to find volunteers and interested people. For example, a local garden club event. - Master the art of writing a press release: Depending on one’s writing skills, this may take a little practice, but will definitely prove worthwhile.
- Public relations is not the same as advertising: While advertising allows one to control their message, it can also be extremely expensive. PR is not only much lighter on the wallet – basically free – but it also gains credibility where advertising struggles immensely. This is where a great press release comes into play. Most readers are more likely to trust independent authorities such as reporters or broadcasters than an advertisement. Without a doubt, these authorities are directly influenced by good public relations and specifically, a well-written press release.
- Media coverage: Television, radio, or print can provide a lot of bang for very little (usually free) buck. Second Harvest does a phenomenal job incorporating the community into their programs. For example, the premise behind Plant a Row is a community-driven effort. Media outlets love the idea of a local business sending its employees on a glean for the hungry. If an orchard contacts you about gleaning their produce, make a strong effort to collaborate with a local business. There are many benefits to doing this, including:
- Media outlets tend to prefer collaborations between two identifiable parties.
- From media attention, you can potentially obtain all the necessary volunteers from one source, saving a lot of valuable time and frustration on your end.
- Local businesses gets media attention. This makes the event mutually beneficial, and in turn, more appealing to your volunteer source.