Outreach
Item title: we took on much having to do with Outreach that was medium to high priority on the grid
participants: Bob Griggs, Oso Martin, Shawn Furst, Liane Kocka, Brad Stenger, Ron Braithwaite
Impact/Effort: we took items from 'steps' 1 and 2, that is, items on the grid that were Little effort, and low, med, or high impact Medium effort, and medium or high impact Hard to do, and high impact
Time: some short, some medium, some long-term
One- to two-sentence summary of item:
- This item includes paid and free ads, mailings, span/newsletter,
outreach to property management companies, movers, neighborhood
associations, and civic groups, corporate relations, rich friends,
united Way-type stuff, legislative relations, brochures, and PSAs.
How does it further Free Geek's mission? - These items support all of our missions by bringing in donations and volunteers.
Will it go with our culture, or meet resistance? - Spam and mass mailing will be contentious and will need a discussion in council - There could be contention concerning corporate relations, which could include many items including monetary corporate sponsorship or asking corporations to donate their discarded hardware, or something else. These items would need to be specified and decided on individually by council.
How to measure the impact? - Monitor web traffic (we already get monthly reports from our web hosting co.) - Look for increased sales and donations - We would get more volunteers (front desk or tour guides might need to tally how many volunteers sign up) - Ask more regularly when people donate and sign up to volunteer: How did you hear of us? Also, this section of the volunteer record isn't very accessible when a volunteer is entered in the database. This would need to be changed, and a field asking the question would need to go in the donor sign-up form. Are there reports for this? It might need to be standardized. - We could track how many other organizations have us on their links page or mention us on their web page.
Who would be involved? - Outreach coordinator/committee - Volunteers: PR interns, Bob, more speakers for talking to organizations and corporations (perhaps a few good people could receive training) - PSU grantwriting students, Portland Art Institute - Testimonials from grantees, adopters, builders, etc.
What kind dof budget would it require? - Paid ads: $2000-6000, PSAs: free - Mailing: $4-500 - Talking to organizations/civic groups/corp.s: staff or volunteer time - Brochures impoved: staff or volunteer time; printed: $1000
What would our first steps be? Outreach coordinator/committee needs think it through, but each item could possibly be started within 2 months.
How soon would it be completely in place and functioning? Well, we need to hire an office coordinator before our outreach coordinator is freed up, so that's January at the earliest. Everything else is kind of an ongoing basis: 2 months to get each up and running, with continual effort needed?
When would we measure if it's helping? Review a couple of months after we've started advertising/going to other groups to speak.
Impact/effort rating accurate? Yes.
Summary: Outreach is a necessary part of any non-profit, and we've seen it have a big impact in the past (the Business Journal and Willy Week articles earlier in the year are a case in point). We need to continue getting our name out, and the methods outlined above would probably work well.