How Can You Creatively Engage Communities in Your Organization's Cause?
To discover innovative ways to engage the community in your organization's cause, we asked executive directors and CEOs for their creative strategies. From promoting skills-based volunteering to organizing a recovery art showcase, here are five inspiring ideas.
- Promote Skills-Based Volunteering
- Host Inclusive Community Events
- Share Impactful Stories
- Create Welcoming Community Spaces
- Organize a Recovery Art Showcase
Promote Skills-Based Volunteering
This is not a creative concept; it is an underutilized concept: skills-based volunteering! When professionals are allowed to share their skills and talents with your client population, they become more engaged in your work. People are always willing to share themselves with others. By asking individuals to share their skills or talents with others, it allows them to become connected with your clients, which connects them to the organization.
Host Inclusive Community Events
As much as nonprofits 'hate' events and try to limit them, they are also an easy way to build a movement around your cause. Our supporters like being part of communities that share their values and their passion. Creating different kinds of events, from small to large and from fancy to casual, is a way to bring like-minded people together to support the cause and meet others who make them feel less alone.
Share Impactful Stories
One key strategy we have consistently applied is something that I was taught years ago called the Knowledge-Information-Impact Pipeline. Nonprofits need to engage potential partners in the stories of life change through the organization if they expect them to invest themselves as volunteers, financiers, and ambassadors for the organization with others. We make it a priority to provide quality information on a consistent schedule that shares significant stories. We provide additional information to higher-level financial donors so they feel informed and enthused about the work they help initiate through their monetary partnership.
