Upcoming Seminars: Case Statements and Recruiting Ambassadors

Almost everyone now in the non-profit and education fields focus on raising money.  It makes sense.   For years, most of us depended on government grants or funds.  But now we have come to a point where this mindset is just not sustainable anymore.  Government funds to organizations and education are being cut, despite the fact that money is needed to fund all the great work our schools and non-profits are doing.  We are at a crossroads where we can either continue to depend on funds that are dwindling or take a new direction towards long-term sustainability that begins with inspiring people to help.  At first this might seem scary or risky, but rest assured this does NOT mean asking for money or anything else for that matter.   You only need to inspire people to want to help by showing them all the great work that you do.  This is where the case statement comes in, and it is the first part of the formula for effective community engagement.   

Story + Direction + Relationship = Effective Community Engagement

The purpose of the case statement is to articulate the essence of your organization in a compelling, concise and consistent manner.  It’s the gathering place for your official story, and it’s a helpful tool for staff, board members, donors and volunteers in raising awareness of your organization.  Finally, our format is strategically designed to answer all the questions a prospective supporter would have before deciding he/she would want to learn more.  

I was wondering if any of you have taken a stab at developing your own professional case statement.  I’d love to see what you came up with.  If you’re stuck, don’t feel bad, because it took me six months to develop the alinea case statement, and it takes us a full 10 hours to develop one for our clients.  And that’s after doing about 100 of them over the past seven years.

I have also received some questions about how you go about developing “ambassadors” for your organization.  Guess what?  The answer is the same one.  It all starts with being able to inspire people to want to help.  

In this blog, I thought I’d highlight two seminars that cover both these topics.

Upcoming Seminars – Case Statements and Recruiting Ambassadors

First, I will be facilitating a FREE workshop sponsored by PNC Bank and Reilly, Penner & Benton accounting firm on Wednesday, November 2^nd, 7:30-9am in Milwaukee (details at www.alineaconnect.com).  During this workshop, we will walk through how to develop a professional case statement.  If you’ve already started your case statement, but you need to take it to the next level, or if you haven’t started one yet, you won’t want to miss this opportunity.  If you’re not in town, join us via skype or other technology.  

Second, I will be facilitating a workshop for the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee titled “Engaging Volunteers in What You Do,” where you will learn about giving the inspiration and direction necessary to fully engage volunteers in your organization?  We’ll focus on using your story to recruit and retain more volunteers, inspire ambassadors for your organization and develop support for volunteers within your organization.   This seminar costs $40-60 and will be held on Thursday, November 10, 9-11:30am at the Volunteer Center of Milwaukee.  (details at www.alineaconnect.com).