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People want to be part of something successful, something that others are talking about, something that is making a difference. To secure the support and involvement of donors, funders, program participants, volunteers, staff, and partners, you will need to let people know about your Big Brothers Big Sisters program or Boys and Girls Club, the good work it will do, and the differences it will make37.
To successfully launch and sustain your program, you will need to develop a multi-faceted marketing and communications plan. This plan should address the ways in which you will:
- Acquaint the community with the need for the new program and with its purposes and objectives
- Attract families, children and youth, volunteers, and donors.
Creating a year-round marketing and communications plan could be the job of a marketing or public relations sub-committee. Having some members on this committee who are associated with advertising and media can contribute to its success.
 The marketing and communications plan should address several important issues38:
- Marketing goals: What actions do you want people to take as a result of your marketing and communication efforts?
- Target markets: At whom is your program aiming its marketing and communication efforts? In addition to maintaining a broad community profile, your program will need to target its marketing and communications efforts at particular groups (for example: volunteers, staff, participants, donors, and funders).
- The message: Carefully consider the message utilized to attract program participants and supporters in light of what you know about your target markets.
- Methods of delivering the message: Repeat your marketing and communications messages frequently, using a mix of these and other creative methods:
- Advertising in TV, radio, sign and print media
- Widely distributed brochures
- Public service announcements
- Promotional events
- Good news stories featured by local news media
- A web site
- Your own newsletter
- Newsletters in the community
- Local volunteer centres
- Tailored contacts such as personal presentations to targeted groups which impart detailed, specific information. For example, for volunteers, consider approaching retirement groups, students, professional associations, community and fraternal associations, unions, businesses and corporations, social and service clubs, faith and ethnic organizations, and universities and colleges
- Outreach on a one-to-one or small group basis with some hard-to-reach target markets
- Word of mouth.
- Points of contact : Consider offering a variety of methods by which people can make contact with your program. For example: inquiries could be received by telephone, drop-in, mail-in information cards, e-mail, and voice mail. Or, in person orientation sessions could be offered on a group or individual basis.
- Sustaining Interest: It is much easier to keep a program participant or supporter than it is to recruit a new one. Nonetheless, maintaining interest in the program will require effort. You should consider strategies such as volunteer and donor recognition events, newsletters and other ongoing communications, mentor support groups, continuing training/education opportunities, diverse work experiences, and other methods of motivating and connecting with your existing participants.
- Resources: Identify the financial and human resources necessary to implement your marketing and communications plan.
- Timelines: Your plan should demonstrate that marketing, communicating, volunteering, donating, and participating are not annual events, but rather year-round processes. Attach realistic timelines to your marketing and communications strategies.
- Evaluation: Be sure to build in processes to evaluate your marketing and communications plan’s success. Set up methods of determining what worked and what did not, like keeping statistics on the number of inquiries, and asking every inquirer and every new applicant how he or she heard about the program.
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