Community relations campaigns often include employee volunteer activities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen virtual volunteer opportunities emerge that are well-suited for large or small businesses, associations, nonprofit teams and individuals who want to make a difference in their world.
Community relations is great for teambuilding and for reinforcing your organization’s mission and brand values.
If your business or organization has large meetings or an annual conference, adding a corporate social responsibility or CSR tie-in can be a fantastic way to help individuals meet one another. And everyone feels good making a difference.
So, this sounds like a great idea you say, but what do we do these days when meeting in-person or volunteering in-person isn’t possible? Fortunately, there are ways to volunteer and make an impact virtually. You don’t need to be in person or have a large group to make a big difference. (If you need them, then we have even more ideas for starting and improving existing community relations campaigns.) Here’s a few virtual volunteer opportunities in Central Texas that make great community relations projects!
Peer Support and Mentoring Virtually
Do your employees have expertise, a listening ear or time to share? Peer to peer support is one way to help individuals one at a time.
Hand to Hold, a nonprofit that helps parents of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, offers ways for NICU graduate parents to mentor another parent.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas is also looking for mentors for at-risk youth, and the training can be completed virtually.
SCORE, a nonprofit business mentoring organization, mobilizes business executives in service to new businesses and those facing challenges and opportunities. They are looking for volunteers who are willing to share their expertise with a small business owner.
If you have an interest or a special skill, it’s very possible there is a nonprofit or association that has a mentoring or peer support volunteer need. Best of all these relationships can be made and sustained over the phone, email or by video call.
Making a Difference Individually
Getting involved and staying socially distant is possible to do without a computer. Here’s three examples:
Girls Empowerment Network has reinvented their programming which is designed to increase girl’s resilience and self-efficacy. They are offering themed “Spark Kits” based on their proven curriculum, which include 25 self-guided and collaborative activities so girls can learn something new, have fun and feel connected to other girls their age. Volunteers decorate the boxes with inspired artwork to encourage girls, and make them feel strong and empowered.
Foundations Communities operates 23 affordable housing communities and support services on-site for families. Volunteers work virtually helping adults file their taxes, with financial coaching, working with them to find affordable health insurance and more.
Meals on Wheels and More of Central Texas is continuing deliveries of meals to homebound and food insecure seniors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteers receive instruction via Zoom and then make deliveries of shelf-stable meals from the central kitchen every other Friday on a route. Wear a mask, drive your car and deliver food to those in need. You can even share a route with co-workers to make it a socially-distanced team effort.
Donation drives make a big impact
Nonprofits frequently post the supplies and products they need to accomplish their mission. Nearly every charity has one, so it’s a matter of asking if you don’t see one online. The way this works as a community relations project is for one or two people to find out what the nonprofit’s needs are, pick several items to narrow the list if it is long or decide on the type of “kits” you’ll collect and assemble, and then communicate it out to your co-workers, the public or event attendees. Once you set a deadline for receiving items, you can coordinate a delivery time or set up a time for socially-distanced collection.
When nonprofits don’t get what they need, they are often forced to pull the funds from their operating budgets. When businesses do a donation drive for needed supplies, this is like an unexpected windfall! The nonprofit can deploy extra funds that would have gone for those supplies where it is needed most.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, take care to be in touch with the nonprofit before you begin to make sure the contact rules are followed and that donation drive needs have not changed or shifted.
The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Central Texas which operates programs in service to sick children and their families is requiring donations be delivered via a delivery service to cut down on contact risks.
The Center for Child Protection, Travis County’s children’s advocacy center, is also encouraging donations via their Amazon wish list in lieu of the many donation drive opportunities that they offer, such as birthday boxes, coping kits, and a kid’s closet which is full of supplies to help families keep their child safe and in a protective home.
The Austin Diaper Bank, which collects diapers and hygiene products for all ages, continues to collect products to keep those in need dry and clean, but they have fewer dropoff locations currently.
LifeWorks, a nonprofit advocating for homeless and at-risk youth, advises gift card drives which can be used to help youth as they get on their feet.
The Safe Alliance provides shelter and services for child abuse, sexual assault and exploitation, and domestic violence survivors. They offer a number of ways to give back for businesses and organizations including a wish list.
Asian Family Support Services of Austin offers a number of ways of getting involved – from providing legal services and counseling to participating with fundraising and promotion.
Promoting Your Partnership
As with any community relations project, you’ll want to promote your partnership so everyone can be involved and know about your good news. Here’s some ideas about how to do that effectively:
Capture visuals
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- Have employees submit pictures of themselves volunteering virtually and collect them into a gallery or in a collage.
- Another creative way to get a picture of a donation drive is to have people fill something unexpected with needed supplies. For back to school, it could be “fill the bus with school supplies.” It makes a great visual. Before you embark on this, make sure it is something that the nonprofit welcomes.
- Photos of employees delivering items with masks on is another way to go. If health authorities advise masks, make sure your volunteers indeed wear masks and your photos show people wearing masks.
- Another way to tell the story is encouraging submissions of short videos about what volunteering means to them or showing them packing up their car. Mobile Loaves and Fishes has a video featuring musicians volunteering their talents for a fundraising campaign.
Ways to communicate your news
Who needs to know about your volunteering partnership? There may be more audiences than you realized and more outlets for your story.
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- Internal – Does your company have a newsletter for employees or blog? If not, you can send an email to all employees and don’t forget the visuals. Make sure you thank them for being involved. If your project is on-going it might be something to consider for your organization’s annual report. Depending on the scope of your partnership and how you communicate with customers, a version of the story might appear in communications sent to customers and on your social media channels. You could explain why you chose this nonprofit and encourage customers to support them, too.
- Nonprofit – Your nonprofit partner also is eager to learn about your organization’s experience with volunteering, and they can tell you more about the impact you are making. Get their feedback and send them your writeup and some visuals. They may include it on their website, social media or outreach to their supporters.
- News media – Depending on the visuals you collect and the impact you make, there can be a number of opportunities to pursue.
- If you are asking the public to help you by collecting items, similar to Family Eldercare’s Annual Summer Fan Drive, local newspapers and broadcast media may run stories for you.
- After the event, send a photo with a newsy caption to the Austin American-Statesman, Austin Business Journal or Community Impact. If your business is in a specific part of town, there may be other neighborhood newspapers, blogs or media to pursue as well.
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Giving Back Can Grow Over Time
Often companies begin volunteering with nonprofits whose mission appeals to them. Over time, those partnerships tend to deepen and grow. Businesses see the impact they are making and want to do more. Nonprofits are able to engage those volunteers and reach new supporters so they can help more people and provide more services.
If you need even more ideas, VolunteerMatch and Giving City Austin are two great resources for discovering nonprofits you may not have thought about but may be a great fit.
We Can Help
If the thought of strategically locating a nonprofit partner seems daunting, a savvy public relations partner can help. Amy Carr Communications can advise on strategic community relations programs involving nonprofits that fit your organization’s passion and mission. We start with a strategy session to learn more about your communications goals and create a measurable plan to drive business results. Using our proven process, we leverage our deep experience with the nonprofit community, so you can effectively engage your employees, customers and your wider community. Schedule a coffee with us to start a conversation today.
