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Communication Makeover Projects
NPP Catalyzes New Projects
Your Development Concierge
First Impressions
Communication Makeover Projects
The sense of passion that underlies an organization’s work and the capacity to spread that passion virally and create “buzz” in the community through the all-important word of mouth channels are linked to your brand – what the community thinks about your organization based on your history, your tradition, your current status, and your accomplishments – all rolled into an image that creates a buzz that hums with positive, creative, energy.
The goals of the Communication Makeover program are to:
1) Help you determine an accurate sense of your organizational brand as the foundation of your communication strategy, and
2) Assist you with improvements to the four essential tools in your communications toolbox: your website, your online communications tools (such as an e-newsletter), your brochure, and your annual report.
NPP Staff Communications Specialist Amanda Flick leads you through an analysis of these primary tools, then together you decide on makeover priorities: upgrades to the website, converting your paper newsletter to an e-mail version, or aligning your online messages with the content in a powerful new annual report. A budget for the work is negotiated as well with some resources coming from the organization, and some from The Nonprofit Partnership. The result: an integrated, powerful set of tools that help to create the "buzz" for your organization. For more information and to apply, visit the Grants and Awards page.
NPP Catalyzes New Projects
Consistent with The Nonprofit Partnership's Strategic Plan, we are working across the nonprofit community to spark up particular models of proven service activity from which there is a strong local need and around which there is collaborative interest. In each area of catalyst activity, we are working with group members to identify and pursue new sources of funding and develop services based on best-practice models. Groups in currently in operation include:
- Whirlwind Summer Learning in Motion. To combat the well-documented problem of the summer slide where at-risk students regress academically while not in school, a collaborative involving ArtsErie, United Way of Erie County, Erie Day School, and other youth providers has planned and is offering a pilot six week summer program for Erie middle school students in which students will produce authentic projects in their own voice around the subjects of food and fitness. To follow the progress and products of this unique program, visit the Whirlwind website.
- Teen Respectful Relationships Coalition. A group of violence prevention and youth development providers has come together and designed teen focus group questions around where and how teens seek advice on healthy relationship questions. The group has designed a peer-led component based on the results of the focus group work, a video contenst and campaign for the 2011-12 academic year that challenges teams of students from across Erie County to plan and produce videos that educate their peers and challenge them to always form and maintain respectful relationships.
- Financial Social Work. A collaborative that has grown out of the financial literacy mission of United Way Erie Free Taxes is pursuing the development of the financial social work modality in Erie and evaluating the potential for a research project that compares the effectiveness of various approaches to changing financial behaviors.
- Aging In Place. Erie's aging population has long-needed a more robust array of in-home support services that allow aging seniors to maintain their independence in their own homes for as long as possible. The current national debate over the crippling cost of long-term care forces up to develop more services along this continnum, so the group is looking at errand and companion services, co-housing options, senior home repair, and a variety of other modalities.
- Educational Foundations. The crisis in public education in Erie and elsewhere suggests that districts, parents, and educational advocates take pro-active steps to mobilize nonprofit educational foundations that can raise funds from individuals and through philanthropy to sustain important educational services and programs that are being curtailed in the current public funding environment. NPP invites districts and their partners to work with us to activate needed new streams of funding.
In you are interested in participating in a catalyst group around issues of vital importance to Erie, please contact us at (814) 454-8800 × 3 or e-mail rwooler@thenonprofitpartnership.org.
Your Development Concierge
The Nonprofit Partnership's Development Concierge works like that desk in the corner of the hotel lobby. Because we are constantly scanning local, regional, and national RFPs and funding opportunities, and because we have engaged members in an evolving dialogue around sustainability issues and the succession of funding sources for the long-term, we have ideas, leads, and resources to share with you about replacing lost funding, starting new initiatives, or steering established programs in some new funding directions.
Our assistance may take the shape of periodic e-mail alerts about new funding opportunities, one-to-one consultation about funding strategy and business planning, joining one of our catalyst groups, or a combination of these. To add your organization to the list of Development Concierge projects, please contact us to offer the detailed background information we need to succeed with your quest. Call (814) 454-8800 × 3 or e-mail rwooler@thenonprofitpartnership.org.
First Impressions Count
Our First Impressions project mobilizes a service learning team of creative, multi-disciplinary talent from local campuses - individuals with writing, visual and digital media, and interior design skills and sensibilities. Working with The Nonprofit Partnership through the efforts of the Erie VISTA leader Marta Baran, this team's goal is to get to know and understand the organization's story - what is outstanding about their work - and to translate it in natural ways onto items that can grace the entryway: posters, pull-up banners, photo galleries, story cards, and the like. Some paint or plants might do the rest and a makeover might just be easier and more affordable than you would think. To get started, please call The Nonprofit Partnership office at (814) 454-8800.
