Eastern Volunteers Archives - Syneka Marketing

Jun 11

Governance Mentors – now seeking organisations

By Alex Makin Advice for Businesses, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities No Comments

Governance Mentors is an innovative not-for-profit social enterprise that builds community through governance mentoring. The social enterprise was formed by Volunteering Western Victoria and is delivered in partnership with Eastern Volunteers and Volunteer West.

Governance Mentors involves the matching voluntary mentor with a community organisation over a twelve month time frame. During this time the mentor will support the committee of management by providing advice on good governance practices.

Mentor training has commenced, and Governance Mentors is currently seeking organisations that would like to participate in the program with the aim of strengthening governance.

A mentor will not take the place of a committee member, but instead will provide advice in an advisory capacity on good governance practices. Similarly, rather than providing one-off training, Governance Mentors aims to foster ongoing learning and development through mentoring.

The program is available for both staffed and unstaffed organisations. A Program Coordinator will match mentors with complementary skills to the identified needs of a community organisation.

Further information on Governance Mentors can be found at www.governancementors.org.au or email info@governancementors.org.au.

Apr 03

Training Workshop – Online Marketing and Social Media

By Alex Makin Advice, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities No Comments

This morning I hosted an online marketing workshop in partnership with Eastern Volunteers, providing advice on using online forms of marketing for not-for-profit organisations.

The workshop covered the theory and practical elements of online marketing, discussing the fundamentals for successful engagement, while guiding participants through the use of several tools, including Facebook, Twitter and HootSuite.

Websites, and social marketing tools, need to be considered as a form of marketing. Organisations need to understand who they want to reach and why. Unfortunately many organisations jump into social media, without a marketing strategy that considers how their online presence supports their brand.

Websites need to be maintained and kept up-to-date to show that your organisation is relevant. Similarly a social media presence with very little activity, will provide a detrimental effect and will fail to encourage wider engagement. Integrating social media tools with a website can assist in reducing the time required to add content, meaning there is more time to curate and foster communities.

Furthermore, it is important that organisations have robust media and communication policies that incorporate the usage of social media. These policies should be readily available, so that all stakeholders are aware of what is considered as acceptable use for social media. Organisations should attempt to engage people with negative comments and resolve difficulties offline, while offensive items should be removed immediately.

Online marketing, supported by the effective use social media, has the potential to increase the reach of an organisation, but it needs to be supported with the right strategies.

Thank you to the participants who attended the workshop and for discussing your online marketing needs.

Mar 23

Harmony Day – Wish You Were Here

By Alex Makin Advice for Businesses, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities, Government, News, Presentations No Comments

Harmony Day is part of Cultural Diversity Week, designed to celebrate Australia’s multicultural society.

Maroondah has significant cultural influences, including the role of the Mullum Mullum Creek in Wurundjeri culture, European migration that settled into the area after World War II, and more recently communities from South Sudan and Burma.

Alex as Master of Ceremonies for the Maroondah Harmony Day Exhibition and Concert

Eastern Volunteers in partnership with Victoria Police, Relationships Australia Victoria, EACH, Department of Justice, Migrant Information Centre and Maroondah City Council, held a day of cultural festivities on the Main Stage at Eastland Shopping Centre.

Performances included traditional Wurundjeri dances, music from the Chin and Karen communities from Burma, reggae from an African solo guitarist and Scottish highland dancers. I served as the Master of Ceremonies for the proceedings, providing an introduction to each performance, as well as highlighting activities throughout the day. I also kept the audience engaged, by discussing the activities of the partners and showcasing the range of festivities planned for Harmony Day.

The Harmony Day Concert was supported by a postcard exhibition, featuring community entries depicting cultural diversity. Entries were received across Maroondah, including from schools, community centres and migrant groups.

The Maroondah Harmony Day Concert and Exhibition featured a range of community performances.

One of the highlights was Maroondah signing a formal declaration stating that it welcomes refugees. The Council resolution, declaring Maroondah as a refugee welcome zone, was one of of my last actions as a Councillor in 2012. Maroondah’s formal signing of the declaration reaffirms this commitment.

The Maroondah Harmony Day Concert and Exhibition enabled the community to showcase the cultural diversity and welcoming atmosphere of Maroondah. It was a pleasure to perform the role of Master of Ceremonies and to promote cultural understanding through the event.

Mar 04

Successfully Planning and Promoting Events – Training Workshop

By Alex Makin Advice, Advice for Businesses, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities, Government, Presentations, Resources No Comments

Eastern Volunteers is a volunteer resource centre located in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, which assists community organisations in recruiting and training volunteers.

This month I conducted a training session on planning and promoting events; following the success of a similar workshop that I held last year. The half-day workshop covered the following topics:

Developing a marketing approach for events
Planning and executing events
Sponsorship and Support
Engaging the Media
Promotional Tools

Developing a marketing approach

Events are a marketing activity and as such they need to align with organisational goals. All forms of interaction, such as attending an event, receiving promotional materials or customer service, results in an impression being formed. It is imperative that these impressions reinforce the key messages that an organisation wishes to communicate.

Events need a clearly defined purpose so that the organisation and participants are aware of the outcomes they wish to be achieve. Clear expectations also assist when evaluating the effectiveness of an event.

Do you wish to raise funds, or are you planning to raise awareness for your organisation? While there may be a crossover between purposes, there will typically be an overriding priority that defines the aim of the event.

Like any form of marketing, there is a need to understand the target market for your event. Who do you wish to attract to the event and why is it is important to reach this target market? Knowing the target market will assist in understanding the best communication tools that can be used to reach these attendees.

Oct 02

Ensure that there is sufficient time to consider media releases and promotion for your event.

Training Workshop: Marketing for Media and Events

By Alex Makin Advice, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities, Presentations, Resources No Comments

Many not-for-profit organisations conduct events to raise awareness or as fundraisers to provide support to their core services. We conducted a half-day workshop on events and media in conjunction with Eastern Volunteers.

There are considerable challenges in managing events, particularly in ensuring that the activities support the aims of the organisation and provide a positive return. Many not-for-profit organisations do not have the resources available for a dedicated events team. Subcommittees can be useful in overcoming these constraints by encouraging staff and volunteer participation, while also enabling a range of people and skills to become involved in planning and conducting an event.

Events should be evaluated against objectives to justify the commitment and resources. For example, it may be useful to evaluate the effectiveness of an event in regard to fundraising, staff resources, financial return and awareness.

Ensure that there is sufficient time to consider media releases and promotion for your event.

Business Sponsorship is often required to support community events and it is critical that an organisation is able to demonstrate tangible benefits for this support. Not-for-profit organisations should prepare information packages that outline the benefits of sponsorship, including the audience reach and ongoing coverage. It is often useful to determine whether an event attracts a particular demographic and to target businesses who wish to reach a similar target market.

Several levels of sponsorship should be provided, with clear differences in value between each package. Providing a range of sponsorship packages, enables several businesses to become involved and encourages the potential to upgrade support in future years.

Businesses should be encouraged to be present during the event and to see first-hand the results of their investment. Providing photographs and videos also enables businesses with ongoing materials from the event and can support discussions for support in future years.

Events also need to be sufficiently promoted and it is often useful to plan backwards when organising an event. This approach will help ensure that invitations, media releases and other promotional tools are dispatched in time.

Media releases should be relevant to the audience of the media outlet to assist in coverage. Often it useful to speak to a journalist directly to reiterate key points from the media release. Journalists will not be able to cover every aspect of an event so ensure that the essential information is conveyed in the media release and during conversation.

The Workshop received extremely positive feedback and will hopefully assist organisations in planning and conducting their events.

Sep 19

Managing Volunteers – Take the Next Step

By Alex Makin Advice, Advice for Not-for-profit Organisations and Charities, Presentations, Resources No Comments

Many not-for-profit organisations rely on volunteers for service delivery and to assist with administration and other functions.

Managing Volunteers – Take the Next Step, was a full day conference hosted by the Shire of Yarra Ranges and Eastern Volunteers. The conference discussed several topics relevant to volunteer management national standards, the steps required to prepare an organisation for volunteers, as well as marketing and promoting an organisation.

I presented a session for the afternoon workshop, discussing the Essentials of Social Media and Marketing. The presentation discussed the need for a strategic marketing approach, to identify aims and to understand what would attract volunteers to assist with the organisation.

Organisations need consistent messages to demonstrate the volunteer experiences that are created through their involvement. Messages need to be communicated using a range of marketing tools to reach prospective volunteers through multiple communication channels.

Social media is one of the tools that can be used to reach prospective volunteers and should be considered as a part of a cohesive marketing campaign. Social media should be integrated with website content, providing the seamless ability to update websites, as well as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites

It is important to utilise the strengths of each tool and one advantage of social media is the ability to share content. The intent should not necessarily be to develop viral content, but to ensure your target audience is able to distribute content and share their views on being involved with the organisation. Stories can be very effective and assist in providing content that can be shared. The sharing of content is the online equivalent of word of mouth recommendations and can help reach the connections of people already involved with the organisation.

Successful volunteer recruitment will use a mix of tools to reach prospective volunteers, supported by consistent messages and a cohesive marketing approach. Marketing encompasses more than promotional tools, such as brochures or flyers, but every form of interaction that someone has with an organisation.