The need to engage people offline, in human time, has become more important than ever before. As new technologies evolve, new opportunities also arise to innovate the way we serve essential human needs. Addressing the need to be heard, to share each other’s stories, and to connect in person are directly linked to long-term engagement.
Our approach is based on the following:
To Go Big You Need To Go Small. The bigger your network becomes, the smaller its component parts must become. People get lost trying to relate to big organizations where they are just a faceless email address or a name on a petition. We break down these barriers and create networks of small circles where real scaleable change can happen.
Listening is the Key to Connection. We practice deep listening throughout our projects, from initial sessions with top organizational decision makers to key information gathering with core leaders, staff, key donors and audience members. This is no survey. It’s deep listening about their history, their story, and their needs. And it’s the way we find essential opportunities and solutions that transform organizations.
Push Power to the Edges. We live in a world where anyone can be a media-maker, organizer or leader. Constituents are often deeply vested in creating their own media and campaigns. And smart organizations will recognize this as an opportunity and push power out from their core staff to their base; a base which will then be more inspired, more involved, and far committed to the organization’s mission.
Engagement is a Pathway. Walk it! You can’t jump from point of entry all the way to community leader in one step–although plenty of organizations try! Engagement is a series of developmental stages that we lay out from early interaction (e.g. taking an action or joining an email list) all the way to deep community involvement and leadership. We develop tools (like small group curricula, leadership trainings and fun events) that encourage constituents to take their next step on this pathway.
Your Audience is Made Up of Potential Donors. We look at donors much like we look at constituents, as people who have the potential to be more meaningfully engaged and involved in your mission. Just like there’s a pathway to leadership, with donors there’s a pathway to deeper commitment and larger and more consistent gifts. But it doesn’t come overnight. We work with organizations to develop their donor pathway as a key part of their Engagement Plan.