The Development of a Growth Strategy to Empower a Local Diaper Bank
Among the nonprofits we worked with was a diaper bank that not only provides diapers for babies but also feminine hygiene products and adult briefs. This community-focused organization serves over 21 counties in New Jersey with the primary purpose of ending the diaper need and easing this burden for families in low-income communities.
Situation
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, our client was having difficulty marketing, retaining its volunteers, and attracting new donors. Due to the numerous duties and responsibilities of running a nonprofit organization, the client was overburdened and many aspects of the nonprofit's operations were being neglected. Our goal was therefore to alleviate this stress by providing an actionable plan to manage the workload.
Aside from COVID-19, this nonprofit recently suffered a flood that destroyed most of their supplies and lost tons of paperwork from the years 2016 to 2018 that was stored in filing cabinets. Therefore, they were looking for the best ways to keep track of files, and more generally organize internal operations.
Challenge
Due to a lack of a strong online presence and inability to reach their target audience and potential sponsors, our client's current social media platform left this organization at risk. This had a ripple effect when it came to the recruitment and engagement of volunteers.
Aside from these challenges, after the flood, no effective method was established for filing and storing documentation. This significantly impacted the ability of the nonprofit in requesting funding due to not being able to provide sufficient financial documentation for potential donors.
Therefore, we identified the best method to meet the client's needs by using an agile approach addressing three key areas: marketing strategies, internal processes and organization, and financial planning.
Approach
Marketing Tactics: The client seemed concerned about their social media presence and how they would be able to create an effective but not time-consuming posting schedule. This motivated a pre-made social media calendar, which makes it easier for our client to choose and post relevant content without exhausting too much time or resources. All templates include pictures chosen by the client, the logo of the organization as well as their corresponding color scheme. Some templates additionally use QR codes embedded, which are intended to make volunteer and donor registration processes easier and more accessible. Along with these templates, we conducted research for the best social media posting times to be leveraged across different platforms.
Another initiative we introduced to the client was to reach out to other Black Founded non-profits organizations. In doing so, they can foster a feeling of community and solidarity among these founders, as well as spread awareness about their organization.
Additionally, the client needed a cohesive and standardized outreach strategy that would allow for efficient and professional communication with potential donors. We created a pitch deck to present at meetings with potential donors in order to take full advantage of fundraising opportunities. This ensures that our client consistently showcases its mission, differentiates itself from other nonprofits, and clearly articulates its “ask.” Through our research, we learned current best practices for nonprofit pitch decks, including the importance of framing the problem, highlighting our client’s success stories, and discussing upcoming projects.
We also developed a template for initial outreach emails and letters to guide our client in creating persuasive messages as well as making this a less time-consuming process. After researching key parts of an outreach letter, we found that correspondence should explain the impact donors can make with a gift, be kept formal, and be personalized, such as specifically naming the donor in question.
Internal Organizational and Processes: The aim of our organizational approach was to help increase productivity and efficiency, and improve financial and time management for our client. To achieve this goal we introduced Google for Nonprofit for organizing and storing all of our client’s resources and documents in one place, in addition to providing a variety of features that can be used for scheduling and collaboration.
In order to resolve the organizational challenge of managing volunteers, a new volunteer management and onboarding guide were necessary to make the volunteering process more efficient and effective for our client. As a first step, we set clear expectations and definitions of each role that needed to be filled. For tracking volunteer work progress, we created a timesheet for volunteers to record the number of days and hours they worked on their assigned tasks. Adding to this, we have also created a volunteer performance evaluation form, which will be used to provide a quarterly assessment of volunteers to ensure that they are acting in alignment with our client’s standards and policies. And this form will also help supervisors be able better identify which volunteers have been showcasing especially exceptional dedication to our client’s mission.
To improve recruitment, we developed a new volunteer application on google forms which would make it easier to share and edit. And along with this form, we made a QR code, which can be scanned by prospective volunteers to help streamline the recruitment process. Furthermore, we came up with several ways to incentivize and demonstrate appreciation for volunteers such as merchandise giveaways and social media spotlights.
Financial Planning: The team quickly discovered that most of the previous financial documents had been destroyed in the flood. Following our retrieval of all available information, we set out to implement a robust, cloud-based solution to continuously assess financial health and record-keeping to prevent a similar situation in the future.
Our Financial Planning deliverable provided our client with an overview of past fundraising and expense expenditures, as well as goal-based predictions for our client’s 2022 projected cost. The team analyzed the finances that it takes to donate a single diaper and provided 3 impactful recommendations through financial tracking, increasing donor retention, and identifying multiple revenue streams. All to help our client meet their goal of donating 100,000 diapers for 2022. The proposed deliverable will give our client budgeting templates and a future growth strategy intended to overcome any financial hurdles and increase transparency with future donors.
Impact
Nonprofit organizations play an important role in improving the quality of life for the people in their communities in a variety of ways. Often, nonprofits fail to meet the expectations of their communities when their internal processes and organization and financial documents are not in order. We quickly realized volunteers contribute greatly to nonprofits' profitability and efficiency. Therefore, an increase in volunteer participation allows the founder to devote more time to other tasks. By addressing these core issues, the Rem team was able to improve the client’s productivity by promoting the organization and its mission, raising awareness, encouraging volunteer participation, and increasing engagement across the organization and in the community. As a result, our deliverables equipped the client with the resources needed for gaining more exposure, managing internal processes, and securing funding investments for the future.
Team Breakdown
Team Lead: Lauren Maynard
Strategist: Annika Browne
Strategist: Grace Keller
Jr. Strategist: Klea Tryfoni
Jr. Strategist: Sophia Steele
Jr. Strategist: Umar Aulia
Relevant Background Information
Business Type: Minority-owned Nonprofit
Industry: Diaper Bank
Location: New Jersey
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