QUICK TIPS At our inaugural conference, chapter leaders in attendance shared tips that they found helpful for their own groups. We d like to share them here with you and hope you find them useful as well. Registration Get members to volunteer for food and registration Use greeters and make sure new members are introduced to existing members Use high school volunteers to conduct the administrative duties for Steering Teams, as they typically have volunteer hours they need to accumulate Welcome and Opening Remarks Acknowledge and welcome new members at the beginning of meetings by asking them to stand when their name is called Go around the room and ask members to state their name and a fun fact (such as favorite vacation spot, what their thankful for, etc.) Nametags Use stick on tags and write your name in two colors: one color for a first time attendee and another for returning members Use trays to organize the name tags, makes for easy post meeting storage as well Ballots Put voting ballots in the back of name tags Ask members to put their check into their name tag before they turn it in Use envelopes with their names on them, put ballot in there and ask they leave their check in the envelope after and turn it back in
Who presents the nonprofit? Must be member of the group to present Only members can nominate but nonprofit representative can present Pull nonprofit names a week before the meeting, contact the charities and invite them to present members don t know who Presentations If you nominate the organization, you are responsible to know about it and present it to the members Draw one charity at a time, do presentation and Q&A Equal time for all three nomination presentations Use one minute and ten second cue cards to alert presenters of how much time is left makes flow more natural vs. abrupt endings and interruptions Allow for the presenter to use a life line for an answer to a question limits multiperson presentations and helps presenter if there is a tough question they do not how to answer Use another word other than winner Impact Award Awarded Selected Chosen After opening remarks/introductions or during the tally, have the Executive Director or designee from prior quarter s selected nonprofit present to membership how the award will benefit and impact their organization Find a photographer for each event to donate time and files Keep meetings as short as 30 minutes Collect and give out door prizes during ballot counting Put pictures of every award presentation lining the meeting room so everyone can see Have leadership each write $100 check to non-chosen charity so everyone wins
Follow the presentation speaker online (Twitter, Facebook), hold up phone and take a picture for your Facebook page Meeting Venue Get venue sponsors. Commit to giving recognition through social media, emails and at the event. Consider letting them speak at meeting. Ask if meeting venue will give 20 percent of receipts for the day/evening to the selected nonprofit Media Coverage for Venue Add restaurant details to your press releases to give them added marketing in exchange for receipts/reduced apps and drinks/etc. Offer venues a proposal including media coverage Get restaurants recognition and press and get business sponsors and give them recognition Set out meeting dates and location for the entire year then send reminders prior to each meeting Consistent location for the year Eventbrite.com to register and print out list Allows new members to join Works as RSVP for meeting Begins the process of collecting checks for people not attending Create a Facebook event for each meeting Use local publications and get donated space Other ideas for meeting space that will have ample parking, other than a restaurant: Business office conference room Synagogue or church Library Town Hall
School classroom Collecting the Money Checks members hand in their checks in a self addressed stamped envelope, this keeps address out of charities databases and saves time and money for the charity Obtain a post office box for members to mail checks Put basket out for each charity to allow for donations to the nonprofits not selected that quarter Set up drop off locations to collect checks in person throughout the city Anyone who has a bank account can go on-line and have the check sent from the bank Ask members to send/turn in a year s worth of blank checks, dated for the meetings, signed, marked 100WWC and for deposit only on the back this works great, especially if someone knows they ll miss a meeting Allow members to donate online and forward the email receipt to you to include in your tally Put tax receipt form on website and members can get it off the site so charity does not have to mail to all Get the tax id number of the selected nonprofits and ask members to submit for matching gift with their work Have a default fund for those not wanting to donate to the selected nonprofit for religious or personal reasons Awarding the Money Use a printed envelope with your logo and ribbon for presentations to the nonprofits Find a photographer for each award to donate time and files so you can hang pictures at your meetings for members to see award presentations Have member who nominated and presented the nonprofit give the group s donation to the nonprofit at the presentation ceremony Make a gift package to present the checks Role of the Nonprofit The staff from selected charity comes to subsequent meeting and chooses presenters
The Executive Director or designee from selected nonprofit attends following meeting and speaks for five minutes to the group about the impact the award will have on their organization Tax Acknowledgement Letters Ask nonprofit to acknowledge the collective donation and 100(+) group name in annual report instead of each person and their individual donation Post tax acknowledgement thank you letter online Have charities send donation acknowledgements to chapter leader hold and get to all members at end of year via email or Facebook Have nonprofit agree not to individually solicit each member Nominations Submit nominations ahead of time to allow time to vet or prequalify the nonprofit Re-Nominate a Winning Nonprofit Wait one to two years before re-nominating a nonprofit that has already received funding Once a nonprofit wins it is indefinitely ineligible to be selected again Limit the number of times a nonprofit is drawn and presented (example: cannot present more than two times in a year) Use Survey Monkey for members to pick charities ahead of meeting Validate 501(c)(3) status through attorney general website, Guidestar or Charity Navigator Increasing the Nominations in the Hat Carry over nominations from previous meeting One nomination per team just as one vote per team Use Mail Chimp marketing email program to track recipients Use a randomizer to pull random numbers between one and whatever to pull the three nonprofits from a spreadsheet
To increase number of nominations, collect, screen and draw charities in advance and notify members to speak Put a list of vetted charities on the tables at the meeting and website Draw nominations for the following meeting one quarter early to allow members time to prepare Membership Recruitment and Retention Have business cards made up to pass out to potential new members Remind members to bring friends Contact non-profits to attract membership Offer to speak at their board meeting Ask for article about the donation be written in their newsletter with a blurb that anyone is welcome to join Allow for teams of up to four people Let kids under 18 join for $50 donations Send personal notes Use survey tool to listen to your members Send texts as reminders one week before, one day before and one day after Social Media Take and post lots of chapter pictures for Facebook At meetings, take pictures of members holding signs that say Ask me about 100 Women Who Care then post to your chapter Facebook page and ask members to tag and share to their friends Between meetings, highlight local charities on Facebook to keep members engaged Link your charity web w/100wwc web on both sites to increase Google presence Create Facebook events for meetings and RSVP s Take and post short individual videos of members telling what 100(+) means to them
External Marketing Add 100(+) info to your auto-signature for personal e-mail Add future meeting dates to your email signature Offer to speak at board meetings of nonprofits Attend and ask to speak at local Chamber of Commerce events another way to market and build membership Take coffee and donuts to the local media Videotape presentations Do not overlook local radio stations as they do run local community stories Sell chapter t-shirts and sweat shirts to raise money for chapter expenses