YGM Total Resource Campaigns

Earth Day Community Opportunities

April 04 2019 admin Uncategorized 0 comments

We are always thinking about ways that our clients can make a difference for their members and their communities. We love it when we have ideas that allow chambers to do both at once.

Earth Day on April 22 allows chambers so many opportunities to think creatively about ways to bring members and communities together for the betterment of the planet. It’s really a win-win for everyone.

One of the easiest ways for chambers to get involved with Earth Day is to sponsor a Shred Day. So many businesses – especially small businesses – only have access to small, personal-type shredders. If your chamber office doesn’t already have or lease a large, industrial shredder, rent one for the day or the week and advertise the event.

Have all of your members bring in their shredding and allow them to have it done for free. Take photos and promote your member businesses on your social media platforms with Earth Day hashtags.

This is also a good opportunity to work with local ‘big box’ businesses in town. Consider partnering with a shredding company by having them bring their industrial shredder to your location for use during your shred day. Or work with a business such as Best Buy to hold an e-recycle day to recycle used electronics such as fax machines or older electronics local businesses no longer use in their daily activities.

Buy either seeds or small sapplings (depending on the size of your chamber and your budget). Invite your member businesses to send a representative to your offices to pick up either packs of seeds or a small tree/plant and take it back to their office area and plant it. Reforestation can take many forms, and adding plants on Earth Day is a wonderful way to start. Encourage them to take photos of their staff doing the planting and watering and to post those on their social media and to take your chamber with your chosen Earth Day hashtags.

Clean-up Days are great ways to get people together and having fun while also accomplishing a lot for a community. Select areas of your community that need a bit of refreshing and ask member businesses to allow employees to volunteer a few hours on Earth Day to clean up those areas. Have chamber reps drop by those areas with snacks and drinks for volunteers. As always… photos and hashtags!

With all of these ideas, as you share photos on social media, include statistics about Earth Day and why caring for our environment matters. Be sure to tag your member businesses and the individuals in your posts. They and their friends will see and share the posts, thus increasing your visibility.

With just a little planning, you can take Earth Day and make it special for your members and your community. And help the earth in the process!

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Support Your Local Teachers

May 04 2018 admin Blog, Chambers 0 comments

One of my greatest joys in working with YGM clients is the sheer joy and “aha” moments from chamber executives when I’m able to share new, innovative programs and events with them. The brainstorming sessions of sponsorship inventory are some of my most enjoyable moments with Chambers.

Some new sponsorship opportunities are discovered in the Chamber’s current program of work. Looking at the same inventory in a different way allows Chambers to increase sponsorships on events they’ve been conducting for years. But, some chambers want more. They desire to know what’s working for other communities and how they can see a similar program or initiative enacted in their community.

A couple of years ago, Senior Vice President of ACCE Chris Mead asked me to share national sponsorship trends at the annual conference. One of the trends was that education programs, initiatives, and events was on the rise. The same is true today.

As we prepare for Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7-11) next week, I am sharing three innovative programs YGM has found across the nation. We’ll review them in order of the least amount of planning and preparation to the most.

Teacher Appreciation Cookies

Who doesn’t love a little something sweet in the middle of the day? Grimes (IA) Chamber of Commerce has been delivering cookies and coffee to each of their local schools for a number of years.

But, these are not just ordinary cookies; they are decorated with the logo of sponsoring businesses. Due to sponsorship levels created in their 2017 inaugural TRC, Grimes Chamber was able to increase revenue by several thousand dollars.

Educator Appreciation Expo

While attending a breakout session during the Carolinas Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives conference in 2017, I learned of this spectacular option to reinvigorate a Chamber’s Business Expo.

A Chamber had restructured their annual business-to-business expo into an expo specifically designed to market to educators. Held during the educators’ orientation week prior to the first day of school, local chamber members who provide an educator discount and/or services which would appeal to educators gather to market to educators.

The Chamber has partnered with the school district and superintendent to make sure this event is part of the orientation agenda, thus solidifying the attendance of most district educators. Chamber members are providing extremely positive feedback regarding the target market they are able to reach now as compared to the generic business expo.

After initial research, we found that a number of other chambers across the nation have created the same model.

Educator Externship Program

Springfield (MO) Chamber of Commerce shared this program with me as we were developing their inaugural TRC a couple of years ago. Each summer, teachers are offered a PAID externship program. The Teacher Externship Program aims to connect business and education allowing teachers to better prepares their students for ever-changing workforce needs.

Teachers spend a week learning about the business world and workplace outside of the classroom by attending an orientation day and industry field trip, spending three days in a local business, and then coming back together for a day of strategic planning.

Teacher participants report an enhanced learning of skill sets and common business practices while being able to impart first-hand knowledge of the corporate world to their students. These newly acquired lessons are received favorably as most educators are typically in the education field all their life.

Hopefully, any or all of these programs have gotten your creative juices following. As with any sponsorship question, feel free to reach out to us if you would like more information on any of these programs or contact information of the Chambers implementing them.

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Give Motivated Volunteers a Chance

April 12 2018 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, Volunteers 0 comments Tags: total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

Do your Vice Chairs or Team Captains ever ask what type of people make the best volunteers?

As expected, we have tips of all sorts, but sometimes the best tip is to remind your Vice Chairs and Team Captains that anyone with a wide range of business contacts can succeed in a Total Resource Campaign. Never discount someone’s motives or professional drive.

One of my favorite volunteer stories comes from a top performer who surprised everyone with her success. She was not recruited by anyone to be on a team, in fact. She volunteered. She requested that her boss, the TRC Chair, assign her to a team.

As we were doing our wrap up sessions, we asked this volunteer why she wanted to be a part of the TRC. With no hesitation she said, “I was pissed.”

After the group stopped laughing, I asked her to explain.

“I was pissed because no one asked me to join a team. I am the executive assistant to the CEO of one of the largest companies in town, but no one saw me as capable,” she explained. “And I wanted the opportunity to prove them wrong.”

Prove them wrong is exactly what she did. Each week, she was one of the top three performers in the TRC.

She took the knowledge she had gained of the business community through her job and systematically paired businesses with sponsorships that would work well for them. She was highlighting how the sponsorships were going to benefit both the Chamber and the business and, in the process, she was strengthening her own personal business contacts.

At the first few Rally Sessions, you could hear people asking about her and how she was doing so well. By the third or fourth, everyone knew she was one of the ones to emulate.

She proved to her boss and to the others who passed her by initially that she was more than capable. She showed that Vice Chairs and Team Captains need to be relentless in their search of people who have a vast business contact base… that employees can make the TRC work for them… that they can be a success in the TRC with the right mindset.

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Who is the Best TRC Chair for your Campaign?

March 21 2018 admin Uncategorized, Volunteers, YGM 0 comments Tags: chair, total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

If you have ever conducted a Total Resource Campaign, you know that in many ways, they become synonymous with their chairs. When I begin to discuss a TRC with a Chamber and to strategize for it, thinking of who would be an ideal chair is one of the first things we bring into focus.

As with most things in a TRC, there is no cookie cutter answer to the question,

“Who would be a good Chair?”

You have to consider various factors. And you have to consider them every single year. A TRC is ever-changing, and if you want it to be ever-successful, you have to change with it. Let’s look at some of the factors you should consider when selecting the individual to lead your campaign and to serve as the public face of the endeavor.

This person should be high-profile in the community. You want people in your community talking about the TRC. Having a CEO or influential business leader whom people know and respect will stir conversations and get that chatter about the TRC going. It will also lend instant credibility to the Campaign simply because of the character of the chair.

This person should have enough contacts in the community to be able to easily select a team of vice chairs or team captains. Your chair will need to have a broad reach of contacts within the community so that he or she can select additional campaign leaders from a variety of business communities. The greater the reach the campaign has, the more successful it will be. Be sure to encourage new chairs each year. Going to the same people each year will yield the same results each year. Growth is always the goal.

Ideally, your chair will come from a business which will be able to field a volunteer team in the TRC. A potential chair who cannot bring a full team of volunteers suggests to me that this individual does not have enough personal business contacts of his or her own to successfully lead a TRC. Consider the sphere of influence.

Is this your first TRC or your third? If you are on your third or fourth annual campaign, you may notice a stagnation in your volunteers and in your success if you aren’t shaking things up. If all of your volunteers stay the same from year to year, and if you simply move a Vice Chair to Chair each year, you aren’t injecting the Campaign with new blood. Thus, no new businesses will be reached, and no growth will be achieved.

A Chamber I have worked with for years came to me as they were beginning their 4th year campaign. The staff leadership approached me with the idea of asking the CEO of a construction company, someone who had never been involved in the campaign.

I pointed out that this individual had been involved as he and his company had purchased multiple sponsorships in many of their prior TRCs and had been quite supportive of their endeavors. He also had the potential to open doors to both volunteers and sponsors in a variety of new businesses that this chamber had not tapped previously.

As I listed the array of potential businesses that might become sponsors, members, and volunteers because of the involvement of this one individual – who did meet the above criteria – the staff quickly became excited about their own idea.

Look beyond the pool of volunteers and executives you work with already. Don’t be afraid to shake things up. Without new voices, there cannot be new growth.

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Don’t forget to show the love to your volunteers this Valentine’s Day

February 12 2018 admin People, TRC, Volunteers, YGM 0 comments

As I spent some time this weekend thinking about Valentine’s Day, I was reminded of a post I wrote a couple years ago about showing love for our volunteers – at Valentine’s and throughout the years.

When I went back and read the post again, I found that all of the tips I gave still hold true. Volunteers are the backbone of a Total Resource Campaign (TRC) and, really, of any good endeavor.

I do have a few new ideas that I would like to share with you.

Sometimes we roll our eyes at suggestions and ideas that we deem “cheesy” or “corny,” but those are often the simplest to execute and the best received ideas.

Today, run out to a local market and buy a box of Valentine cards – you know the ones… you have likely purchased them for your children. Buy a box or two – or 10 – and think of the volunteers to whom you would like to send an unexpected surprise.

Sign the cards “We love our TRC Volunteers,” or “We love what you do for our TRC,” or “We love the support you give our Chamber.” Customize it for your volunteers. Add a piece or a tiny bag of Valentine candy & you have a wonderful surprise. Spend tomorrow and Wednesday dropping these gifts off at their offices around town. Without a doubt you will start to see little thank yous start to show up on social media from grateful volunteers.

Speaking of social media, don’t forget to use these handy tools. You should have gotten your volunteers’ social media information and can post photos and congrats/words of appreciate on your social media, linking to each volunteer’s personal accounts. Everyone enjoys kind words of appreciation and recognition. Feature not just your campaign’s top three producers but all of those volunteers who make your chamber’s events and programs special.

While Valentine’s Day is an easy tie-in to sharing some love for your volunteers, don’t stop there. The very best TRCs are done by organizations that support and encourage their volunteers throughout the year. Diane Poole of the Trussville (Ala.) Area Chamber of Commerce sent sparklers to their volunteers on the 4th of July with notes saying, “You make us sparkle and shine! Thanks for all you do for the Chamber and our TRC!”

With volunteers and TRCs, little things mean a lot. The work done throughout the year can pay big dividends during the TRC itself.

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It’s never too late to keep your resolutions

February 07 2018 admin Blog, TRC, YGM 0 comments

It’s now early February, and we are well into 2018.

When you and your staff began planning 2018 last year, did you approach it with a wish list of desired accomplishments? Did you and your Board conduct strategic planning meetings and lay out a plan for what you hoped 2018 would bring?

Now that January has concluded and we are a week in February, do some of those goals and plans feel more like New Year’s resolutions than actual goals – excellent ideas but difficult to set into motion?

Like resolutions, goals should always be approached with the mindset that it is never too late to start over… or to simply start.

When you and your staff and your Board began to make your goals for 2018, was a Total Resource Campaign (TRC) on your list? Was adding more members, improving your volunteer base, finding innovative programs, or improving attendance at current events on your list?

A TRC is not simply about the end results of financial stability, though that is certainly nice. A TRC provides more than just financial resources for your organization.
• A TRC engages more members than ever before into your program of work.
• A TRC draws more new volunteers into your organization.
• A TRC creates a grassroots marketing campaign for your organization in your community.

Despite all of these benefits, one of the best advantages of a TRC is that it serves as a strategic planning tool and an organizational checklist for you and your organization as you plan for your campaign. While laying the ground work for your campaign, you have the opportunity to take a hard look at your organization and see your strengths and to see places where improvements can be made.

Before the campaign ever begins its public phase, the detailed work of strategically reviewing your organization’s events, programs and possibilities begins. It is during this time that you can begin to see new opportunities and can also begin to see places where changes can be made. Growth is often experienced during this planning phase.

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Get Creative with your Team Motivation

December 20 2017 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, Volunteers, YGM 0 comments Tags: total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

We talk a lot about how important it is to motivate our volunteers, both during the Total Resource Campaign and following the campaign. But it can be challenging to find ways to motivate those volunteers. Finding creative ways can be even more challenging.

Even if it sounds cheesy – or worse, lazy – take the opportunity to use obvious things and holidays around you. People love cheesy, and it makes for great entertainment and motivation.

At a recent Rally Session at the Ozark Chamber, the keynote speaker was Harold Phillips of Ozark Bank. He presented the following poem to the group. (Many thanks to Mr. Phillips for allowing us to use his creation.)

An Adaptation of the Night Before Christmas

By Clement C. Moore

Twas the month before Christmas and all through the town
You could hear the teams stirring both uphill and down
The goals had been set and summed up with great care
The Total Resource Campaign finally was there

The teams had been chosen with captains as heads
With visions and strategies their teams they led
Some days they wore kerchiefs and sometimes a cap
They talked TRC and they’re closing the gap

For out on the street you can hear all the clatter
The Chamber is working for those things that matter
They found business sponsors for trade goods or cash
They all hit the streets and it spread like a flash

Their message was fresh as the new fallen snow
Did their work for the Chamber they’re still on the go
And what are they selling? You ask without fear
They’re selling the future for those who live here

They were cheered by their leader in high heels and britches
You all know her name yes she’s Andrea Sitzes
More rapid than eagles these coursers they came
If you’ll give me a second, I’ll tell you each name

There is an Angel and Griffin, Jadonna and Abbye
Tenye and Lisa, Amanda and Cathi
Heather, Joy, Jenna, Mike, Lisa, and Jane,
Melanie, Cindy, Michaela, and Shane,
Marrhya and Joshua, Stacy and John
Sometimes it seems lists of names just go on

To the top of the list to the top of the Wall!
You’re doing great work said Campaign Chair Jane Paul

And then in a twinkling I heard their successes
The way that they work – well it really impresses
So out to each business those coursers they flew
With sponsorships, spotlights and vendor booths too

Their eyes how they twinkled their voices how merry
The work that they’re doing is great! Oh yes very!
They’re wrapping the Resource Campaign in a week
And just let me say their performance is sleek!

If that jolly old elf who each year in December
Were standing here now he would say please remember
With a wink of his eye and a “Twist” of his head
He would tell you that you have not one thing to dread

For the teams sprang to action and took to their work
They are getting so close to the goal! Go berserk!
Then laying his finger aside of his nose
Watch the total he’d say and see how high it goes

Then he’d spring to his sleigh to his team give a whistle
And away they would fly like the down of a thistle
You would hear him exclaim as he drove out of sight
Total Resource Campaigns a success! Now Good Night!

Be creative with your volunteers. Motivate them. Appreciate them.

Merry Christmas from YGM.

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There’s A Sponsorship for Everyone

November 06 2016 admin Sponsor development, TRC 0 comments Tags: sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC

I said recently that sponsorships have a lot in common with Psychology 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy. Because that is true, it is also true that not all sponsorships are equal.

Provide Equal Opportunities

While all sponsorships are not of the same value, you do want all of your possible sponsors to be able to find a sponsorship that appeals to them. Provide tiers or levels in your sponsorship options. Some businesses seek the top level in anything they are a part of while other are just glad to participate at a smaller level.

Provide Event Specific Options

Make sure to consider event specific items, as well. Nationally, we are seeing a trend that the third-tier sponsors are willing to spend the same amount of money as other sponsors. However, they want individual aspects of the event that they can label. Do you have a photo booth sponsor, a potty sponsor, a valet sponsor?

Present Your Ideas

When making your pitch to the sponsor, make sure your plan includes a catalog of all your sponsor levels, pricing and benefits. To increase the probability of sale, including pictures from the last year’s event, marketing materials and audience reach are always a plus.

Make purchasing the sponsorships easy for your sponsors. Customize options for them. If you provide them with a packet of everything you do, you will still be waiting on them to return your call when you go prepare next year’s packet.

Sponsorship Tracking

In preparing your marketing plan, a vital piece of the plan must be sponsorship tracking. And that piece needs to be in place even before you start selling. If you don’t know what you have, you don’t know what you have left to sell.

Additional things to consider:

How are you going to implement what you promised to your sponsors?
Are they getting their benefits?

Always keep in mind to under-commit and over-deliver on benefits. Don’t let all of your secrets out of the bag in the sponsorship catalog. Everyone likes a little surprise, and sponsors are no different.

These are important aspects to ensure your sponsorship renewals will return in subsequent years.

Success is for the courageous. Chambers that currently are not implementing any organized sponsorship plan need to find the one that will work the best for all of their stakeholders – their staff, their members and their organization as a whole.

For the chambers that are conducting a sponsorship plan, take an inventory of it. Is it working for you? Is it time for an overhaul?

If you find that you need assistance, we would love to help. Contact me at ebey@nullygmtrc.com.

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It’s All About Those Teams

October 21 2016 admin Chambers, Sponsor development, TRC 0 comments Tags: sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC

I’ve been talking a lot lately about building a sponsorship campaign and the initial blocks in that process. One of the most important is an organized team. In all actuality, a Chamber really needs two organized teams.

The First Team

Your first team should be obvious – those who will sell the sponsorships. Think through your sales team.

Will your sales be done in-house by one staff member?
Are you going to include an entire department?
What about directing it to a Chamber committee – say the Ambassadors?
Are you going to look to the entire membership to recruit an army of volunteers?

Regardless of what your sales team is going to look like, they need to be organized from the beginning. You need to have the idea in mind of who will sell, so that the next steps will be executed more effectively and in a more timely manner.

The Second Team

The second team is your staff. You need to make certain that they are all on board with the process and understand the plan. They all will have a part in the campaign, regardless of whether or not they are on the sales team.

If you are mobilizing volunteers, each staff member can motivate different volunteers. If the plan is to be executed by one staff member, the staff as a whole needs to understand the streamlining process.

Sponsors

The next step is to secure those much-needed sponsors. Typically, chambers have the same 25-100 members (the number depends on the chamber size) that routinely are asked for sponsorship assistance time and time again.

Why do we not ask beyond our regular list?

Why do we overcharge our friends and give the rest away?

It’s all about looking into why sponsors sponsor. Just as our business members target their specific customers, chambers need to target their specific sponsors. If an event is targeted to reach the masses, consider a business that is looking to do the same.

Have a member who has been in business 5-7 years and finally reached a sense of establishment in the business community? Target them with a sponsorship that would provide prestige and exclusivity.

Remember Psychology 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy… it applies to Chamber sponsorships, too!

If you need some help with either developing your teams or developing your sponsor list, we would be happy to discuss a Total Resource Campaign with you. You can reach us at ebey@nullygmtrc.com.

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Taking the Uncertainty out of Sponsorship

October 15 2016 admin Sponsor development, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: chamber, sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC, YGM

If your chamber is thinking about a sponsorship plan, there isn’t one perfect plan, just like there isn’t one perfect chamber. Your leadership needs to evaluate various types of plans and determine what will work best for your chamber.

There are four types of sponsorship plans:

Per event
Annual bundled program
Sponsorships through tiered memberships
Total resource campaigns.

Once your chamber identifies what type of plan it has or would like to execute, it needs to determine the goals of the plan.

Are you looking strictly for financial revenue?
Do you want to initiate organizational pride?
Are you looking for an increase in awareness for your organization throughout the community?

Next, your chamber will need to determine what inventory will be included in the plan. Items we are seeing trending nationally include:

Workforce Development/Education programming and events
Women’s initiatives
Medical events & First Responder recognition programs

Educational seminars during the lunch hour (aka “Boxed Lunch & Learn” series with attendance cost of $10-25) are being replaced with substantial professional development programs – at least half a day – with at least $100 admission. Chamber leadership programs are being reinvented to include professional development components as business leaders are saying “city field trips” aren’t enough any more.

Selling the Inventory

Once your inventory is established, you have to make certain you can articulate your programs. If you can’t explain it in a very short narrative, you probably won’t be able to sell it because your sponsor won’t be able to sell it to their customer base either.

You also need to be sure you can answer what the program is really worth. Beyond the budget, is the topic relevant and unique, and is the audience popular to the sponsorship.

Think through the real value of each sponsorship, of how a business could market it, of how a business could benefit from it.

If you need help working through the details of sponsorships, contact YGM at ebey@nullygmtrc.com. We will be happy to discuss it with you.

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