How Can We Help?
The Year 2 AmeriCorps member for Boston Area Gleaners worked on creating a communications plan for BAG that would serve as a current and future document, to exist beyond the AmeriCorps member’s term of service. The plan serves to reach the goal of communicating the BAG mission and programs in clear, on-brand ways to increase engagement across all stakeholders.
The large questions the plan hopes to answer are:
- Connecting to the Mission: What role does communication play in helping us achieve our mission and goals?
- Defining Success: What do we think we want to do? How will we know we are successful?
- Setting Realistic Expectations: Who will do the work? Do we have the tools we need to be successful?
The Communications Team met over the course of a few weeks to have discussions about language, goal setting, mission and vision, and what we are hoping to accomplish with external communications. This allowed us to set up these questions, and create a sense of purpose with the creation of the Communications Plan going forward.
The objectives of the communications plan are to:
- Drive volunteer engagement
- Improve quality of communication
- Educate and engage with stakeholders on important food access and food justice issues, as well as the work of BAG
- Increase the quality and quantity of our donor base and donor activities
Each objective includes a list of smaller tasks within it that work towards the overall objective.
Posts on primary social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) might include:
- Updates on the gleaning season, including nice pictures from gleans and a shout-out to the farm.
- Partner spotlights (see below).
- Relevant articles on gleaning, food waste, and food insecurity—always those that mention Boston Area Gleaners, as well as those that broadly address the issues.
- Recognition of relevant holidays and visibility campaigns (i.e. International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, National Hunger Month, Dolores Huerta Day).
- Infographics related to food waste, food insecurity, and the food supply chain.
- Promotions for current fundraisers and events.