Leaving Your Comfort Zone as a PR or Marketing Professional: The Power of Pro Bono
By Christian Yazdanpanah, Positive Impact, MEplusYOU for CSRwire
Whether you look at the high school dropout rate or unemployment figures, it is apparent that our country and nonprofits are depending on the private sector now more than ever as we continue our economic recovery.
With the growing demand for pro bono services, companies big and small have had to evolve the way they give. MEplusYOU (formerly imc²), a strategic and creative agency, is no exception, and over the past three years our Weekend of Love program has matured to create sustainable relationships with nonprofits while leveraging the opportunity to recruit, develop and retain our top talent.
Meeting the Growing Marketing Needs of Nonprofits
Over the past decade, the rise of websites, mobile apps and all things Facebook provides organizations an unprecedented ability to share their stories. In the past, a single newsletter or direct mail campaign could update donors and request funds. Today, an organization has to tweet daily and launch Kickstarter projects regularly in addition to past practices. A 2011 Taproot Foundation study reported that 41 percent of nonprofits receive pro bono marketing services while 52 percent need more.
While most organizations provide pro bono services to a few nonprofits annually, MEplusYOU believes that the growing need for marketing services requires a more innovative approach that could sustain a nonprofit’s brand past just one campaign. As Jean Case, CEO of the Case Foundation, put it at a recent Billion + Change Forum at the White House, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Once we left our pro bono comfort zone, we were able to see just how much a “weekend of love” could give.
“Weekend of Love” started in 2009 as an answer to helping nonprofits with strategic planning, creative execution and tech implementation.
How did a mid-size company with just over 200 employees manage to leave its comfort zone and realize that their collective energy and creativity could make a measurable difference? Continue reading on CSRwire Talkback.
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