It’s day two of our final voting week at CommuniCause, and today’s charity spotlight shines on Orlando’s own A Gift For Teaching. Amidst a growing tide of layoffs and cutbacks here in Orange County, teachers have a beacon of light to rely on week after week. When classroom supplies are dwindling and schools have no way to replace them, A Gift For Teaching invites teachers to fill the back or their cars with as many goods possible, completely free of charge. Today Audrey S. F. Perrott Director of Communications for A Gift for Teaching shares with us just how this is all possible and how much a little donation can help a school in need.

Please tell us a little bit about A Gift for Teaching, your mission and how your organization came to be.

A Gift For Teaching is all about providing the basic school tools to teachers and their students in need to make sure that all children, regardless of socio-economic status, receive an equal education.  It does so while also making sure that teachers do not have to spend money out of their own pocket to provide for their students by enlisting the help of local businesses and individuals who donate surplus materials or product that otherwise would end up in a landfill.  Hence, it is also a sustainable organization.  It is one of the easiest ways to improve the current situation of Florida’s public education and help the environment.

It all started when our founder, Gary Landwirth, had a friend who was a teacher and was astonished to learn that his friend spent an average of $1200 a year on school supplies for the students.  After doing some research, Gary discovered a teacher free store in Cincinnati called Crayons 2 Computers and knew immediately that a similar model could be established in Orlando.  So, in September 1998, A Gift For Teaching opened its doors at its first location on Corrine Drive to 30 schools in Orange County.  It now serves 323 in Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties helping 148,000 students and more than 7,500 teachers.

What can you tell us about your latest project, Push for Pencils, and how the public can get involved?

We’ve renamed our back-to-school campaign formerly known as Push For Pencils to PUSH.  We did this because this year is different for everybody—nonprofits, businesses, families, schools—and we really wanted to show the community how easy it is to get involved in solving a piece of the education crisis without having to break the bank or spend copious amounts of time.  It’s about getting back to AGFT’s roots, grassroots that is, and we want people to take ACTION.

We have recruited some of our good friends and supporters to be our “Movers” and as Movers, they will reach out to their friends, business associates, clubs, family—you name it—and recruit them as “Shakers” so that together, they are the Movers and Shakers in our community for education.

The best part is that A Gift For Teaching is making it ridiculously easy to be a part of it.  We have a comprehensive ACTion pack with ideas, tools and tips, as well as weekly communications that will be distributed via e-mail.  The newest piece this year is that we’re also incorporating an intense plan for social media in our efforts that will engage and foster interaction (and hopefully donations!)  We’re having our PUSH-Off event Friday, July 31st at the Enzian for our Movers but would love to talk with anyone interested in becoming one.  They can contact Meredith Bekemeyer (our Mover Manager) at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or visit www.agiftforteaching.org and sign up.

Even if someone can’t sign up to be a Mover or someone’s Shaker, it’s as easy as starting a school supply drive in your office or dropping them off at the nearby CFE Federal Credit Union location in August.  We have companies holding Wii Rock Band tournaments for money or husband/wife competitions.  It is very flexible, open to creativity, and very easy.

What else can parents, teachers and the general public do to help out in their local school systems?

A Gift For Teaching is a one-of-a-kind resource to teachers and their students, but there are other ways the general public can help out schools.

Volunteer your time.  At your child’s school, one close to your home, or at A Gift For Teaching.  Time is worth so much to those who need the help.  Schools always need volunteers and mentors.  Contact one near you or to volunteer at AGFT contact Tara at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

If you have a child and are already purchasing school supplies for back-to-school, pick up some extra if you’re able.  Bring it into your child’s classroom—the teacher will be over the moon! Or, drop them at a PUSH drop-off location and they’ll help stock AGFT’s shelves for our year-round shopping.

Even if you don’t have kids, we’ve all been students and know what it’s like to want to fit in and do well.

Many of the schools that you help are in low income areas. Have the teachers in these schools shared any memorable stories about how your donations have helped their children?

There are so many!  A recent story is when I was visiting Grand Avenue Elementary this past spring and spoke with Ms. Reitzel who has been shopping at A Gift For Teaching for all ten years.  (I was filming a video that is now posted on Vimeo and our PUSH splash page.

She was telling me about a student named Emmanuel who was in and out of the homeless shelter and not having school supplies was really one of the least of his worries.  He would often miss weeks of school and when he would show up never had any supplies.  And even though this first grader had very little normalcy in his life, she knew that because she shopped at AGFT she could provide him with everything he needed to not just be prepared for school but to feel like everybody else which was something he craved.  She said that after she stocked him up with a backpack, books, crayons, pencils, journal—all the good stuff—he thrived.  He completed his homework, he began talking to other students, he made friends.  She knew this was because he knew he was taken care of and had one less thing to worry about.

How do you currently connect with the businesses who donate to your cause, both to initially gain their attention and after they have supported A Gift for Teaching?

A Gift For Teaching connects in different ways with businesses depending on their preference for communication and level of involvement.

We send out a quarterly e-newsletter to our donor base through Constant Contact that highlights companies, features special stories, gives a presidential “state of the union,” and shows them how to stay connected and get more involved.  We manage a Twitter account, Facebook Cause page, and a blog, as well as our Vimeo and YouTube channels. 

If we don’t already have a relationship with a potential supporter, we often feel that face-to-face is the most effective and authentic way to introduce ourselves.  We then like to stay in touch with them depending on their preference (and everyone has a preference!)  We share the different ways to follow us with everyone—public, donors, volunteers, teachers—and then engage them on a level they’re comfortable with utilizing all outlets intertwined to maximize our reach and effectiveness.

What would you say is your most valuable social media tool right now and how are you using it?

That is a really tough question because I believe that the most value is gathered when they are used in conjunction with each other.  However if I had to say just one, I’d say Twitter because it helps us connect all our other social media outlets together via links and apps. 

For example, we had three volunteers who through their company donated $3000 to participate in one of our “Drop It Like It’s Your Birthday” school drops last spring.  We invited them and their colleagues for a team-building day of packing full shopping trips for one school and then involved them in the surprise delivery the day of.  During the volunteer time we tweeted what they were up to but didn’t leak the surprise.  We also videoed their packing.  On delivery day, we tweeted hints to our followers, our media followers (which resulted in three television news stories), and videoed the actual surprise.  After returning to the office, we posted the surprise video on our Vimeo channel and tweeted the link while also e-mailing it to our three donors.  It also received a feature in the e-newsletter.

Do you think that social media could be further leveraged to help A Gift for Teaching to be more effective in the process of gaining support? What role(s) would you like for it to play for your organization?

Absolutely.  A Gift For Teaching is using social media but still could maximize its efforts in reaching those not already connected to A Gift For Teaching—creating that relationship that grows from a few retweets to a volunteer, supply drive, or financial donor.  Taking them beyond follower and turning them into leaders of the cause.

How did you hear about CommuniCause and what prompted you to get involved?

I actually heard about CommuniCause through other nonprofit friends I follow on Twitter.  Not to mention, the campaign is run through MindComet in our hometown of Orlando.  It has made a very positive impression on those of us in the nonprofit community.

As a nonprofit who is fortunate to have a communications department, it has been imperative for A Gift For Teaching to stay on top of the latest PR/Marketing trends and when it was obvious social media was an “embrace or get left behind” movement, not to mention a completely FREE tool, it was a no brainer.

The CommuniCause campaign takes it one step further by offering nonprofits a chance to win a social media makeover, however, it’s not just about the chance to win.  By asking nonprofits to sign up, cast votes, and encourage others to vote, CommuniCause is subliminally training those in the nonprofit world still shy about social media an easy way to get started.  It’s brilliant.

What have you taken away from your participation with CommuniCause, and what are you most interested in learning about in the near future?

I have definitely gotten that it takes daily interaction and advertising through your venues to increase your chances of winning, but also that it can change in a second.  It solidifies the fact that social media is not a trend. 

I am very interested in following the journey of the makeover winner:  where they started, how the makeover will work, and as its implemented how its improved their effectiveness as an organization.

Regarding social media as a whole, I am most interested in what’s the next Twitter.

Show us your Twitter skills: in 140 characters or less, tell us what excites you most about CommuniCause.

@CommuniCause helps nonprofits in social media while engaging public in worthy causes. Benefiting 1 winner w/ $25K but truly benefiting all!

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Hats off to Audrey and the rest of the good people at A Gift For Teaching. Thank you for letting us know more about your charity, and for helping so many people here in Orlando. Oh, and of course, Good luck with CommuniCause votes and PUSH this summer.

For more information about PUSH and a Gift For Teaching visit their website, and don’t forget to follow A Gift For Teaching on Twitter. They’ll definitely be online waiting to hear from you.

Just three more days till voting ends. Go back through your contacts… pester your neighbors… give it one last push. It may seem like it’s late in the competition, but it’s still anybody’s game. We’ve already seen one brand new charity break into the top 10 over the weekend. Who knows, you could be next. Also, don’t forget tomorrow and every day this week we will be featuring a different charity in spotlight as we count down the days till voting officially ends. Good Luck to all!

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Twitter:
 @AlfredMcNair
Phone: 407.756.1377

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We are very excited to focus today’s charity spotlight on The Love/Avon Army of Women, a non-profit that endeavors to raise breast cancer awareness and promote the search for a cure through research involving it’s volunteer army of women.  Hedi Jalon, Love/Avon’s Community Outreach Specialist, gives us a more in depth look on the partnership between Dr. Susan Love and the Avon Foundation and their achievements in scientific research, as well as their mission to recruit One Million Women to join their cause.  Read below to learn about the Foundation and their tactics on how they catapulted themselves into the number 1 spot in CommuniCause.

Please tell us about Love/Avon Army of Women, its vision and how it came to be.

The Love/Avon Army of Women’s mission is to recruit ONE MILLION WOMEN to participate in breast cancer research.  The focus of the research studies is to look at the causes of breast cancer and how to prevent it.  We need participation from all women of all ages (18 and over), ethnicities, lifestyles and faith.  What sets us apart from other breast cancer research foundations is our focus on prevention, our role in partnering women with scientists and our platform.  Where research has typically been done on animal models up until now and most research dollars are spent on looking at treatment, we are shifting the paradigm by studying real women and why breast cancer occurs in the first place.  By utilizing the web and communicating to our volunteers and scientists mainly via the internet, we are able to efficiently and vastly raise awareness and spread the word.

The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation, a global leader in breast cancer research, joined forces to launch the Love/Avon Army of Women on the Today Show in Oct 2008.

Heading the Love/Avon Army of Women is Dr. Susan Love, a distinguished breast surgeon, a trusted breast cancer authority, a best-selling author on breast cancer and women’s health, and the President of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. The mission of the Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit breast cancer organization, is to eradicate breast cancer and improve the quality of women’s health through innovative research, education, and advocacy. The Foundation works to identify the barriers to research and to then create new solutions.

The Avon Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, has raised and awarded more than $525 million worldwide for access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer. Support is also being provided by Avon Products, Inc., the largest corporate supporter of the breast cancer cause, which will work through its US Avon Sales Representatives to recruit women coast-to-coast.

The Army of Women serves an unmet need that few think about…but Dr. Love did!  Currently there is no timely, efficient system for assisting researchers in securing the volunteers they need—it can take up to 18 months—and most researchers have access only to women with cancer, not healthy women.  Or they do research without using human subjects. We are changing that paradigm and helping advance research to go “beyond a cure.”

How has the foundation benefited from its partnerships with Dr. Susan Love and the Avon Foundation for Women?

By utilizing resources from the Avon Foundation for Women and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, the Army of Women has been able to establish credibility and recruit women who want to do more to make an impact in breast cancer research.  We’ve provided an avenue for women to feel empowered and given them a place where they can feel like by donating their “bodies” to research rather than money, they can truly make a difference.

Your foundation’s goal is to recruit 1 million women to join your cause and participate in simple but vital breast cancer research. Can you explain the impact you wish to make by accomplishing this goal?

Dr. Susan Love, MD, President, Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation states, “Over and over I’ve heard scientists lament how difficult it is for them to find the volunteers they need for research studies. I’ve long believed that helping scientists overcome this obstacle would accelerate our understanding of what causes breast cancer and how to end it. By responding to this need, the Army of Women will change the face of breast cancer research.”  Marc Hurlbert, PhD, Director, Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade adds, “Among the hundreds of research studies funded by the Avon Foundation for Women, many are focused on prevention. All too often, though, researchers can’t find the volunteers they need for their studies. The Army of Women will help surmount this difficulty, and will allow researchers to pursue their studies in a more effective and timely way. It will also give researchers the tools they need to pursue novel new directions that can lead to breast cancer prevention.”

Love/Avon Army of Women has recruited nearly 300,000 women. What have been your most effective channels for recruitment and awareness, and what parts to do you see social media playing in reaching your goal of 1 million women?

A combination of PR and social media has played a key role in recruiting our nearly 300,000 women.  We look at PR as the base, the meat of the cake.  PR enables an impactful first impression with the public and garners initial interest.  We look at social media as the icing on the cake, the method in which we mobilize our volunteers to go out and keep building our organization.  By not only utilizing the web, but utilizing our women as key players in spreading the word, we have been able to reach a large audience in a rather short amount of time.  Various social media channels, like Twitter and Facebook have been great forums in connecting with unique visitors.

Why do you think your blog has been so successful in garnering so many votes for CommuniCause this quickly?  What other avenues of social media has your foundation utilized, and what have you found to be effective?

We sent our monthly e-blast out to our membership base announcing a new program and sharing information with our volunteers.  Within that eblast we gave a sneak-peek of one of our blogs which announced the CommuniCause contest.  We encouraged our members to vote and explained why it was important.  Also, our AOW members are so proud to be working with Dr. Susan Love, they trust and admire her, and their desire to be working with her to go beyond a cure propels them to take action—be it by encouraging others to join the AOW or vote for Communicause.  Blogging, Twitter, Facebook are all great avenues of social media.  We not only use Twitter to reach out to new eyeballs, but to also seek out other organizations that we can partner with.

How have you found that your volunteers connect with one another online? Do they use resources that you have provided, or are they creating their own groups?

Currently, the first phase and main function of our website is to encourage women to register with us.  We communicate to our members solely by e-blast.  The only way our volunteers connect with us or with one another (in a sense) is when replying or commenting on our blogs.  We are entering the second phase of the army and are exploring methods in which we can provide ways for our volunteers to be able to connect with one another.

What social media channel or channels are you most excited to learn more about and integrate into your outreach and communication efforts?

We are eager to learn more about the new up and coming social sites, aka “the next wave”.  Not only do we want to know what is cutting edge, but we are constantly seeking the next best WAY to use Twitter.  Being on Twitter is one thing, but really using it to its full potential is the most important.  We are also excited to educate ourselves in finding opportunities for our volunteers to become connected so they can communicate and feel like not only are they an army volunteer but also part of the army family.  In addition, we want to find the best way to stand out from the pack in the vast social media market while continuing to build our identity across all social platforms.

Impress us with your Twitter Skills: In 140 characters or less, tell us what @CommuniCause means to you.

@CommuniCause: Rockin’ the Web. Giving back to the community. Helping us grow the Army of Women to take us Beyond a Cure! RT Widely!
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We would like to thank Hedi for taking the time to talk to us about Love/Avon Army of Women!

Check our blog all this week, as we will be spotlighting not one, but FIVE different charities.

Remember Everyone - We only have ONE WEEK left for CommuniCause.  Be sure to utilize all the outreach you can to GET MORE VOTES!!!

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Twitter:
 @monishah
Phone: 407.756.1377

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