Party On! |
Aug 31, 2009 |
We just completed our August workshop series entitled, “Marketing Your Ministry”. The focus of the workshop was the creation of an effective Signature Participation Project (SPP), that your “owners” could create to invite more participation in the cause through their sphere of influence.
One of the best things about an SPP is that it can impact champions at any level on the PEO (Participation, Engagement, Ownership) continuum. One well strategized and executed SPP can provide that initial participation opportunity for someone not familiar with your organization or your cause and can also create higher levels of engagement for those champions already involved in your cause.
An ideally designed SPP holds 6 traits to be true: project oriented, short-term, high touch, high yield, understandable without external reference and synecdochic (where the part represents the whole). A good example of an SPP is Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child program or a house build for Habitat for Humanity, although a good SPP doesn’t have to be large or community wide. Its focus is usually on the cause, not the organization.
Looking at Samaritan’s Purse and their Operation Christmas Child program, you can easily see the simplicity of asking for others to be involved in filling a box of necessary items for needy children in a poor country. It carries with it all six of the necessary traits to be effective, has a wide appeal for a large or small environment, and could involve many new people to the cause.
But, it also provides opportunities for champions to get involved at a higher level, coordinating the event at a school or church, talking with administrators to get buy-in to allow the program in their facility, managing the follow-up activity directly with Samaritan’s Purse, etc.
The ultimate success would then be to have one of your champions take this on as their own project and coordinate it at their work place, church, neighborhood, sports team, etc., involving their own sphere of influence.
Regardless of the specific type of SPP you choose, done well, these are excellent marketing tools to encourage your current champions to engage at an ownership level and impact their sphere of influence by inviting their friend’s participation. The multiplication effect of having several champions working for your ministry will provide more opportunities to impact your cause than your current staff and volunteers could manage alone.
So start planning!
