Community Organization and Public Information

Community Organization and Public Information neighborhood group dedicated to the dissemination of information on a program of value to a wide potential array of participants, such as an ongoing food bank drive, can be important to establishing credibility, to generating awareness, to bringing about community interaction and to ultimately achieving projected goals. However, for a food bank, it is often the case that its operations are sufficient to occupy the whole of its budget, leaving the dissemination of public information on the organization to avenues where financial resource is not demanded.

To this point, there is a considerable wealth of opportunities for an organization with good will in the community to gain support for the public conveyance of information, even in the absence of advertising input. Therefore, we consider here ten avenues which can be channeled for the issuance of information that can help to involve, inform and interest the public and the community in specific.

The use of internet classified forums is, of course, a great way to generate attention. In particular, community discussion forums, e-classifieds such as the heavily visited Craigslist and mailing lists are all free and do gain a lot of usage online. Particularly if ware able to properly target our key demographics, which might be donors of food for example, we find that there are ways to utilize some of the above-mentioned sites to gain access to already-established audiences.

Another online method that does not cost advertising money but can nonetheless be an extremely powerful tool for generating awareness and involvement is the online social networking interface. Such prominent sites and services and Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster have achieved an important role in social organization, with younger internet users especially using this as a way to connect and to find those of common interest. In addition, the social categorization inherent to such sites helps to demarcate communities and activities of interest, making it easy to recruit new participants in public food drive campaigns.

Community newsletters are a channel that exist for the exact purpose here at hand. The premise of these is to provide a free forum on issues that directly target and concern the residents of the community in question. For our food drive program, this can be a great way of making those closest to the program aware of that which is taking place within the boundaries of their community. This should help to recruit voluntary support from those who can perhaps most serve to protect and extend the food bank's long-term interests.

Neighborhood Associations exist for much the same reason, with their support helping to channel through an already known and respected agency information about the food bank. Using the support and mailing list channels of a neighborhood association can be important for gaining the credibility necessary to succeed as a charity organization.

Local radio and television are two additional avenues which must be considered.

For purposes of charity and community orientation in particular, most local radio programmers and DJs are quite accessible. It may not be that difficult to retain the support and endorsement of those which direct access to the radio airwaves. This can help the program to reach a very wide and diffuse audience, serving most directly the goal of creating a more widespread knowledge of the food bank's existence. Extending beyond the orbit of its own local community, the radio can help bring the food bank in touch with other communities and agencies that may be of use, or to whom the food bank may in turn be of use.

For television as well, such avenues as local access cable may even allow for the design and execution of an informational program or feature on the food bank. Such channels are free to the public and tend to broadcast across a blanketed local area, promising access to a great many potential participant homes.

Using local business or larger corporate sponsorship can also be very valuable. If bank, for example, were to attach its name to the food bank, it would be inclined to do its own forms of advertising remarking upon its charitable involvement. Such a partnership could bring the process not only the potential of financial support, but also the promise of a whole new public audience.