When designing an event for a particular audience, you have a perfect chance to tailor the scope of your messaging to the audience most impacted by your thought leadership. This gives you an opportunity not only to engage supporters and raise money, but also raise your stature among thought leaders on the issues that your organization knows the most about.
This was how Community Action structured their annual Leadership Lunch, designed to engage and inspire local business leaders. Rather than focus on Community Action’s many programs, the Leadership Lunch program specifically targeted affordable housing issues, advocacy and solutions designed to showcase the work of Community Action in partnership with other business leaders providing strong advocacy. By highlighting the voices of business advocates, Community Action helped to bring an urgency to both the problem and the ways business leaders from different industries are solving it. The result? A compelling, informative hour that brought both new ideas and coalition-building to the table around issues of affordable housing.
Specifically featuring the good work done by leaders from within the business community helped build the business case for being an advocate and ally, thereby increasing support, funds and advocacy for Community Action’s wrap-around programs as well as awareness more generally. This year’s lunch featured the stories of local developer Roy Kim of Central Bethany Development Company and New Seasons Market’s Director of Social Responsibility Sarah Joannides, along with the personal story of a family impacted by Community Action’s housing programs. By bringing video storytelling to this program, Community Action was also able to stay true to a one-hour lunchtime timeline, leaving room to hear directly from storytellers whose remarks from stage reinforced the most powerful parts of their community commitments.
Rewarding your audience with messaging that capitalizes on who they are (in this case business leaders concerned about affordable housing) and what they most need to hear about a topic is a wonderful way to reflect your leadership, honor their time and make the world’s problems a little bit easier to tackle.
Watch the videos that played at the event:
New Seasons Market Advocates for Affordable Housing
Caroline’s Story of Hope, Help and Change
Strategic planning is how you decide, deliberately, what your guests will touch and who they'll become because of it.
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