Communications Coordinator
Organization:
Grassroots.org VISTA Name:
Ashley Matthews
Program Start:
6/2007
Program End:
6/2008
Project Description:
The mission of Grassroots.org is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and business best practices. Grassroots.org spreads important social information via our network of socially-focused web sites, while also providing non-profit organizations with free valuable resources to increase their efficiency and productivity.
Working in cooperation with the Executive Director and Director of Outreach & Development, the Communications Coordinator will:
- Strengthen the capacity of Grassroots.org’s website to serve nonprofits, recruit new members, and generate needed attention from media outlets, donors and partners.
-Develop and execute a strategic Media Presence campaign. The Media Presence campaign will ensure that news about Grassroots.org’s services reach as many potential nonprofit organizations as possible, increasing our capacity to serve organizations (and by proxy, individuals). In addition, the Media Presence campaign will increase our financial capacity as an organization as warranted attention attracts the attention of potential donor and partner organizations.
- Develop high-profile portal sites, cooperating with partners to ensure the sites serve as premier destinations for information and interactive content. Potential portals to be developed include homeless.org, crime.org, nonprofitmanagement.org, earthday.org and others.
Project Outcome:
Ahsley began her service by taking part in a staff retereat in Columbus, Oh which was very helpful for team building. She was able to meet all of the people who make it possible for Grassroots to be successful and prepared her for our fundraising event in LA the following spring.
Shortly thereafter she began developing the domain Crime.org, one of the portal sites we had in mind. She scouted the field for partners that would help provide content to the website. She has recruited a number of local Professors of criminal justice for this purpose.
From July 26-28, Ashley attended the Non Profit 2020 I will be attending the NP2020: “Giving Emerging Leaders a Voice in the Nonprofit Community” in Grand Rapids, MI, for which she had received a scholarship to attend. She was able to get the people she met interested in the potential web-based programs such as egroupware and Salesforce to help their nonprofits.
http://nonprofit2020.wordpress.com/
http://np2020.wikispaces.com/.
Ashley helped us prepare for a fundraising event that took place in Seattle on August 13, 2007. She learned what goes into making such an event successful, such as creating a theme compatible with the invitations and organizing a budget. She performed public-relations functions such as preparing advertising and outreach materials.
Due to a critical blood shortage in central Ohio, Ashley represented Grassroots.org in their efforts to help recruit donors to the blood drive on October 11, 2007. I am in the process of coordinating a blood drive with the Red Cross, which will be held on October, 11. She established relationships with local businesses. She also strengthened our relationship with Strongtech, with whom we share office space, by inspiring them to recruit donors as well.
In the months following the drive, Ashley continued her web development work while helping staff market some of its new programs, such as its MBA Mentor program, which pairs Grassroots members with MBA students from the University of Maryland to provide free marketing consulting, and the Social Venture Consulting program which will begin spring 2008.
Ashley attended the She’s Geeky conference in Mountain View, CA. The conference was for women working in the field of technology. She network with people outside of the nonprofit tech world such as google reps, yahoo reps, and AOL reps. She was able to participate in a free public speaking training from an acting and speech prof. from UC Berkley.
Beginning in January 2008, Ashley isolated a number of Foundations that fund national open source technology projects. Because Grassroots works at the national level, it is often difficult to find funders who match our profile.
Ashley updated our constituent database using Salesforce’s nonprofit edition. She also attended the NTC conference March 19-21 in New Orleans, where she joined sessions about database management and how to use them effectively.