The Last Team: Communication
Last but not least, we are the communications team. All three of us: Allison, Ali and Maggie. Small but mighty because I believe that we had the most challenging task of all the teams in our class. We have brought to you, the readers, an introduction to each of how teams operates, what our foundation is, and how we all work together. As the communication team, we were the face of Inspire Up. Below are the steps we took to execute our communication strategy:
We created a logo, a website (including this blog!), a Facebook page and a Gmail account. Creating a website that looked professional but did not cost any money was difficult. It was especially difficult to build a website without any prior coding or design experience. Creating a logo, website, and Facebook page was the way to establish our presence.
We set up our blog page for the competition we are in. We have the chance to win an extra $3,000 dollars for our foundation. Getting our classmates to write a short blog post each week was like pulling teeth.
We compiled a list of nonprofits in the area we thought would be eligible. We enlisted the help of our classmates to help compile the list. We thought it would be best to have our classmates use his/her own network to help the foundation.
We reached out to each nonprofit on our list to spread the word about our foundation and grant funding opportunity. We thought that the “word of mouth” strategy was the best way to connect to potential applicants. As we had a large list of nonprofits to reach out to, we asked our classmates to help us. Again, it was like pulling teeth to get our classmates to email/call nonprofits on the list.
We answered questions that came through our email account. When we received an application, we responded saying that we received their application materials. As a team, we agreed that our communication with the applicants needed to be quick, transparent, and professional.
I have listed a few of the things that we as a team did to make our communication strategy a success. Along the way we realized that we could not do everything and needed to delegate some of our tasks to the rest of the class. Reflecting on our experience, there were some things that we have could have done differently (ex: don’t use Wix) and we will pass along to future capstone classes. I chose to be a part of the communication team because I thought it would give me skills that I could use in a future job, and I believe that I have learned a lot from this process. In all, I could not have been a part of this successful team without my two colleagues: Ali and Maggie.
