The Problem
Complete lack of marketing and no social media presence. No one outside of the PTPO volunteered for any event or even knew there was a PTPO. I asked how we communicate with people to get volunteers, and I was shown a small section in the middle of the school's newsletter that went out once a month, plus one letter that went out at the beginning of the year asking for volunteers. We had no website, no social media presence, nothing.
My Role
I wore a LOT of hats on this one: Web designer, UX researcher, UX designer, social media marketer, plus I volunteered to be the president (and, eventually, secretary too) because no one else volunteered to do it.
Solution
Advertise a LOT more in multiple places (both online and in print), plus show how the PTPO benefits everyone at the school and they should volunteer to help. Make connections, make new friends, and always be kind and welcoming, whether people can help in small or big ways!
Research & Definition of Target Groups
Before I started anything, I had to find out about the demographics of the population I was trying to reach. This presented a new potential problem: Over half of our school's population did not speak fluent English. In fact, according to the principal, we have over 25 different languages being spoken at home, the top three being Arabic/Chaldean, Hindi and Slavic (Croatian and Serbian). So, I had to come up with solutions that would include everyone, whether English was their first language or not. Being an individual who knows two languages (English and Spanish), I considered it from my POV: Would I rather have this in Spanish (my second language that I know moderately well) or English (my first and fluent language that I've always spoken)? The choice was clear and I want the users, no matter which language they are fluent in, to read everything comfortably with using the website.
The other potential setback was the socioeconomic factor. Population in our city ranged from upper to lower middle class. So, in terms of communication, there were those who had access to computers and a printer they could use anytime, and there were those that had no computer, had only a smartphone, or had to use a computer at the library and pay for copies. So, I had to come up with multiple ways to communicate with people, both online and in printed flyers that were sent home.
Strategy
After collecting as much data as I could, I developed a strategy to accomplish my goals:
• Design a responsive website that will be useful in multiple languages
• Make an online presence that can be translated into multiple languages
• Keep advertising in the monthly newsletter, plus send out something else in print that goes home at least once per week
• Have meetings in combination with other events to get more people to attend
• Make an online presence that can be translated into multiple languages
• Keep advertising in the monthly newsletter, plus send out something else in print that goes home at least once per week
• Have meetings in combination with other events to get more people to attend
Research
I knew some answers to the questions that I had on our landing page but, being the new person, I asked the other members who had been there for a couple of years. I asked three people (one VP, two co-treasurers) the same three questions:
• What is the PTPO?
• Who can join the PTPO?
• Reasons why someone would want to join the PTPO
• Examples of things that someone could do to help out the PTPO
Upon hearing the answers separately from them, an obvious thing came out with all three: When asked "Reasons why someone would want to join the PTPO?", all said they honestly didn't know why anyone would want to join. I asked them all to expand on this, and they said there are very few parents who volunteer to do anything and, when they do, they tend to sit with their kids and don't really help out.
I followed up with new questions:
• How would you feel about improving advertising and getting more parents to come and ask how they can help?
• How would you feel about making a list of little things parents can do when they come and help out?
All three emphatically said that they would feel so much better about being on the PTPO board. That made me want to really improve how everyone viewed the PTPO - both from the parents' perspective and the hard-working PTPO's perspective.
Wire Frames
I started with wireframes in Figma, simply to make sure we had everything we needed:
• Welcome page (landing page)
-- Answer questions people didn't know to ask: What is the PTPO? Who can join? How can I help? Emphasize how easy it is to join and help. Little things are big and any is appreciated!
-- Answer questions people didn't know to ask: What is the PTPO? Who can join? How can I help? Emphasize how easy it is to join and help. Little things are big and any is appreciated!
• Members
-- Photos of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer
-- Make it easy to recognize you when they pick up their kids!
-- Photos of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer
-- Make it easy to recognize you when they pick up their kids!
• Meetings
-- Info on upcoming events
-- Minutes on previous meetings
-- A link to participate virtually through WebEx, in case you can't join the meeting in person
-- Info on upcoming events
-- Minutes on previous meetings
-- A link to participate virtually through WebEx, in case you can't join the meeting in person
Copywriting
After listening to my three different accounts for the three questions on the landing page, I started writing and kept a couple of things in mind:
• Emphasize all the things that we pay for so parents know WHY we fundraise
• Make it easy to help out
• Give the parents options - little and big things all count!
• Make it easy to help out
• Give the parents options - little and big things all count!
WordPress Website
I finished coding everything for our website and was ready to upload it all onto the server... and then I ran into a unfortunate obstacle: I misunderstood - there was no place to upload a new website. I was simply to use a free website designer or have the PTPO pay for hosting and purchasing a domain, then the person running the Holden Elementary School website would simply make a link under School Information. I was NOT going to let the PTPO pay all that money for a new website, so I checked out a couple different free website designers and chose to use WordPress. The decision mainly relied on making this website accessible to everyone, and the plug-ins on WordPress was hands-down the best.
Our website was simple, so it was easy to transfer everything over to WordPress using a similiar design. Google was behind the two plug-ins that I used on the bottom: The map for the school location and the translate option. I was especially thrilled with the translate option - it can translate written text into over 100 different languages, so everyone can look at our website and, if they need it in a different language to make themselves more comfortable, they can do that!
Passive Fundraising
I also discovered passive fundraising - AmazonSmile and Kroger Community Rewards. It's a great way of raising money for non-profit group, which is exactly what the PTPO is.
People shopping on Amazon simply need to go to AmazonSmile and choose their non-profit group (in this case, Holden Parent Teacher Partnership Organization). Once that is done, every time the shopper purchases something on the AmazonSmile website, 0.5% of the purchase goes to the non-profit group. It's free to sign up, plus it doesn't cost anything more to the shopper.
The other is Kroger Community Rewards. It's through the Kroger Plus card and, like AmazonSmile, it doesn't cost anything to the consumer - just sign up online and Kroger will dontate a percentage of what people would normally buy anyway. It;s a win-win!
I put out a couple flyers to the teachers and parents and, betwen the two, we averaged between $100 - $200 every three months in passive income.
Social Media
Now that I had the website done, I started on a social media presence for weekly updates, such as restaurant fundraisers, monthly meetings, fundraiser updates, Meet the Teacher, etc. I used Facebook since that is the most popular method to use where I could convey enough information to potential users.
Another method is Remind. Remind is a private mobile messaging platform that aims to help teachers, parents, students, and administrators in K–12 schools to communicate with everyone at once. Every teacher uses this platform at Holden, so I started one for the PTPO and made sure all the teachers put our IDs on their whiteboards underneath their own Remind IDs. It worked and we had a lot more parents interested in the PTPO from the very first day!
Both Facebook and Remind were excellent to use because you can easily translate any messages into their native language. Everyone was able to communicate and be heard by everyone! Plus, while not everyone has a home computer, a LOT of parents have a smartphone, and there are free apps for both Remind and Facebook. It was an easy way for everyone to stay up to date on our events.
Monthly Fundraisers
One more thing I decided to start doing is advertising for the PTPO with our monthly restaurant fundraisers. I learned this from coaching color guard - restaurants LOVE doing fundraisers for a local school! We pick a date, we make a flyer, we get parents and students to come once a month, present our flyer and have dinner at their restaurant. It was low-cost advertising for them, raised money for us, plus there was a third benefit: I presented it to the board members that they should have dinner at our fundraiser, but do a little bit more: Hang out for a while, be sure to walk up to people that you knew used their flyers and say, "Hi! My name is _____. I'm the PTPO board, so thank you for using your flyer and earning us some money tonight!" With that, you make connections. People know your face and what you do. If they ask what the money is for, let them know all the stuff that we pay for in the school and thank them again. So, while it's great that we earn money from the restaurant, the REAL goal is making those connections!
Spirit Wear
The final piece in this puzzle was designing spirit wear for the school. This had a two-fold purpose - it was for a fundraiser during the school year, and it promoted team unity among students, parents, and faculty.
In the initial design of the logo, I wanted something educational, and professional-looking for adults, perhaps even a college-ish type of brand. I also wanted something very gender-neutral, since the spirit wear was aimed at both males and females. Finally, the spirit colors were dark blue and white, so those were my parameters.
After a couple of attempts at the logo, I was pleased with the look of it and loved how it looked on t-shirts and hoodies! I adjusted it on the sweatpants so it was still within the brand. Finally, it occurred to me that cars drive in and out of the school parking lot - why not make a couple of bumper stickers so people can show their school pride? I made two kinds - one was a regular bumper sticker, and the other was a strong magnet, in case you lease your car and don't want to mess it up with a sticker.