Day 30: Lunch & Learns/State of the Unions
Happy day 30!!
To get to it today—I want to tell you about one of my favorite strategies: The Lunch & Learn or as I sometimes call it—The State of the Union strategy.
Basically, this is where you bring people together for a casual conversation and give them an update on how things are going within your organization where the price of admission is: an email address.
Here's how you to do it:
🛠️ How to organize a State of the Union Session
Step 1: Pick a date and time to host your State of the Union Session.
Step 2: Organize your run of show.
I like to use a version of the following:
Introductions (5 min)
Program and Impact Updates over the past 6 months (10 min)
Hearing from a Program Team Member or participant (10 minutes)
Plans for the next 6 months (10 min)
Open Q&A (15 min)
Step 3: Create an opt-in page & an automated confirmation email.
Step 4: Promote far and wide—especially to social media followers who may not be email subscribers.
✨Pro tip: In addition to sharing about the virtual session online, you should also send personal invites to any potential donors, major donors, or funders.
This is less about them actually attending, but you reaching out to keep them in the loop without a financial ask attached to it.
💡 Why it works
The price of admission should always be at a minimum an email address.
Keeping folks who are interested in your work informed is always a good idea. Plus, giving them access to the inside guts of your organization—in a way where you can share the good, the bad and the messy—builds trust. It gives folks an opportunity to “hear from the horses mouth” so to speak. 😉
📊 Results
You should expect a 50% live attendee show up rate, but should plan on sending out the replay to all registrants after the session.
This strategy is a fantastic way to let people raise their own hands and show you who wants to go deeper into learning about your work and impact.
🧰 Tools Needed
An opt-in page
A confirmation email
Your Email Service Provider
A virtual meeting tool like Zoom
🗣️ Last thought
100% of my clients deploy this strategy at least one time each year.
It's great practice for the staff to work on their messaging, it's a fantastic way to hear what questions people have and it gives people direct access to you and your team in a way they don't usually get.
Plus, as mentioned above—it's a smart way to move people from social media follower to email subscriber.
What do you think—would you give this strategy a try?
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