Each year, Volunteer Alberta holds our Annual General Meeting during Vitalize, Alberta’s provincial voluntary sector conference. This year, the conference was held in Calgary at the Telus Convention Centre, so the whole office made the trip down. Sam, Annand, Rosanne and Jann represented VA as session speakers and a few others were able to register for the conference.
It was my first Vitalize, and I was able to listen to a variety of excellent speakers. I learned about starting a social enterprise, navigating cross-cultural communication, engaging volunteers and supporters, becoming a successful leader, and understanding the current trends in the nonprofit/voluntary sector. Though the topics were varied, all of the presentations shared common themes and strategies for increasing the success of individual organizations and the sector as a whole.
Whether the session was geared towards delegates looking to start an organization or those wanting to better engage those around them, I found that the advice was largely the same:
1) Find the meaning
2) Live your mission
3) Know your audience
4) Change the medium, not the message
Find the meaning
When creating or revamping your mission statement, the first thing often considered is what you want to do, and how. But the most important question to ask yourself is why.
What is the gap you’re trying to address? What will this work mean to the community? What is the driving force behind your actions? Any successful organization or business has a set of values informing its activities or products. It’s important to focus on why you’re passionate about what you’re doing and why it matters before focusing on the process or outcomes.
Live your mission
Once you have a mission that reflects your passion and communicates the meaning of your work to the public, you have to practice what you preach. It’s one thing to state what you stand for, but quite another to communicate it through your actions.
Does your branding and communications strategy align with your mission? Do the programs, services or products you offer reflect your values?
Know your audience
When looking for volunteers, it’s important to figure out who is likely to identify with your cause; people are much more likely to volunteer for an organization to which they feel connected. If you have a clear, passionate message and you align your actions as an organization with that message, you’re off to a good start. Once you accomplish these steps, you can find like-minded individuals to work alongside you.
If you take a moment to consider the audience when attending public events or taking out advertisements, you can put your time and effort into avenues that will reach the right people. The same goes for funders – if you look for organizations whose values are closely aligned with your own, you have a higher chance of success.
Change the medium, not the message
Times have changed and it can be more difficult than ever to keep up. The strategies that once worked well for organizations may not be as effective, and it might seem like you need to do a complete revamp in order to stay current.
But while you may need to change, you don’t want to lose sight of your purpose. Your values are the heart of your organization, and if you believe in them, you can be assured that others believe in them as well. Be open to exploring new pathways to your organization and finding new ways to communicate your message. This could mean an updated website or a larger social media presence, but it could also mean exploring new partnerships and collaborations. Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for help! If you know someone who is doing something well, talk to them about it – at the very least, at the end of the conversation, they’ll have you in mind.
Overall, I learned that passion, consistency, clarity and flexibility are integral to organizational success. As a relative newcomer to the sector, it was nice to hear that the most important things, like knowing your mission, are also the most effective tools for success. I took in a lot of information over the course of the three days, and am looking forward to putting it into practice. And yes, I do feel Vitalized!
Rachel Pereira, Program/Administrative Assistant