Introduction to Local Engagement Strategy

Introduction to a Local Engagement Strategy

We’ve already given some definition and clarity to what local engagement is and it’s results but let’s take a little more time to unpack the concept, casting its vision, and building a value proposition.

The Concept

The concept is simple... you have members in your audience who you want to connect to serving opportunities. You want that process to be simple and you would love for that to be as automated as possible. You would also like to keep track on their involvement and impact.

The Process

Alright, so no false promises here... this strategy takes work! The impact is huge but there’s also a good deal of work to make it happen.

Our goal is to make the process to get there simple:
• Build your Platform - design your structure, strategy, and process
• Launch your Movement - kickoff your plan and infuse your new culture • Connect your People - guide your members to matched opportunities

Our commitment to you through this ebook is to give you the tools you need to bring this plan to life, to do a lot of the heavy lifting for you (since we’ve already done this with others before), and to share tips/tricks to help you accelerate your success.

Who is this for?

ANY organization that is trying to connect their members to partner serving opportunities.

Just to name a few:
• Churches - churches looking to offer more serving opportunities and bring together local partners to engage their congregation.
• Middle/High Schools - schools working to instill a volunteer mindset in students and needing to display opportunities from local partners in a single place.
• Universities - universities working to engage their student populate in local serving.

• Businesses - businesses with a corporate mindset for volunteerism and wanting to create tools to connect their employees to opportunities.
• Municipalities - city groups desiring to build a city-wide strategy and structure for anyone to find an opportunity that matches their interest.
• Non Profits & Conferences - non-profit groups focused on volunteerism who also partner with a number of local organizations.

How does it work?


In some ways it’s really simple and in other ways it’s really complex. The diagram below captures the basic model of what’s happening in an aggregated serving strategy. You have multiple organizations posting opportunities into a central database/list. You are the “owner” of that list and you share that with your members. The system backend does all the work to aggregate. Your role is to promote the initiative.

• For the member it’s simple because they have one central place to look for opportunities and sign up.

• For the host organization (you) it’s simple because it’s all automated once its initially setup.

• For the partner organizations it’s simple because they have the tools they need to manage volunteerism and it automatically aggregates to the shared list.

Importance of Ownership

One foundation we strongly believe at ServiceReef is the need to promote you more and ServiceReef less. That might sound strange but our goal is for your members to never even know who we are. That’s why you can brand your own subdomain on ServiceReef but also why this mobile app can be completely branded for your organization. Why is that important? Because you are who they trust and who they know. That’s why we shy away from using “the ServiceReef app”. Why confuse your members and try to “sell” them on something else. Why not make this something that is yours? That’s one of our goals in how we’ve created this tool.

How does it work?

In some ways it’s really simple and in other ways it’s really complex. The diagram below captures the basic model of what’s happening in an aggregated serving strategy. You have multiple organizations posting opportunities into a central database/list. You are the “owner” of that list and you share that with your members. The system backend does all the work to aggregate. Your role is to promote the initiative.

• For the member it’s simple because they have one central place to look for opportunities and sign up.

• For the host organization (you) it’s simple because it’s all automated once its initially setup.

• For the partner organizations it’s simple because they have the tools they need to manage volunteerism and it automatically aggregates to the shared list.

Importance of Ownership

One foundation we strongly believe at ServiceReef is the need to promote you more and ServiceReef less. That might sound strange but our goal is for your members to never even know who we are. That’s why you can brand your own subdomain on ServiceReef but also why this mobile app can be completely branded for your organization. Why is that important? Because you are who they trust and who they know. That’s why we shy away from using “the ServiceReef app”. Why confuse your members and try to “sell” them on something else. Why not make this something that is yours? That’s one of our goals in how we’ve created this tool.

Value Proposition


What’s your value proposition? We believe that knowing the value you bring to your team is essential and helps bring clarity. So let’s quickly unpack a few value propositions you’ll experience with an aggregated serving strategy.

Your Members

• Encouragement to serve
• Means to find opportunities that match personal interests and skills
• Searchable list in their pocket (mobile app)

Your Partners

• Toolset to manage all of their serving opportunities
• Access to a much larger group of potential volunteers
• Part of a larger movement

Your Organization

• Automated workflow so you don’t have to manually create lists
• Reporting on partner and member engagement
• Custom branded mobile app to promote

Your Local Community

• More people engaged and serving

• Spider network of people serving where they may never have been exposed to

  before

Frequently Asked Questions

There are always more questions to answer! This ebook will help unpack many questions you might have about this strategy so stick with it... there’s a lot of useful information in here. But still, we know there are a number of questions you might be asking so let’s unpack a few.

• Is this part of a church’s missions department? Well, it could be but we most often see this as part of the entire church culture or strategy. Many times the missions department will be the “owner” of the plan but will actively engage other departments in the church sense volunteerism is more than mission trips or local partners - it’s also internal serving .
• How do you get leadership on board? We should write an entire ebook just on that! Truth is, that’s difficult. Our suggestion is that you bring leadership stories and examples of how this has worked for others (some here in this ebook), communicate you have a clear plan (leveraging this ebook), and show the greater impact your organization could have. Keep with it and be persistent. This is a good thing to advocate for and will make a huge difference in the culture of your organization.