A fractional team helps a bullying prevention program reach more children
For twenty-one years, Calgary-based not-for-profit Dare to Care traveled to schools across Western Canada, delivering their award-winning Bullying Prevention and Life Skills program.
In 2020, the pandemic put Dare to Care at a crossroads. No longer able to teach their program in person, they secured funding and created a virtual version of their K-6 program, which includes learning modules for students and parents, as well as professional development content for educators. (Moving their Grade 7-9 student content to virtual delivery would be a second phase, completed in August 2022.)
The stakes were high. If schools did not embrace the virtual model, sold as a one-year unlimited school-wide license, the future of Dare to Care was uncertain. If the virtual program succeeded, it could greatly expand Dare to Care’s reach and help them achieve greater sustainability.
In November of 2021 the K-6 virtual program was ready to market. In addition to securing virtual program purchases from schools across Western Canada that had previously used the in-person program, Dare to Care hoped to expand their geographic footprint to schools across Canada and ultimately the U.S. A More Than Giving Company fractional team was engaged to help them achieve these ambitious goals.
The Challenges:
"As the Executive Director of a lean charitable organization, I wear many hats which is, often times, very overwhelming. That is why partnering with The More Than Giving Company has been an absolute game-changer. One of the biggest challenges I face is in content development for our blogs and email blasts. I also struggle with providing frequent and relevant social media posts as it is time-consuming and takes me away from other crucial tasks. The team at More Than Giving have seamlessly integrated themselves into our organization, truly becoming an extension of Dare to Care. They have a deep understanding of our organization's mission and values, and their expertise consistently shines through in the content they create. As well, their genuine passion for our cause, their professionalism and responsiveness has made the collaboration effortless and has expanded our reach exponentially." - Lisa Dixon-Wells, Founder and Executive Director, Dare to Care Bullying Prevention and Life Skills Program
Limited bandwidth:
Program founder and Executive Director Lisa Dixon-Wells, M.Ed., is an extremely knowledgeable and persuasive advocate for her program. She excels at relationship-building and envisioning new avenues and partnerships (such as selling the Dare to Care content for parents to corporations so they can offer it as a perk to employees, or a partnership with a local Rotary Club that did fundraising to greatly subsidize the program cost for area schools). However, Lisa wears every operational and leadership hat for Dare to Care and, once COVID restrictions were lifted, resumed delivering bullying prevention sessions for sports programs during the day (a related venture). The only time she had to source email contacts for virtual program marketing was late at night.
Leveraging technology:
Lisa did not have time to dive deeply into the backend capabilities of her virtual program delivery portal and her email marketing platform.
Sharing a compelling story:
This bullying prevention program stands out from others because it focuses on transforming the silent majority (the approximately 79% of school communities that witness bullying but don’t step in) into a caring majority, empowered with new skills to de-escalate and respond to bullying behavior. There is a great story to tell, but Lisa does not have time to regularly produce the marketing emails, blog posts and other content needed to educate out-of-market schools about Dare to Care.
The Team:
Engaging a digital marketing agency was beyond Dare to Care’s budget. The More Than Giving Company offered Lisa a specialized fractional team consisting of a marketing project manager proficient with email marketing tools, a copywriter with nonprofit and social media marketing experience, and a tech-savvy Nonprofit Virtual Assistant. Each of these specialists was engaged for a regular but limited number of hours each month, making their services affordable.
Contributions and Accomplishments:
The More Than Giving team has helped Dare to Care get more from their technology by:
Identifying improvements to website navigation and facilitating implementation with Dare to Care’s webmaster.
Proposing and implementing a currency converter app so U.S. schools will see pricing in their own currency as we begin to market there.
Using their acquired knowledge of the sales portal back-end to set up new packages that reflect the typical U.S. school structure (Grade 6 is typically part of middle schools in Canada, but is part of elementary schools in the U.S. system).
We have developed and continue to implement a multimedia marketing plan. This includes:
Setting up a “drip” campaign in Mailchimp. Whenever new prospects are added to the database, they automatically begin receiving a series of three marketing emails. Once new prospects complete this “journey,” they move to receiving a monthly eNewsletter.
Writing, building and distributing a monthly eNewsletter to keep prospects engaged.
Writing, building and promoting monthly blog posts. Topics have included detailed tips for new users; the unrecognized targets of bullying; racism, sexual harassment and the law; and a focus on the six life skills the program teaches students.
Producing and scheduling up to eight social media posts per month about the virtual program to Facebook, LinkedIn and relevant LinkedIn professional groups.
3. We built out a YouTube channel that showcases clips from the virtual program.
4. We continuously mine for targeted sales prospects (school principals and teachers).
This effort has produced a prospect database of 25,000+ records.
5. We effectively convey the depth, breadth and quality of the program.
6. We have collaborated on a process to secure school license renewals.
The Results:
Virtual Program Sales Highlights (November 2021-present):
168 total purchases (includes both school and individual purchases)
1904 individual registrations
A 12-school pilot program has been converted to a district-wide purchase (27 schools).
A college made Dare-to-Care professional development modules mandatory for its Early Childhood Education degree program students and has just renewed for a second year.
Audience Reach:
The Dare to Care eNewsletter, launched in March 2022, currently has 18,792 subscribers
New blog posts written by The More Than Giving Co. have received 730 views
From January 1 to June 22, 2020, organic Facebook reach was 65. From January 1 to June 22. 2023, organic Facebook reach was 3,081
LinkedIn followers have increased 31% in the last 365 days
From January to June 2022, the YouTube channel received 210 video views; from January to June 2023, the updated channel received 580 video views
To explore whether a nonprofit fractional staff member or team could help your nonprofit achieve even greater success, schedule a complimentary, 30-minute consultation with me here.