Our slogan is “Give a Woman a Power Tool and She Can Change the World.” That’s a pretty powerful message, but any message can only go as far as it is heard. That’s where social media comes in. Think of it as your loud-speaker to help get your message heard by as many people as possible.
Social media can be a great tool for recruiting, promoting events, and fundraising. Here’s an example of how your social media network can work for you:
In this example, a $100 donation becomes $500 through the power of engagement.
Want to get started, but don’t know how, or feel like you need some ideas? That’s why we’ve created this handy Social Media Guide full of examples and step by step instructions on how to use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to help amplify your Women Build involvement.
Looking for an easy way to spread the word about Women Build and help raise funds for your team? Adding a “teaser” button to your email signature only takes a few minutes to set up, but continues to spread the word for you, automatically, every time you send an email.
Here is an example:
If Annie’s interest is piqued by the button and she clicks on it, she’ll be redirected to my personal fundraising page on DonorPages where she can read my personal story about habitat, see pictures and make a donation.
How to Add the Button to your Signature
Download the image above by right-clicking (control-click on a Mac) and choosing “Save image as…” Save it to your desktop for easy access.
Once you’ve added the image, you’ll also want to click on the image, then click on the link button (to the left of the add image button) and insert the link to your personal fundraising page on DonorPages.
Once you’ve added the image, you’ll also want to click on the image, then follow the instructions to insert a hyperlink and add the link to your personal fundraising page on DonorPages.
Please note, not all email providers support adding images to the signature. If you use an email provider not listed above, please check your support documentation for instructions.
are appearing on the left-hand sidebar! We welcome I#4U 2012 Women Build Team’s Blog Feed to the sidebar. If you’d like to know what’s going on from a team insider perspective, check out Mary and the I#4U team as they build and blog their way to Women Build success. (Each pink headline is a story; just click them to read the whole post.)
Don’t forget that keeping your current donors (and potential donors) up to date with house progress, team pictures, and other fun Women Build event invites is a great way to keep them engaged and feel like their donation made a difference. An engaged donor, is a happy, often repeat donor!
Written by Sarah Cohen, Insero & Company Women Build Team Captain
What a beautiful day for a Wall Raising Ceremony! As we gathered around the build site on Saturday that’s what everyone kept saying – and it was – warm and sunny with just a bit of a breeze. That’s three years in a row (at least) of perfect weather for the Women Build Wall Raising. We had a great turn out too – a big THANK YOU to everyone who was there.
For most of us, Saturday was our first opportunity to meet the 2012 Women Build Homeowner Casandra and her daughter Arianna. It was truly a pleasure to meet such a sweet, bright, hard-working young woman and it warmed my heart to see how many friends and family members came out to support them both.
As you may have noticed, the wall got a special paint job just for the occasion – but it wasn’t the only thing painted pink on Saturday…
About half-way through the ceremony Women Build Chair Karen Kall removed her hard-hat and passed it through the crowd with the promise that if they could raise at least $10 we’d get to see the twin’s toes! Well, we must have been intrigued because they raised over $70!!! Plus we all got a good laugh:
Thank you Edwin and Erwin for helping us raise the money and the walls – we couldn’t do it without you! I think we can all learn a valuable lesson from Karen and the twins as well – FUNdraising needs to be FUN! As of this morning the Women Build teams have raised $32,527.49 (great job ladies) but we still have a long way to go before we get to $75,000. So let this inspire you to keep it fun, and make direct, personal, and manageable asks. Every dollar counts! (Hmm, that sounds familiar)
Just for fun, if you didn’t make it to the ceremony, here’s a little glimpse of what it looked like when Team Insero raised the wall:
Women with KMChad a great day (weather and spirit-wise) out on site yesterday. They lucked out and got all of the forms for the foundation out well before the drizzle and thunderstorms. And thank goodness because that would have been one very muddy hole!
And speaking of goodness, we have some fun events in the next few days!
Today is Insero Habitat Homemakers raffle from 12:30PM – 3:00PM (click for more details).
Tomorrow is the Lowe’s Women Build Clinic at Webster Lowe’s from 10:00AM – 12:00PM.
And next week is National Women Build Week for all Habitat for Humanities! Celebrate with us on May 12th (Saturday) as we raise the wall on our Women Build home at 158 Campbell Street starting at 11:00AM. Bring your team, donors, or anyone who is interested in starting a team – there will be photo-ops raising the wall (of a yet to be announced special color), a special speech or two, and chance for you to celebrate the biggest milestone of the house building process next to completion.
We hope to see you all at these fun events! (And there are some fantastic achievement badges to be earned by attending.)
Lastly – don’t forget about our two additional Women Build fundraising opportunities Panda Wear Jewelry (click for more details) and Country Way Garden Center (click for more details). We’d love to know some fun things that your team is doing to help make your goal – share them in our comments so all the Women Build teams can see!
This made our morning – Edwin AND Erwin spending some cold quality time down in the Women Build foundation. You’ve got to love the twin’s spirit and dedication! They can’t WAIT to see you all out on site.
Speaking of on site, don’t forget to sign up your teams for build days. Remember, EVERYONE on your team needs to be signed up individually so make sure every Women Build team member has her/his name on a day. The twins will need the help to continue the house build (and to get out of that hole!) – so make sure you sign up today or we’ll start opening the Women Build days to non-Women Build teams.
Lastly, we have another fundraising opportunity for our Women Build teams. Goodness Grows is a plant fundraiser from Country Way Garden & Design Center – part of the Broccolo Family. On SUNDAY, MAY 20th10% of purchases from Country Way will be donated to Flower City Habitat’s 2012 Women Build program.
How does it work?
**UPDATE** For those of you asking about Country Way – you can find their website here. And we’ve added their address to the invitation.
Thanks to Kim Pandina, creator of Panda Wear, we’re offering a fun (and pretty) fundraiser for our Women Build teams this year. Kim has created these earring sets especially for Flower City Habitat Women Build and she’s offering them to our teams below cost! This means that you can sell them as a way to raise money for your Women Build team.
THE EARRINGS
Ms. Fix It Cost per pair $40
These are very versatile earrings which are light weight and comfortable. Materials are Sterling Silver with pewter tools and surgical steel ear wires.
Mom With Love Cost per pair $55
Two styles – either Sterling Silver or 14 karat gold filled. Order by 5/2 for Mother’s day. Price includes basic shipping via USPS. When ordering, please provide the name of who gift is for and who the gift is from. Kim will create note cards to go with each set with the habitat logo and the gift giver and the recipient on them.
Sterling Silver twisted heart earrings with Pink Swarovski crystal dangles. These beautiful earrings sparkle and catch the light. All metal beads are Sterling Silver. Ear wires are surgical steel. Size below the finding is 55mm x 20mm. Total length is 70mm.
14 Karat Gold Filled earrings with Pink Swarovski crystal dangles (pictured in purple). These beautiful earrings sparkle and catch the light. Size is 55mm x 20mm. Total length is 70mm.
HOW IT WORKS
Choose to sell one (or both!) types of earrings as a fundraiser
Fill in your information at the bottom of the form
Save the PDF on your computer
Attach PDF to emails or print and send to donors
Place orders as they come in by contacting Kim Pandina at order@pandawear.net or 585-747-8494 (Be sure to tell her your team name, and team member name)
Kim will be collecting payment for the earrings
Please make checks to Kim Pandina and have your donor write YOUR name on the memo line
For every pair of earrings you sell, your team member page will be credited $10 at the end of the sale (5/29/2012)
If you have any additional questions – don’t hesitate to call us here at Flower City Habitat. Just ask for Teresa Bianchi – 546-1470 or email tbainchi@rochesterhabitat.org.
For those of you curious about the 2012 Women Build Achievement Badges - here are all that can be earned.
I hope that’s a unanimous hand raise from all of the Women Build teams and team members who joined us last night for the Women Build Fundraising Juice Boost! We enjoyed seeing and talking with every one of you. We hope you left with a lot of new ideas and a bit of that Women Build comradery. After all, we’re all in this together.
And don’t forget to join us next week at the Ground Breaking;Wednesday, April 11th at 9AM. (158 Campbell Street in Rochester). You’ll have a chance to:
Get your picture taken in the backhoe or with a golden shovel
Pick up your purple hard hat (for those of you who have started a fundraising page)
Earn an achievement badge that you’ll get right at the event!
And don’t forget to join On-Kall Women for Habitat on Tuesday, April 10th at 7PM for their Guest Bartending night. We promise you’ll have a good time and earn another achievement badge. Click here to learn more.
We’ve also scheduled the Women Build Clinic with Lowe’s in Webster. It will be Saturday May 5th from 10AM – 12PM. This year’s topic will be Power Tools and Basic Electrical work. We apologize for those of you who wanted to learn about plumbing – hopefully that will be available next year. The clinic is open to all women in Rochester (Women Build or not), so bring your friends with you! And if you are a Women Build team member, if you attend you earn yet another badge. (Notice a theme?) Click here to sign up using our Volunteer Management system.
And last, but certainly NOT least, we have our Women Build homeowner. We wanted you all to be the first to know that Casandra Vargas, a single mother of one little girl will be the lucky lady building alongside you. We’ll share more about Casandra in upcoming blog posts, but we just had to share the good news!
First American Equipment Finance at their Guest Bartending Night for 2011 Women Build
To ALL of our 2012 Women Build teams! We’ve reached over $10,000 for the house build! We’re aiming to be at $37,500 (or half-way) for the wall raising on May 12th. WE CAN DO IT if we keep up the GREAT work you all have been putting in.
If you’re in need of a little “boost” to your fundraising, please join us at our Fundraising Juice Boost event. Not only will you earn this sweet little badge for your 2012 Women Build Hard Hat – but you’ll get some insight from past Women Build teams on what has worked for them in the past, how to hold a successful event, and we’ll even help you generate a QR code so you can fundraise using a smart phone.
Fundraising Juice Boost
Wednesday – April 4th, 2012
5:30PM – 7:30PM
Flower City Habitat for Humanity
755 Culver Road
Rochester, NY 14609
RSVP to Teresa Bianchi – tbianchi@rochesterhabitat.org
2011 look back: Our Insero ladies after a hard days work on site.
Hello ladies! We hope that your fundraising efforts are going well. We’ve seen a lot of tweets and Facebook posts regarding Women Build, so keep up the good work! (And don’t forget the Rochester Women Build hashtag: #RocWomenBuild)
As you’re out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, don’t forget that social occasions are a great time to remind people about donating to your team. (And a having the conversation over a pint doesn’t hurt either.) So use this weekend to talk with your friends about what you’re doing (and why) and ask them to make a donation.
If you’re tech-savvy you can even get one of those scanable QR codes for your donation page. (Try QR Code generator to make your own downloadable QR icon for free!) Carry a print out of it with you and you can have friends scan it with their smart phones to make donation. Or, you can always make small business card-like print outs with your fundraising site address on it for them to take home.
And since you’re in the Women Build frame of mind – please note that a couple of dates have changed since we last talked:
Flower City Habitat Women Build 