Halloween is coming – what better time for a door-to-door outreach campaign for your Neighborhood Council than a night when people are home waiting for their doorbell to ring? You’ll have fun, and seeing your board in costume will make meeting you fun and memorable for your stakeholders, too.
You can split into teams to do the actual canvassing, then come back to a central location for an after-party mixer with your board and volunteers.
Handout Ideas
There are many options for treats to give out to stakeholders as you make your rounds. Treats are in keeping with the holiday, and they sweeten your outreach message.
Branded candy with your Council’s name or logo is simple to obtain, inexpensive, easy to carry on foot, and Halloween-appropriate. Just make sure vital info you want someone to keep, like board meeting details, isn’t printed on disposable wrappers.
Useful items like emergency preparedness kits are also excellent handouts, if you have the time and the team to assemble them. Harbor Gateway North handed out over 1,700 kits as part of their EmpowerLA Award-winning door-to-door disaster preparedness campaign – read how they did it here. (Next week, we’ll talk in detail about creating emergency kits with your board’s branding.)
Whatever you choose to hand out, make sure to include a flyer, letter, or brochure introducing your Council, and listing your meeting times, days, and locations. It’s also a good idea to package handouts so they can be left safely on the door or gate if someone isn’t home.
Take photos and short video clips as you go, to share via your website, social media, or newsletter later. Let stakeholders know where and when you’ll post the pictures, to encourage further engagement.
If your board is interested in the idea of a Halloween door-to-door campaign, now is the time to agendize your discussion, so you have time to plan and prepare your materials by October 31st.
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Outreach Tip Of The Week is an ongoing series on using communications, branding, marketing, and public relations to build better relationships with your stakeholders. Send your outreach questions to annmarie@empowerla.org for the chance to be featured in a future Outreach Tip article.
