A 2013 overview of the trends in Crowdfunding for Education and engaging youth through social media to further education goals

1. Hani Qaddumi Scholarship Foundation
Baraka Advisors - Communications Strategy - Workshop #1
by @rchakaki - Nov 12 2013

2. Run a Communications
Workshop - 1/2day
• Dreamscape.. what more can we do?
• Introduce the social business web and
the elements of a social business
• Discuss the culture, values and vision of
HQSF and agreeing on what gets
socialized
• Present communications development
approaches and discussing suitable
options for HQSF
• Agree on the stakeholder priorities
• Identify and prioritize communication
channels
• Set the project milestones
1

4. vision & targets

5. Values
• Education is the source and pathway to
social empowerment, economic strength,
and will help advance Palestinian society in
the long term.
• Every student, no matter what their
socioeconomic background, should have
access to higher education.
• Empowering and catalyzing change begins
with allowing outstanding and deserving
youth the choice to fashion their
educational aspirations, and realize them
through hard work and dedication.
• Changing the landscape of Palestinian
society is at the core of HQSF’s mission
and the full potential of a society can only
be realized when signs of prosperity
through education emerge

6. • Report findings
• Are you reaching the right students?
• Are you delivering education for employment?
• Can you use the application process to raise standards /
equip students to compete at an international level?

7. Quantify
Goals Measurement 2014 Target
Grant Palestinian students with exceptional
academic abilities to pursue higher education.
# of Students 100 Undergrad, 6 AUB, 8 Grad
Raise educational standards so that students in
Palestine can uncompromisingly compete in
today’s knowledge economy.
Teacher’s Award
Program
Launch & Monitor Online Results
Support the higher educational institutions that
support Palestinian students to excel.
Teacher Training?
Establish one skills-development
mentoring program for a PAL U (online)
Meet the complex challenge of assessing the
growth of diverse sectors within the Palestinian
economy, so job needs are met and students can
carve out careers when finishing their educational
Schummaker Foundation Conference?
Collaborate with partner organizations to focus on
expanding and enhancing educational
opportunities for Palestinian youth.
# of partners vs
resources to manage
collaboration
Employ digital means to connect &
engage w 3 new partners
Become an essential resource in both Palestine
and the region as a progressive model for not-for-
profit organizations.
Visibility through
content
Publish 4 viral info graphics on the
education sector & Monthly SM
Engagement growth (Set Targets)
Provide resources and monetary assistance to
raise capital and secure funding for scholarships
through donors and other philanthropic
contributions.
Train 1 student abroad in new media
digital skills
Your
input

8. Validate & prioritize
Targets Priority
Automate existing processes 1
Expand to engage stakeholders currently inactive 2
Expand support services 3
Establish partnerships locally and globally to further vision 3
Socialize the organization. Communicate developments
not just outcome
2
Explore other funding models 1
Your
input

9. Realize the vision..
• Scale the organization (IT & SOCIAL)
• Evolve the brand identity to appeal to target
stakeholders.
• Reflect the values and services of HQSF in brand
expressions.
• Create an engagement strategy combining digital,
traditional media and content marketing.
• Engage across channels in meaningful
conversations.
• Build an engaging and measurable web presence.
• Transform to a stakeholder-centric experience
across all channels & services within the brand.
• Empower your teams with information and tools to
effectively communicate.
• Monitor and measure your social media activities;
• Assess achievements and improve engagement.

10. social media landscape

11. Howard Pyle - VP Digital Strategy
& head of IBM Design Lab NYC
If you think of social as
a function of marketing,
then you're limiting your
potential.

13. March 5, 2013

14. March 5, 2013

20. inspiring examples - socializing organizations

21. 2

22. More.. socialize your work
Raise
student
profiles
Connect
students & mentors
Build
Partnerships
Inspire US
Philanthropy
Reach
hidden
Talent
Facilitate
R&D
Mobilize
Alumni
Enable
eEducation &
eEmployment

23. Student-centric
communication

24. Simple
Messaging

25. Alumni
Stories

26. Engage
Global Mentors
& ED-
Councilors

27. similar
approach
different target

28. share
aspirational
role models

29. Creative
Collaboration

30. “other”
programs

31. online
education

36. crowd-funding scholarships

38. donor -> student
u facilitate

39. can be part
of a site funding
non education
projects

40. $850,000
in 3 days

41. Online
Competitions

42. Student
Driven

44. Developing a crowd-funding platform
Activity Estimated 1st-yr Cost in USD
Product Development 10000
Technical Development 7500
Design 12000
Outreach & Marketing 20000
Adoption (Student-side) 36000
Business Development (Partners) 36000
Legal / Finance / Admin 34000
155500

45. Estimates to assess success
Activity Unit
Scholarship Application Funding 2500 - 40000
Advertising
% earning to platform provider 3% - 7%
percentage failed to raise full targets 56% - 80%
# of scholarship applicants required to break even

46. success factors
• platform ease of use
• marketing and adoption
• engagement of all stakeholders

47. The Approach - Transformation & Communication

48. The goal of social media
is to turn customers
into a volunteer
marketing army.
-Jay Baer

49. personality!
visual
authenticity - in your writing
relevance - to your audience
consistency - in delivery

50. Can you scale your services through automation?

51. External Communications
Internal Communications
Culture
strategy
organization
processes
people
structure
systems
vision
Governance

52. Scholarship
Awarding
Process
BP - can u automate &/or socialize?
Scholarship
Queries
Student
Agreements
Scholarship
Maintenance
Application
Processing
People
Business
Process
Vision
&
Strategy
Structure
Systems
Payment
Processing
Grantee List
Management
Scholarship
Advertising
Grantee
Management
Process
Research
Process

53. Executive
Operational
Operations Management
Structure - Outsource? Socialize?
ED
Scholarship
Coordinate
PR &
Communications
Digital & IT
Scholarship
Queries
Student
Agreements
Scholarship
Maintenance
Application
Processing
AccountingAdmin Assistant
People
Business
Process
Vision
&
Strategy
Structure
Systems
Payment
Processing
Grantee List
Management

54. HQSF Systems - All software used to streamline
operations and facilitate internal (BoD, staff, partners,
students) & external (public) communications.
People
Business
Process
Vision
&
Strategy
Structure
Systems

55. Accounting
Donor
Management
Student
Records
Social
Operations /
Task
management
Public
Public/Back-office
Back-office
Website
Dropbox
Storage
FB+
page
Gmail

56. Accounting
Donor
Management
Student
Records
Trello
Project &
Task
Management
G+
Community
page
Engage
Alumni
FB
(Active & Alum
Communities)
x pages
Twitter
(News feeds)
Public
Public/Back-office
Back-office
Crowd-fundingWebsite
Google Ad
Words
Dropbox
Storage
PayPal
G+
Community
page
Gmail
?
Yammer
eMail
Campaign
Management
Analysis
Tools

57. Stakeholder Priorities

58. people / stakeholders
• students
• alumni
• grantees
• university partners
• media
• ministry of education
• other community members who
want to get involved

59. Stakeholders - Validation
stakeholder sample presence role
Grantees - Faisal Alami varied influencer, content
consumer, connectors
Fellows
- local / international
- competitors / collaborators
producers, influencers,
Alumni - local / regional / international producers, influencers,
advocates
Prospective students - by sector user, producer, influencer
Media
- local / regional / international
- digital / traditional
connectors, advocates
Industry Research - MIT / Gartner / Forrester / Brookings Influencers, collaborators
Global Donors
- Expats, MNCs, Individuals, INGOs,
Diaspora NGOs
funders, consumers
Partners collaborators, producers
MoE
Universities - Local, Global, Online
People
Business
Process
Vision
&
Strategy
Systems
Structure

60. Channel Priorities

62. resources & process - outsource / hire / intern
Your
input

63. Website - what’s not
• Talks about you -> tell me how I can
engage
• Designed for feedback - Who
searched? How do I engage visitors
who searched?
• Navigation - where’s home?
• Loading time of PDFs -> web-time
• Current information - Research is 2006
• News Dates
• Social Sharing & Calls to Action

64. Other Channels
• eMail
• CRM
• G+ for the community buildout
• Facebook - Linked-in - Twitter

65. Brand Analysis

66. Brand Analysis
• Who are you addressing?
• Does it draw their attention?
• Does it connect with them
emotionally?
• What action do you want from them?
• Does it represent your values &
vision?
• How do you make it a rich
experience beyond a financial
transaction?

67. Brand Guidelines
• Youthful
• Trendy
• Not limited to Scholarships - inclusive of other education goals
Your
input

68. The proposed approach ..

69. Develop a Digital
Communications Strategy
• Establish near and long term integrated
communication and engagement objectives
• Conduct a stakeholder analysis to assess their
digital communication channel preferences.
• Draft the organization’s overriding messages and
2013/2014 campaign messages
• Build the digital communications plan (channels,
targets, messages, timeline matrix)
• Align digital communications with existing
communications activities
• Establish KPIs (key performance indicators) to
measure the success of the digital strategy
• Set the communications budget
• Create a spokesperson training program - running
parallel to an internal Social Media Engagement
Training
• Setup the communications analytics tools
• Launch the communication strategy
2
engaging
2013

70. Evolve the brand & launch
campaign
Evolve the HQSF brand while
maintaining valued elements
Create the launch campaign
assets
Set launch metrics and analytics
3

71. Train & Launch
Conduct training sessions over a
month to:
!
• Introduce the brand
• Train campaign spokespersons
• Train the social media & content
marketing manager (in-house option)
• Launch across media channels
4

72. On-going support
• Provide guidance, advice and support the
HQSF management in implement the
communication strategy for 12 months.
• Oversee the implementation of the
strategy across channels
• Monitor and adjust outputs of the
strategy implementation
• Provide spokesperson training to elected
manager and first year fellows who will
communicate with the public on behalf of
HQSF.
• Handover to the head of communications.
• Support HQSF head of communications
in planning the following year strategy
and budgets.
5

73. On-going
Deliverables
• Introductions to organizations &
media channels that are
suitable for partnership.
• Opportunities to expand project
portfolio and donor-base.
• Training sessions (online) and
select workshops for existing
and new team-members on
Content Marketing & social
media .

74. Project Milestones

75. Q3
Project Timeline - 2013
Communications
workshop
Strategy Outline
Conduct
Stakeholder
analysis
Examine existing
channels & create
a channel /
message matrix
Draft
Communications
& Information
Technology
Strategy
Develop the brand
and Launch
Campaign
Training program
& Launch
campaign assets
1st phase
Feedback &
Adjustment
first report
Project
start
Project End
12 months from
initiation date
Deliverables
Client Review & Input
Incorporate
feedback
brand outline
detailed launch plan
Implementation oversight, analysis & adjustments
Q1 Q4 2014Q2

76. Q3
2014 - Q1
Setup Back-office
Tools
Conduct
Stakeholder
Engagement
Workshop
Activate
Communications,
Monitor & Adjust
Activate Next
Communication
Channel
Third Stakeholder
Engagement
Workshop
Activate Next
Communication
Channel
Project
start
Project End
12 months from
initiation date
Deliverables
Client Review & Input
Second Stakeholder
Engagement
Workshop
Implementation oversight, analysis & adjustments
Q4 2014Q2
DesignWireframesSite Plan Development Test Seed Content Launch
RED Crowd Funding / Site Development

77. References

78. References
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/uc-promise-for-education-_n_3965021.html
• http://www.equals6.com/crowdfunding/discover?pg=1
• http://www.funding4learning.com/
• http://blog.saltmoney.org/find-your-scholarship-match-infographic/
• http://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app
• https://www.wdhstore.com/hispanic/data/pdf/nov29-howsocial.pdf
• http://www.knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/free-to-tweet-event-at-
newseum/