US-ATAARI Disaster Donations Communication Toolkit _FINAL 18_Aug 2016_Notes

Overview of the APEC Disaster Donations
Communications Toolkit
US-APEC Technical Assistance to Advance Regional
Integration (US-ATAARI)
A joint project of the U.S. Agency for International Development,
the U.S. Department of State, and Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation

APEC APPROPRIATE DONATIONS
COMMUNICATIONS TOOLKIT
ICF INTERNATIONAL: WHO WE ARE
• A leading provider of professional services and
technology-based solutions for government &
commercial clients around the globe who helps define
and achieve success.
• More than 5,000 employees serve government and
commercial clients from more than 65 offices
worldwide.
• A small sampling of our sector expertise:
‒ Climate Change and Sustainability
‒ Impacts, Risk, and Adaptation
‒ International Development
‒ Strategic Communications + Marketing www.icfi.com

AGENDA
• Why do we need the toolkit?
• Structure of the toolkit
• Key elements of the toolkit
• How to use the toolkit
• Key things to do before disaster strikes
– Develop a communications strategy
– Develop a media plan
– Determine how you will measure success
• Questions & answers

THE TOOLKIT
• Operationalizes the APEC Guidelines for Appropriate Donations in
Times of Disaster and promotes appropriate donations across the
APEC region.
• Informed by input gathered through case studies.
• Comprehensive resource designed to
help your organization or agency raise
public awareness on appropriate
donations through publicity and media
coverage.
• Draws from resources developed by
USAID through the Center for
International Disaster Information (CIDI).

WHY DO WE NEED THE TOOLKIT?
Best estimates indicate that up to 60 percent of material donations
are inappropriate and not needed by disaster victims.
Donated clothing on a basketball court following Hurricane Sandy, in the Bronx, N.Y. Source:
HelpAfterSandy.org

APEC
APPROPRIATE
DONATIONS
COMMUNICATION
S TOOLKIT
WHY DO WE NEED
THE TOOLKIT?

WHY DO WE NEED THE TOOLKIT?
It is crucial immediately following a disaster:
• To explain to the public and the media clearly and repeatedly why
monetary donations are the most effective, and
• To provide information on how to make those cash contributions.

KEY THEMES AND BEST PRACTICES
• Internal communication requires different processes
than external communication.
• Governments and NGOs must work together to successfully
communicate about donations and reach intended audiences.
• Social media can play an important role in getting
up-to-date information to potential donors on the needs
of disaster-affected communities.
• Having an approved communications plan before a disaster strikes
is critical to communicating with constituents in a timely manner.
• It is important to be transparent on how donated funds are used.
• Economies with fewer resources can still apply the same lessons
learned by scaling the outreach appropriately.

KEY THEMES AND BEST PRACTICES
• Have communication tools available before a disaster hits that can be
easily customized based on the specific needs associated with that
disaster.
• Ensure the entire organization shares common goals about appropriate
donations and everyone knows his/her communications role.
• Use existing communications tools to save time and resources.
• Be consistent in all your communications that monetary donations are
preferred.
• Conduct robust documentation to ensure donations are reaching their
intended recipients and help encourage similar donations when other
disasters strike.

STRUCTURE OF THE TOOLKIT
• The toolkit begins with outreach
strategies and tips to work effectively
with various forms of media, to help you:
– Clearly communicate the benefits of
monetary contributions in the wake
of a disaster, and
– Explain to potential donors that
monetary donations of any size can
make a big difference in the relief
effort.

STRUCTURE OF THE TOOLKIT
The toolkit:
• Offers guidance on how to:
– Work effectively with the media
– Develop an appropriate donations
communications strategy
– Leverage social media
• Provides a series of customizable
templates to help communicate the “cash
is best” message following a disaster.
• Includes instructions on how to use the
templates.
The templates can
be modified for a
specific situation,
disaster, target
audience, and
region.

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE TOOLKIT
 Media outreach and promotion overview and tips
 Developing a media plan
 Tips on developing a media list
 Public relations & letter to the editor tips
 Media advisory and news release tips
 Social media tips
 Building your network
 Anatomy of a social media post
 Managing social media during disaster
 Social media response guide
 Tips for sharing public service announcements (PSAs) with local
media
 Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE TOOLKIT
 Customizable resources with
instructions:
– Fact sheet
– Media outreach email template
– Organization outreach email
template
– Radio PSA scripts
– Media advisory template
– Letter to the editor template
– Reporting out template (template
to provide snapshot on use of
funds)
– Visual resources

HOW TO USE THE TOOLKIT
• Review the guidance and tips;
• Develop a communications strategy, a media
plan, and a social media response guide
[discussed later in presentation];
• Customize templates in toolbox based on
specific situation, disaster, target audience,
and region; and/or
• Develop your own outreach materials based
on the guidance provided in the toolkit.

HOW TO USE THE
TOOLKIT
• Step-by-step instructions
on how to customize the
materials are provided in
the toolkit.
• To customize the
materials, add your
organization or agency’s
specific information.
• Refer to the various
media tips included in the
toolkit.

Use this space to insert
your organization name
or URL as a secondary
and/or local resource.

DEVELOP YOUR OWN INFOGRAPHICS
• Create simple infographics that demonstrate the impact of the disaster, or
• Show the specific benefits of donating money.
• Develop them so they can be shared easily on social media.

Infographic demonstrating the costs associated with transportation and
distribution of in-kind disaster donations. Credit: Stephanie McNicol, Arizona State
University. Submitted as part of the 2015 PSAid contest sponsored by CIDI.
APEC
APPROPRIATE
DONATIONS
COMMUNICATION
S TOOLKIT

Susie Smith
Community Disaster Response
1234 Main Avenue
Anywhereville, State, Economy
00-12-123-1234
ssmith@crd.org
HOW TO USE THE TOOLKIT
• Include a banner or badge in your email signature.
• Download the banner and/or badges from www.CIDI.org, open
the file, and copy and paste them into your email signature.
• An easy, eye-catching way to promote the cash-is-best message.
• Hyperlink the email signature to your agency’s Web site.
• Share the email signature with your staff and partner
organizations so everyone is promoting a unified message on all
communications.

THINGS TO DO BEFORE DISASTER STRIKES
• Develop a communications strategy specific to disaster donations.
• Develop a disaster relief donations media plan.
• Determine how you will measure if the strategy and the tools
worked in a particular context.

DEVELOP A COMMUNICATIONS
STRATEGY SPECIFIC TO DISASTER
DONATIONS
• Raising awareness of the importance
of appropriate donations – and getting
the media to cover your donation
appeals – requires a good strategy.
• The strategy should correspond with
your community and/or economy’s
general disaster relief planning
efforts.
• Use the resources in the Appropriate
Donations Communications Toolkit to
help you implement the strategy.

DEVELOP A COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY SPECIFIC TO
DISASTER DONATIONS
The strategy should establish:
• Objectives: Set objectives that ensure your communications
strategy aligns with your organizational goals to ensure most
donations are monetary rather than materials.
• Audiences: Identify those audiences with whom you need to
communicate to achieve your objectives.
• Messages: Develop messages that resonate with those
audiences and move the objectives forward.

DISASTER DONATIONS
The strategy should establish:
• Channels and messengers: How will the messages be delivered
and who will deliver them?
• Timeline: When will the messages be developed and delivered?
• Methods and materials: What are the means by which the
messages will be delivered?
• Monitoring and evaluation: Data collected before, during, and
after the implementation process can be used to monitor and
evaluate the success of the communication activities – and can
be used to fine-tune and revise the messages, methods, or
materials as needed.

• Keep messages positive.
• Show appreciation and gratitude to donors.
• Keep donor priorities in mind.
• Provide simple examples.
• Be transparent on how the donation will be used.
• Extend communications beyond the request for donations; share
stories describing what is happening.
• Highlight the positive impact of donations on the victims of a
disaster.
DISASTER DONATIONS
Consider these suggestions when developing MESSAGES:

DISASTER DONATIONS
Consider using the toolkit’s Communications Strategy Checklist to
build your strategy.
Before
Ensure disaster response communications plans encourage
appropriate donations.
Know where to direct people to make monetary donations.
Decide on and set up social media hashtags, handles, site names,
etc.
During
Continue to blog/post regularly to keep messages current and
targeted.
Dispel/counter “misinformation” that may be circulating.
After
Track social media using “social listening” tools.

• The media plan should correlate with your
community and/or economy’s general disaster relief planning
efforts.
• A media plan outlines how you will research, contact, and provide
information to the media type most suitable for broadcasting your
disaster relief donations messages.
• A media plan is specifically focused on sharing information with
media outlets, whereas a communications strategy is a broad-
brush approach for what, how, when, and with whom you will
communicate.
DEVELOP A DISASTER RELIEF DONATIONS
MEDIA PLAN

DEVELOP A DISASTER RELIEF DONATIONS MEDIA
PLAN
Key elements of a media plan:
• Develop a list of media contacts: Use existing lists and
add additional newspapers and television and radio
stations, as well as community news organizations, Web
sites, or blogs that could promote your news.
• Establish clear messages: A clear, basic explanation of
the issue or event you want to communicate to the media
and the public.
• Identify communication channels: Plan for how you will
contact the media, and who is best suited to do this.

Key elements of a media plan:
• Develop and finalize outreach materials: The
Toolkit provides guidance on how to use media
alerts, press releases, letters to the editor, and
more.
• Clarify roles and responsibilities among staff
and partners: Establish ahead of time who will
handle what aspects of media outreach.
• Include details on when and how to
implement the plan: Spell out clearly what will
trigger implementation of the plan (when), and
the steps to implement it.
DEVELOP A DISASTER RELIEF DONATIONS MEDIA PLAN

PUBLIC RELATIONS TIPS
• Managing public relations
during a disaster can be
difficult.
• Agencies and organizations
involved in disaster relief are
responding to a multitude of
demands and emergencies.
• This stress can be relieved by
having a few key pieces in
place before a disaster hits.
Tips to engage reporters:
 Make a reporter’s life easy. Reporters
are always on a deadline. Think about
images, footage, or hard data you can
provide to make their job easier.
 Monitor Twitter. Watch Twitter for what
is trending; pitch a story supported by
social media interest.
 Local comes first. Local affiliates want
to be seen as local news focused on
local people.
 Nourish media relationships. Send
an occasional email to your contacts.
Tell them you re-tweeted their story or
send a link to an existing story and
suggest how to rework it from a
different perspective.

HOW WILL YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?
 Gather information during the crisis to
evaluate whether the outreach is
working.
 Evaluation can help recalibrate plans
as needed during the crisis.
 Evaluation should be an embedded
part of communications efforts, rather
than undertaken as an afterthought.
 Evaluation can identify lessons learned
that can refine protocols and
processes for the next crisis.
 Decide before disaster strikes how you
will measure success of
communications and appropriate
Plan
ImplementRefine
Evaluate

HOW WILL YOU MEASURE SUCCESS?
Possible METRICS to monitor and evaluation communications efforts:
• Donations: Decrease in donation of physical goods in the
aftermath of disasters in relation to monetary donations.
• Social media “hits”: Facebook: number of likes, friends, post
views, post likes and comments; Twitter: follower growth, audience
reach, re-tweets and mentions, hash tag use.
• Press coverage by partner/member communications
• Letters and email: Number of constituents that received outreach
letters and/or that received/opened outreach email.
• Web site traffic: Visits to the organization/donation URL.
• Radio: Number of placements, monetary value of placements.

HOW WILL YOU MEASURE
SUCCESS?
 It is also important to gather data
on collected donations and how
they were used to be as
transparent as possible with
donors and to the public.
 Customize the Reporting-Out
template to help assemble
information on how donations
were collected and used.

QUESTIONS?

THANK YOU!
Karen Gruebnau
ICF International
http://www.icfi.com/
Karen.Gruebnau@icfi.com
Tara Hamilton
ICF International
http://www.icfi.com/
Tara.Hamilton@icfi.com

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Editor's Notes