original concept by Erin Shy at AFP 2013!

1. Carie Lewis
Deputy Director, Online Communications
@cariegrls
[ What Nonprofits Can Learn from Food Trucks ]

2. [ How did food trucks emerge? ]
In 1974 Raul Martinez converted
an old ice cream truck into a taco
truck and parked it in front of a
bar in LA – the first modern day
food truck as we know it!
The concept of “mobile
kitchens” date all the way
back to the 1600’s!

3. [ Why learn from them? ]
Food trucks have created a
cultural shift in the way
people eat by being creative
and taking advantage of new
technologies.
Here are 8 things nonprofits
can learn from food trucks!

4. [ #1 - embrace entrepreneurial spirit! ]
When times get tough and budgets are stretched farther than
ever, empower your people and encourage innovation.

5. [ we hold monthly innovation meetings which
showcases cool stuff we see other people doing ]

6. [ #2 – differentiate yourself. ]
Stand out from the competition and create buzz by focusing
on a niche and doing it really well.

7. [ we answer everyone, which sets us apart ]

8. [ #3 – take risks and test concepts. ]
Measure everything. Do more of what works and learn from your
mistakes - but don’t make them twice.

9. [ we test everything including facebook post types ]
Photo post: Sam
31,600 likes
8,000 shares
3,000 comments
$5,000 raised
Video post: Billy
9,500 likes
4,400 shares
1,000 comments
$2,000 raised

10. [ #4 – define your brand and personality. ]
Have fun. Even a 50 year old organization can use social media to
portray a “less stuffy” persona.

11. [ we create our own memes ]
Bringing your pets to
work is such a HUGE
part of our
organization’s culture.
#felinefriday is way
more interesting to our
audience than
#followfriday.

12. [ #5 – go where your people are. ]
Be fundamentally mobile and nimble: follow your fans but make it easy
for them to get to you too.
Food trucks park
outside bars where
people are hanging
out and are hungry at
the end of the night
when nothing else is
open.

13. [ when google analytics told us our mobile traffic
was growing, we sprung into action ]
You HAVE to be where
people are – and make it
as easy as possible.
We found our members
are not on Twitter, but
they talk about us there.
Our members are on
Facebook.
25% of our web traffic is
from mobile devices.

14. [ #6 – use social media strategically. ]
Invest the time in social media, but don’t do it blindly. Have it
contribute to your goals.
Food trucks’ goals are to generate sales. They engage with their fans to generate brand affinity.
They also listen to their audience’s feedback about
menu items and locations and base business
decisions on it in order to sell more food.

15. [ we use Twitter primarily for customer service ]
Our goal on Twitter is
customer service, on
Facebook is advocacy.
If you look at our Twitter
feed, it’s mostly @ replies.
LISTEN and find out what
they like/want/need.
We report on Twitter
feedback weekly and use it
to inform decision making
such as campaign messaging.

16. [ #7 – collaborate with the competition. ]
Large events including your competition bring people out in large
numbers, and these are people that may not have known
about you otherwise.
There’s power in numbers: food
trucks benefit from participating
in large events like festivals and
competitions.

17. [ we are choosy about contests ]
Participating in charity
contests are fun – but
it’s an incredible
resource investment and
can be a high bar ask for
your audience. Make
sure the payoff is worth
it!
In the end, make sure
you close the loop.

18. [ #8 – create a sense of urgency.]
Your response rate will be higher if you tell people why they need to do
what you’re asking RIGHT NOW.
Food trucks create
FOMO – fear of
missing out – and
people like to be a part
of things.

19. [ we are incredibly opportunistic and nimble ]

20. [ Contact ]
clewis@humanesociety.org // @cariegrls