Business
At some point in time, every social innovator faces the daunting task of growing beyond their initial customers and inspiring the larger community. Questions quickly arise in response to the challenge: How can we connect in a meaningful way to more and more people? How can we leverage our existing supporters to get the word out? What does it take to create raving fans and evangelists for our product or service? To help us explore these questions and talk through tangible strategies any social innovator can employ, we reached out to Peachy Myers - Director of Community Engagement at Foundation Communities in Austin, TX. After joining the original field leadership team for then Senator Barack Obama in 2008 and going on to serve in the White House ( the story of which we’ll be exploring in another podcast with Peachy), Peachy returned to the non-profit sector to design and deploy new ways to organize and support communities of change. In this episode, Peachy walks us through ways in which we can proactively build social and financial support for our initiatives. Using tangible examples from her work with Foundation Communities, Peachy provides real strategies and tactics that can be used to grow a community of supporters and committed evangelists willing to support your efforts over the long run. Enjoy this unique look into how community organizing meets fundraising, volunteerism, and social support. Show Notes: Learn more about Foundation Communities here. Learn more about the story of Cabrini Green here and here. Find out more about the Ingram Scholar Program here. You can find Peachy's (nearly) 100 favorite children's books here.