I decided to gain some valuable experience in event planning as practice for the career I am trying to obtain. I want to work for the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, helping to raise funds to restore music education programs in America’s public schools. Doing so takes experience in planning fundraising events. I recently joined a local non-profit organization (Madison Area Music Association) with similar goals as VH1 Save The Music Foundation. I agreed to be the head of the fundraising committee for a local event. Along the way, I wanted to be aware of possible publishing opportunities for either the organization or myself.
First, I will publish a blog for the event. In an effort to raise as much awareness to the event as possible, I will detail the events the day of and a few weeks prior to the main event. This will create a buzz about the charity and give donors a chance to donate or volunteer. Second, I will make t-shirts. I will design t-shirts using the events logo and the non-profits logo. Joining the two will receive more attention because those connected to one, are now connected to the other. The best Print-On-Demand (POD) site/aggregator I could find in regards to working with the Madison Area Music Association was Zazzle.com. I found Zazzle.com to be a fantastic site to use for fundraising purposes. On Zazzle.com, you can upload images and text to merchandise like coffee mugs, buttons, and t-shirts. It takes little time commitment and is very inexpensive. If the budget allows, I will print on more than just the t-shirts. Third, I will post videos on YouTube. People love to be interactive in this day in age, so providing the onlookers with a first hand view of what is going on will acquire more viewers who will most likely support the organization once exposed to it. Along with the former comes creating a photo gallery on Flickr. As stated above, it is important to be interactive with your target market, but photos are also important to share because they show what the organization has done in the past. It brings a sense of legality to it and gives the donor an ease in donating because they know their money is going to a good cause. Fifth, of course I will use social media (Facebook and Twitter) to create a brand message. Facebook and Twitter will provide the organization with a fan group and will allow for freebies and fun ways for the spectators to get involved. It also provides a safe, efficient, and easy way to obtain more donors. Finally, I will create a blast email. I will send emails to everyone in the organizations network. Here, I will provide a link to the Facebook page, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, and the events main homepage.
So, could I publish any of these items? Absolutely. I could publish the merchandise on Zazzle.com and publish the blog. I will probably get more publishing ideas as I go through the process of doing all of the work. I definitely want to take advantage of the unique opportunity to self-publish because many do not know how to monetize it or the self-publishing ballgame has not become widely popular quite yet.
