By Sarah Grimmer
In addition to offering monetary grants to local non-profit organizations, Houston’s AMA Gives Back committee also matches non-profits with chapter members willing to offer time and expertise in the form of pro bono marketing consulting. Last year, Arms Wide Adoption applied to be a part of the AMA Houston Gives Back volunteer program hoping to improve their outreach efforts to potential foster and adoptive parents.
According to Development and Marketing Manager Melissa Neeley Daigneault, “We knew how helpful it would be to have true marketing experts evaluate our current efforts to see what we could improve on and what new strategies we should consider implementing.”
As a non-profit organization focused on transforming the lives of foster care children in need of safe and permanent families, Arms Wide Adoption is continuously seeking out families willing to take the first step to adopt from foster care. Through the AMA, they worked closely with their matched volunteers Greg Rosenfeld and Magda Craige to identify ways to better recruit families to ultimately increase the number of families attending information meetings and starting the application process.
Rosenfeld and Craige identified ways to successfully streamline the user experience of the organization’s website, including shortening forms and making call-to-actions more visible. Additionally, they suggested strategies focused on family cultivation and touch-points within the adoption process, so families feel more supported and are more likely to complete the licensing process, which can be lengthy and emotionally taxing.
Due to the length of the foster care adoption process, the full results of the team’s efforts may not be realized for six to twelve months, but for now, Daigneault says, “Magda and Greg’s help has already been invaluable to our organization. The AMA Gives Back program has stewarded more conversations within our organization’s departments on how we can work together to come up with innovative and effective ways to recruit and cultivate potential adoptive families.”
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About Gives Back Grants:
Since 2008, AMA Houston Gives Back has provided financial support to non-profits needing assistance with marketing-related activities. Since its inception, the program has granted a total of $81,000 to more than 30 local non-profit organizations.
In 2015, AMA Houston expanded the program and paired marketing professionals with AMA Houston Gives Back Grant recipients to assist them in strategically and effectively applying grant funds to make a measurable impact for their organization. So the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
About Arms Wide Adoption:
Arms Wide Adoption Services’ mission is to transform the lives of children in Houston and South Texas that are in need of safe and nurturing adoptive families.
Our vision is to be the center of choice for CPS child placement, adoption education, and post permanency family support.
Sarah Grimmer is an award-winning marketer and Founder of Janie and June, a Houston-based Marketing Collective. A self-described forever-learner, Sarah has been honing her unique ability to rally the troops and lead teams to peak performance since her days as Editor-in-Chief for her college newspaper more than a decade ago. She serves on the board of AMA Houston as Co-Chair of Gives Back Grants as well as on the board of Women’s Masters Network as Director of Marketing, and holds both a B.A. and M.S. in Communications and Media from Lynn University.
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